when you don't roast your own...

Not all of us get to roast our own coffee beans.  However grinding them and using them is the next best thing.
We all have had some memorable cups of coffee. Where have they come from.?

My latest has come for the midwest in Eagle River Wisconsin...  Their black bear and guides choice beans have been delightful. I recommend.

https://eagleriverroasters.com

I don't think they grow coffee in Wisconsin....

https://www.sweetmarias.com I have been buying my green coffee beans from Sweet Marias for several decades now. Her husband Tom travels all around the world and gets good coffee but SF/Oakland is an international hub for importing coffee from around the world.

Yes arabica is superior to robusta, while some marketing types have recently tried to rebrand robusta as some "new" thing... its the old cheap thing.

You can roast your own with a hot air popcorn popper, or in a frying pan like the old cowboys did...  I've used a hottop drum roaster for a couple decades now. I roasted 1/2 pound (Brazilian) today that should last me next 5 days. There are several newer cheaper roasters on the Sweet Marias website.

Nothing better in the morning than good fresh roasted and fresh ground coffee... life is too short for inferior beverages.

JR 

JohnRoberts said:

I roasted 1/2 pound (Brazilian) today that should last me next 5 days.
JR

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thats some serious coffee drinking!

I typically have one coffee a day in the morning, stovetop method. I think my consumption equates to about 50 or so grams a day. The old man (dad) has a plumbed ex-coffee shop machine the fruits of which I partake of from time to time so that might bump it up a little. 

Torrefaction seems to be the in thing at the moment. Down in the village, and around town, every man and his dog is anaerobically roasting beans (along with the concomitant air pollution - hipsters and other non-denominational cool people need to be regulated as well you know). The various roasts are all pretty good and all pretty similar.

There is a silly little contest downunder about the origin of the flat white (NZ or AU). It's influence is far reached (I was able to order a flat white at a coffee shop at the University of Utah).

What I really want to know is the name of the coffee that I like to drink. It is a short long black (if that makes sense) or a long short black (strong espresso) with a good splash of steamed milk, but not just a bit of foam like a macchiato. Probably 2/3rds to 3/4s coffee to milk? Please don't flame me for drinking coffee with milk. I also love long blacks and ristrettos and sometimes sugar sometimes no sugar. No syrup or soy has ever tainted my coffee. Whisky, cognac and bourbon have though.

kambo said:

thats some serious coffee drinking!

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Not really... 250G green,  roasts down to about 200G finished, spread across 5 pots thats 40G coffee for one pot each morning.

I used to drink a lot more but too much caffeine later in the day interferes with my sleep.

I used to roast decaf for my afternoon/evening pot but stopped doing that years ago. I still roast up some decaf for my neighbor's 80+ YO widow, who likes a cup in the morning. The half pound that I consume in five pots, lasts her two weeks.  8)

JR

PS: In addition to Brazilian, I have Columbian, and Zambian green beans in queue... I rotate a different origin each time I roast (all good). This weekend I'll be roasting some decaf from el Salvador for my neighbor... Note: if you decaffeinate quality coffee beans it doesn't suck so bad (doesn't suck at all).

There are lots of good roasters in Wisconsin, just coffee, kickapoo, local coffee shops that roast their own.
Got a electric burr grinder a few years ago. Makes a difference I think.

I've been doing cold brew in mason jars this summer. Very good.  Let sit overnight on the counter and filter the next day. Can keep in the fridge over the next few days.
For hot coffee I switched to an aero press instead of drip. Love it. Kind of a pain to make one cup at a time

JohnRoberts said:

I don't think they grow coffee in Wisconsin....

https://www.sweetmarias.com I have been buying my green coffee beans from Sweet Marias for several decades now. Her husband Tom travels all around the world and gets good coffee but SF/Oakland is an international hub for importing coffee from around the world.

Yes arabica is superior to robusta, while some marketing types have recently tried to rebrand robusta as some "new" thing... its the old cheap thing.

You can roast your own with a hot air popcorn popper, or in a frying pan like the old cowboys did...  I've used a hottop drum roaster for a couple decades now. I roasted 1/2 pound (Brazilian) today that should last me next 5 days. There are several newer cheaper roasters on the Sweet Marias website.

Nothing better in the morning than good fresh roasted and fresh ground coffee... life is too short for inferior beverages.

JR

Click to expand...

Climate not conducive to growing but they sure know how to roast them.

I think coffee can only be grown in a few states in the USA (Hawaii, CA?).

Friends just gave us some Hawaii coffee as a gift. It was pretty good but I would not have been able to tell the difference from another good roast.

I remember  Kickapoo was a gas station outside of elkorn Wi where my grandma used to live.

A lot of things are named Kickapoo in Wisconsin, including a river
Comes from the Kickapoo people, a native American tribe

Names up here are mostly Native American in origin or dead Presidents.

dmp said:

There are lots of good roasters in Wisconsin, just coffee, kickapoo, local coffee shops that roast their own.
Got a electric burr grinder a few years ago. Makes a difference I think.

Click to expand...

Stop press.... we agree again  .  Yes burr grinders do make a difference.  8)

I bought my 80+ YO neighbor widow a cheap blade grinder to use because she wasn't even grinding her own coffee.

I've been doing cold brew in mason jars this summer. Very good.  Let sit overnight on the counter and filter the next day. Can keep in the fridge over the next few days.
For hot coffee I switched to an aero press instead of drip. Love it. Kind of a pain to make one cup at a time

Click to expand...

I have made cold brew just letting it sit in the refrigerator over night.  Caveat emptor, some commercial cold brew sellers got in trouble from inadequate sanitation, an unintended consequence of not boiling the brew water. 

JR

dmp said:

I think coffee can only be grown in a few states in the USA (Hawaii, CA?).

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yes coffee generally requires humid mountainous climate/topology. I am not aware of any CA origin beans, but they do grow coffee in Puerto Rico, but not huge exporter AFAIK. 

Friends just gave us some Hawaii coffee as a gift. It was pretty good but I would not have been able to tell the difference from another good roast.

Click to expand...

We agree again, Hawaiian "Kona" coffee is overpriced/overrated. Being more expensive does not automatically translate to being better. It doesn't suck but not worth the premium price (IMO)

JR

pucho812 said:

Climate not conducive to growing but they sure know how to roast them.

Click to expand...

If you don't roast your own, find a local roaster so you can get it relatively fresh... (they all source green beans from elsewhere).

If you buy roast coffee mail order it is several days old before you even get it, then you have to buy weeks worth at a time causing it to age even more. The good news is you can buy good quality roast beans from somebody like Sweet Marias (albeit days old when you receive it), but in lala land you probably have coffee roasters in every other shopping center. Only buy a few days worth at a time, maybe a week.

With coffee time since grinding is most important. Time since roasting is less important but still a factor in taste quality (in fact coffee peaks something like 12-24 hours after roasting).

Life is too short for inferior beverages.

JR

JohnRoberts said:

Note: if you decaffeinate quality coffee beans it doesn't suck so bad (doesn't suck at all).

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decaf gives me headache  some reason ???

dmp said:

A lot of things are named Kickapoo in Wisconsin, including a river
Comes from the Kickapoo people, a native American tribe

Names up here are mostly Native American in origin or dead Presidents.

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yes, correct.

A long assed f'ing time ago, in a town called Kickapoo,
There lived a humble family, religious through-and-through,
An yea there was a black sheep, and he knew just what to do...

Sorry, couldn't resist.

kambo said:

decaf gives me headache  some reason ???

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You can get a headache from caffeine withdrawal if you drink a LOT of coffee and your body becomes dependent on it, but doesn't get its daily fix. One time back in the 80s (when I drank a lot of coffee) I spent a weekend with my parents and I didn't know they were feeding me decaf until i got a splitting headache about a day into the visit... Once I figured it, out a cuppa real joe fixed the headache.

It seems like a sign you might want to taper back a little on your coffee consumption. Too much of a good thing is still too much. The decaf didn't give you the headache, not getting your fix of caffeine did... You'd get the same headache from drinking chocolate milk instead of coffee if your body is caffeine dependent.

Just be a little more mindful of how much coffee you drink every day... If you can't skip a day without a headache keep tapering back.

JR 

JohnRoberts said:

I don't think they grow coffee in Wisconsin....

https://www.sweetmarias.com I have been buying my green coffee beans from Sweet Marias for several decades now. Her husband Tom travels all around the world and gets good coffee but SF/Oakland is an international hub for importing coffee from around the world.

Yes arabica is superior to robusta, while some marketing types have recently tried to rebrand robusta as some "new" thing... its the old cheap thing.

You can roast your own with a hot air popcorn popper, or in a frying pan like the old cowboys did...  I've used a hottop drum roaster for a couple decades now. I roasted 1/2 pound (Brazilian) today that should last me next 5 days. There are several newer cheaper roasters on the Sweet Marias website.

Nothing better in the morning than good fresh roasted and fresh ground coffee... life is too short for inferior beverages.

JR

Click to expand...

Sooo...I swallowed the red pill and got an account at Sweet Maries, bought the little popcorn popper and 8lbs of green beans for less than $30 shipped...been playing with it for a couple of weeks...just got a simple espresso roast...

Little bit of a learning curve and I use my Aero Press to make a cupo...so far quite a pleasant experience...actually encourages me to cut back some (the Keurig is a convenient machine, instant semi-tones of gratification without the full symphony every addicts formula)...I need to pick up a better grinder (cheapo blade unit is current heresy)...

Since I don't really drink (don't have a palette for alcohol, can't stand the after-taste it reminds me of lacquer thinner) and have never smoked...I might be on my way to becoming a coffee snob...but I also still simply enjoy that first cup in the morning to jolt me back into non-dream world and I will probably remain a keurig slave until I can find a way to make my own pods without grind residue...

Thanks for the heads up, or bottoms up as the case may be.

iomegaman said:

Sooo...I swallowed the red pill and got an account at Sweet Maries, bought the little popcorn popper and 8lbs of green beans for less than $30 shipped...been playing with it for a couple of weeks...just got a simple espresso roast...

Little bit of a learning curve and I use my Aero Press to make a cupo...so far quite a pleasant experience...actually encourages me to cut back some (the Keurig is a convenient machine, instant semi-tones of gratification without the full symphony every addicts formula)...I need to pick up a better grinder (cheapo blade unit is current heresy)...

Since I don't really drink (don't have a palette for alcohol, can't stand the after-taste it reminds me of lacquer thinner) and have never smoked...I might be on my way to becoming a coffee snob...but I also still simply enjoy that first cup in the morning to jolt me back into non-dream world and I will probably remain a keurig slave until I can find a way to make my own pods without grind residue...

Thanks for the heads up, or bottoms up as the case may be.

Click to expand...

I joke that life is too short to tolerate inferior beverages... most people tolerate crap coffee for the caffeine. Loaded up with cream and sugar to hide the bad flavor.. Good coffee is fine black (not a racist statement).

You are probably already 95% there by roasting your own, and grinding just before you brew. From here the improvements remaining are incremental and slight. Burr grinders are better because they don't heat the beans while grinding, and make more uniform grind, but not as huge of a difference as fresh ground, fresh roasted. I wasted some time on a coffee forum are there are some crazy people that go to extremes (ph of water, temperature of water, trace minerals, yadda yadda....).

Another little explored benefit, is that sweet marias sells green coffee that doesn't suck... You can find mediocre green coffee on the WWW all too easily. I've used for Sweet Marias for decades.  The few times I went bargain hunting the results were not stellar.

JR

PS: Don't ignore the merits of good tea... Hint, it doesn't come in tea bags. Fermented black tea (that we are familiar with), green tea (Japanese, Chinese, and others), oolong, etc... Lots of ways to enjoy hot water.

For the LA folks Groundwork has a roastery in NoHo. Would seem the next best option to doing it yourself.