The Coffee Industry in South Florida

Here's a great, long story about the coffee industry in South Florida with a lot good, general information on coffee, and the international business as well.

I highly recommend it.

Even though I'm no longer there, its still hard to do without WLRN.

A Shot.

This isn't the god shot, or even the great possible shot. However, I am proud of how this one came out. There's a bit of crema. The coffee is my own. The grind and tamp was right. Seemingly, it isn't over extracted.

There's a slight tartness to it, and the crema didn't hold up very long. There's still a bit of nuttiness and creaminess to the shot as a whole as it rolls over the tongue.

But its mine. All Mine.

Back To Roasting...Again.

Not the best of picture of me. However, this is the lengths I am willing to go for the best morning cup I can manage. I just look sweaty there.

Luckily, you can store dried, green coffee bean for up to a year in a cool, dark place. I still have a bit leftover from the last buy with Sweet Maria's and I needed to use it up.

Now that time is permitting, and I no longer have a cold, I broke out the mask. I could still smell the roasting coffee, and it was easier to get into the roasting a bit more. However, it did filter the fumes that were giving me days worth of problems.

I changed the amount to about a third of a cup each time, and used the end of a bamboo spoon to occasional stir.

I wanted to roast dark, but in the end, I wound up making a roast similar to the ones I have done in the past.

This was also the first time I was able to use the espresso machine for a roast, properly. For espresso, this lighter roast took about 72 hours for the flavors to settle down. Yesterday was fine, but today was perfect. The first day or so, the coffee was just too gassy and acidic. I've also made an Aeropressed Americano with it. It came out nicely. (I will have more general commentary on the Aeropress Americano soon.)

I also broke out the French Press, which I hadn't used in a while. With fresh roasted coffee in it, it is about what I remember.

And it is good.

Home Roasting Tutorial - I Need Coffee

As I begin to get back into home roasting, I have been going back through coffee blogs to see what others are doing. Based off this one, I have been doing a few things wrong.

I am missing some things that will help with consistency.

This is great to revisit and look over. It is probably the most spelled out, well documented tutorials I've seen. Also, they use a West Bend like I do.

http://www.ineedcoffee.com/99/homeroast/