Let's Talk Tea, and eFriends

Well, the title of this blog refers to coffee and tea, but I have been remiss in discussing anything about tea. Part of that is the fact that there are so many good tea blogs out there, the quintessential one being the Half Dipper, which you can link to from the left side of the page. From there, there are many other links to other blogs. I am not sure I have anything unique to add, and I am such a poor photographer, so I have hesitated to say anything.

That being said, I spend a lot of time drinking and thinking about tea, most particularly pu'er, that unique, Chinese, ageable, funky product that comes in frisbee-sized disks and other unique shapes. For those not familiar with the story of pu'er, WikiCha is a good resource, and David does a great job of discussing these teas as well at the Half Dipper. I think I am going to have some entries around tea and see how it goes, the first one a bit about some Bing Dao teas I have been drinking lately, and a mysterious set of unlabeled samples.

Thinking about tea started me thinking about TeaChums I have who pass around samples of tea to each other, and then into the broader category of what I call eFriends. This is a peculiar development of the internet era. In principle the growth in internet forums and other pastimes would seem to make humans less likely to interact with each other in real life. Everyone hides behind the written word, with facades and made-up attributes; sitting in front of a computer and developing eRelationships that don't exist beyond the electrons flying over the computer wires.

That's not always the case, though. I spend a fair amount of time on internet forums, and I have formed friendships with many people. What is a bit peculiar is that I interact with them in physical ways. I regularly send coffee and teas that I think are interesting to other people I have met on the internet, and have received much in return. One friend has lent me items from his kitchen to try out, others have sent me aftershaves and colognes, and the list goes on. My wife is somewhat leery, and I think a bit jealous. She has become used to packages showing up at the door from people, and now recognizes many of the names by sight. The fact that I have "internet friends" seems entirely natural to me. In some cases, I have gone as far as meeting people in person. It is always fascinating to compare the impression your mind has formed on the basis of the written word to the real thing.

So why do I mention this? I think that it is a small but good sign for the human race. I think that while internet interactions and eFriends are great, I don't think this is the end of the human race, with all of us shut up by ourselves in front of computers, becoming a race of mole-men afraid to come out of our darkened rooms. The real human need of contact, whether face to face, or by the sharing of physical objects, will still shine through. For someone like myself, who expresses himself well enough through the written word, but is an incredibly shy and reserved person in real life, all this becomes an important outlet.

So let's all have some fun, drink some good coffee, tea, or spirits, and talk to each other. This way when the machines take over, we'll be ready with our counter-attack strategy

A New Year

First and foremost, a Happy and Healthy New Year to everyone!

It has been about a month since I updated anything here. The first two weeks of that were out-of-control workloads and insanity in my day job, leading up to my vacation. After that was a (mostly) blissful two weeks at home over the holidays, doing little other than spending time with my family, and EATING.

Under normal circumstances I am a guy who leads a healthy lifestyle. I get up early every morning and hit the gym, eat more or less healthy stuff, cook a lot so I know I am eating non-processed foods, etc. However, the last few weeks of every year I let myself go nuts and eat a whole lot of crap. In addition, I cook a bunch of meals for Christmas, New Years, etc. that have become a bit of a tradition in my family, which are, shall we say, a bit on the heavy side. At this point, I am feeling awfully bloated, so I was happy to brave the ice today to hit the gym.

For those who want a bit more information on what I have been cooking, here you go:

Christmas Day(I am Jewish, but what the hey ;-) )
Roasted duck with port wine & rosemary reduction
Lyonnaise potatoes, cooked in the duck fat
Sticky Toffee Pudding
Wine: a bottle of 1994 Raymond Reserve Cabernet

New Years Eve
Roasted Rack of lamb with red wine sauce
Smashed red skin potatoes with butter, cheese, and chives
Honey glazed carrots
Chocolate Mousse
Wine: a bottle of 1999 Chateau de Beaucastel. Oh, man was this fantastic....

And so on; last night I made a 9 pound ham for two adults and three young kids. Why? No idea, really.

As for coffee, I have had some good, some bad. Honestly, I haven't had the energy to really intellectualize over it lately. I roast, I enjoy, and that is that for the most part. I do get the sense, however, that I am missing something. I am not sure whether it is equipment, roasting profiles, or something else, but I feel like I am on the verge of learning something important, but I don't know what it is. Hopefully 2009 will provide some insight.

Lastly, this blog. What now? Does anyone really give a hoot about coffee roasting profiles? Likely not. These pages do serve as my roasting log, however, and I use them as such. I also have been drinking a huge amount of teas, which I could in principle talk about. There are so many good tea blogs out there already that I am not sure my voice adds anything to the mix. We shall see.

Kenya auction Lot #643 - Mutitu

It has been a few weeks since my last update. Thanksgiving vacation intervened, plus I was fighting germs on and off for a while, and lastly I just didn't feel like writing. Such is life.

This coffee was hidden in the back of my coffee cabinet. My wife was doing some organizing (surprise, surprise for those who know her), and ended up moving some stuff around, uncovering a pound of these beans. No comments were made about the sheer volume of coffee I have, which attests to her awesomeness.

I haven't had a Kenya coffee for a while, so it was time to go for some tooth-peeling acidity and some otherworldly aromas. I roasted this lightly:

Unfortunately I forgot to write down when I ended the roast, but I am pretty sure it was 16 minutes or less.

Some Kenyas hide their powerful acidity, but not so with this Nyeri-region coffee. It is intense stuff. The aroma is all peaches in syrup. I could sniff this stuff all day. There is a thick body, and very strong and refreshing acidity. This roast was perfect, but beware of under-roasting this one or it is going to be puckeringly sour. The peaches carry into the taste, with some spice notes added. This is a coffee you could drink a lot of and not get tired. Very nice.

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Note added to Sumatra "Harimau Tiger"

Brazil Jacu Bird Coffee

I'd really like to know who first thought of the idea of using the coffee beans that animals ingested and then pooped out. The guy (I am pretty sure it must have been a guy) is either an idiot or a genius. Actually, likely the latter given what these coffees go for. You may be familiar with kopi luwak (easily googleable, if that is a word), the product of an Indonesian rodent with a taste for coffee cherries. This stuff goes for >$100 per pound in places. The theory is that the animal only eats the ripest coffee cherry, thereby "sorting" the best from the worst. In reality, however, the rodent eats low-grade robusta beans similar to what you get in a can of Folgers, so hang onto your wallet.

Last year a different product began to emerge, this time from Brazil. The coffee consumer is the Jacu bird, a cute creature that lives on coffee farms in Brazil:

In principle, this avian aficionado eats high quality arabica beans from the same farms that already produce great coffee. It is still pricey, ~$17 per pound, but it is being offered by some purveyors who I trust for quality, so I decided to try a pound out.

This being a Brazilian coffee, I decided to take it into second crack a bit:

It looks and roasts like any other dry processed coffee. And the cup? Let me tell you - this coffee got more rave reviews than any other coffee I bring into work, and this is without telling them what it was. My wife, also slipped a cup without telling her, also waxed philosophic about it. Of course, then I did the "you drank poopy coffee" dance around the kitchen in true infantile fashion....

It is a sweet, sweet cup with intense maple syrup tastes. Smooth and delicious, and no trace of the, er, unusual processing. I am looking forward to some espresso extractions with it as well.

Kona Kowali Estate, Second Roast

I have been sick for the past week and a half or so, hence the lack of updates. I don't much care for coffee when I am fighting a cold, so I generally either don't drink it at all, or otherwise I roast something nondescript since I can't taste it anyway.

Besides being ill, work has been more awful than usual lately, so I decided to roast up something special this week to make me feel better. I had a half pound of this Kona coffee left over, so I gave it a whirl. If you remember, I talked about this one before. At that time, I wasn't thrilled with it at a lighter roast. This time around I took it darker, to a Full City roast. Poking around, it seems like general consensus for island coffee is that it works better at this roast level, or perhaps even a tad into second crack.

Here is the profile:


What a difference more roast makes for this bean! There is an intense maltiness that I love; if you enjoy chocolate malts made with high quality ice cream and real malted milk powder, you will have a good idea of what is going on in the cup. It is incredibly rich and complex; a very satisfying cup. Of course, it is still way overpriced for what you get, but I am glad that I at least found a better roast to accentuate this coffee's character.

Yemen Mokha Ismaili

This week we have something perfect for cooler fall weather. This is one of the best Yemeni coffees I have tried, and is unfortunately the last of it in my stash. This stuff is a bit of a pain to roast. The seeds are really tiny - easily 2X smaller than most coffees. The heat transfer to the beans is different, and there are no audible cues like you have for most coffees. It really is roasting "by the seat of your pants", with highly variable results. I'd like to be able to tell you the specifics of the roast level here, but honestly I have no clue. All I know that it is darn good coffee. Here is the profile:



This is a deep, syrupy coffee with incredible spice-bazaar aromas. I can't put my finger on specific tastes, though you can look through the review below to get some idea. It is a very complex coffee that is hard to pick out individual notes. Just relax and enjoy a fairly unusual and seriously rich cup o' joe.

Panama Esmerelda Gesha, 2007 Vintage

I decided to go upscale for my Halloween roasting session. In 2008, I purchased two kinds of Panama Esmerelda; the Lot #5, previously discussed, and the more expensive Lot#10. I was originally planning to roast Lot#10, but I decided to try my chops on the last of my Esmerelda stash from 2007 first. This stuff is ferociously expensive, so I wanted to make sure I didn't dork it up.

The roast was more or less what I have been using lately:



I was shooting for a City+ roast (roughly half way between first and second crack), but this came out considerably lighter than I was expecting. Grinding the beans I was somewhat taken aback on how light it was. As an aside, it is hard to tell much of anything from whole bean color after roasting, you really need to look at the color of the ground stuff.

It is a testament to the quality of the beans that even at this light a roast, there was no sourness. There is the usual Gesha panoply of aromas - over the top floral characteristics - and typical juicy notes to the coffee. However, I missed the caramel notes that fit everything together. Another minute of heat would have been perfect in retrospect. Looking back through my notes of Gesha roasting over the years, I see that they tend to take a bit more roast than other coffees to hit the right flavor balance. Surely nothing near second crack, but a bit of time spent after first. This was certainly an enjoyable cup, but nothing to write home about. Given the price point, it is unfortunate. At least I am prepared for roasting Lot #10.