Home-roasted Ethiopian

I always roast my own coffee in the warm months, and when I can in the winter. I use a hot-air roaster, the i-Roast 2, and the temperature in the room affects it - roasting is much easier in the summer!

Last week I roasted a small batch of Ethiopia Dry-Process Yirga Cheffe Konga from Sweet Maria's. 

The i-Roast 2 roasts fast and hot, I did my best to take the roast past "City" but not too far, and it came out well.

When ground and brewed, 16 grams of coffee for a 12 ounce cup, it was delicious. Fruity but not too sweet. I picked up blueberry, strawberry and chocolate notes. The label from Sweet Maria's lists several more fruits - they may have been in there too. 

I found this coffee a wonderful change from the French Roast I usually drink. But when my wife took a sip she pronounced it too fruity. I didn't think so, but the light-roasted fruit-intensive Ethiopians are not everyone's cup of tea - so to speak.

Pour Over Coffee Maker

So I recently purchased a Melitta pour over coffee maker, http://tinyurl.com/p2z8qpk.  The claim to fame here is that the coffee you brew with this is smoother and enables you to have much more control over the brewing process.  The process is simple.

• Grind some fresh coffee beans.
• Put some grounds in the filter on top.
• Boil some water. 
• Measure the amount of water in a measuring cup.
• Wet the grounds and after sufficiently wet, gently pour your measured amount of water on the top.
• Make sure to wet all the grounds evenly and to let the water go through before "flooding" the filter.  You want the water to have a sufficient amount of time to extract from the grounds.  

I performed this process with Starbucks French Roast beans, freshly ground (I like to use 1 tsp of grounds per ounce of water but I know some people might find that excessive).  I did find that the coffee was smoother, and the strength was very adjustable according to my pour.  The strength is more like what you might get from a drip maker.  My only complaint was that the coffee was not as hot by the time it was in the mug.  Pre-heating your mug is a must with this method.  Overall, for a quick cup, this process is actually pretty quick.  For a $10 coffee maker, definitely something to add to your arsenal.  Another great thing about this maker is you can brew a much larger amount than I am able to do in my standard method moka pot.  Perfect for when you have guests.  

       

               

Eight O Clock Coffee, Central Highlands

This is Eight O Clock coffee's dark roast.  Brewed in moka pot.  About 8 tspn of fine grounds for a 10 oz cup.  The beans did not stand up well to the moka pot heat and tasted a little burnt.  Also, I feel like the roast date of these beans was past their prime.  I included a picture of what this coffee looks like next to Starbucks Espresso Roast.  You can see that this roast is not as dark as the package makes it out to be.  Would not buy again.

Ring of Fire

The "Ring of Fire" blend is from Dean's Beans in Massachusetts. I received these roasted beans as a Christmas present. They are long gone now of course!

I ground the beans fine - finer than the range marked "drip" on my grinder - and brewed them in my old Braun automatic drip machine. I used about 16 grams for a 12 ounce cup. It was very delicious. Sweet and smoky were the words that came to mind. 

The Dean's website simply calls this a dark roast. If you're into the fine naming gradations, I think I'd say"Vienna" or "Light French Roast." It's not as heavily roasted as Starbucks French Roast, with the roast flavor dominating (which I love, but not everyone does). 

Dean's also put the roast date on the bag - December 4 in this case - not just a "best by" date. So you really know what you're getting. This was perfectly fresh when opened.

Recommended!

Bulletproof Coffee

Have you heard of this?  It's called "bulletproof coffee" and is becoming increasingly popular.  I first read about it here, Bulletproof Coffee, and it is popular among people looking to get healthy fats in the morning.  The idea being that your metabolism will be inspired to burn more body fat and you'll have a more energetic morning, without eating breakfast!  That's highly oversimplified but follow the link to read more.

I decided to make my own version and I'm starting small to ease my way in.

16 oz Starbucks Espresso roast brewed in moka pot
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp coconut oil
1 tsp ghee (clarified butter) I know, whacky!

Put ingredients in bottom of blender.  Mix on low for 15 seconds (try not to wake your sleeping two year old)

The ingredients can be ramped up to over a Tbspn of the coconut oil and ghee but I wanted to see if I liked it first.  I do!  I only tasted a hint of the coconut in the coffee, Starbucks espresso roast which was already delicious, just tasted a little sweeter (no doubt due to the added butter).  I did feel the energy boost too, it felt like I had had two cups of coffee instead of my usual one.  I'll be bumping up the ingredients to see how far I can take this.  Highly recommended!

Eight O Clock coffee, Columbian Peaks

Starbucks French roast was not on sale this week so I went cheap and picked up some eight o clock coffee beans. It claims to be 100% arabica. No nice oily sheen on the beans like Starbucks. Who knows when these beans were roasted after all. I would call this a city roast. Decent flavor when brewed black. I enjoy Dunkin donuts coffee and this might be a nice at home replacement. Hopefully Starbucks goes on sale again soon so I can switch back!

Jasmine Cain's coffin coffee

Jasmine Cain is one of the most rocking female performers, or any performer, I've ever seen. I saw her at Laconia bike fest in June 2013. When she did a kickstarter event to raise money for a new bus and I found out I could donate some money and receive coffee I was in. 

This is the Jasmine Cain Coffin roast which I believe was specially made for the event. I tried it as both a cappuccino with my moka pot and straight up with the ground coffee attachment for my keurig. 

I cheated and cut some Starbucks French roast in for the cappuccino and it was delicious. I would call this a dark city roast. Nice roasted flavor. Not too dark, no fruity flavor (which I personally dislike). A very enjoyable brew. If Jasmine needed the money I would gladly donate again. Thanks Jasmine. Check her out at www.jasminecain.com