Sunday, May 18, 2003

WTC Blend

Yesterday had some friends over that were in town from Halifax, great time out for lunch. Then it was over to my place for some gooood coffee. Made some lovely cappas using the Amber Espresso blend that I roasted up a few days ago. This morning I made a nice eVac pot of the Cuban Turquino, great smokey/tabacco flavor, very nice.

I decided to go out on the porch this afternoon and enjoy the weather and roast some more coffee for the upcoming week. Jim Schulman, a great source of info on any coffee forum out there, posted a new blend he was tring out called WTC - "Way To Complicated Blend". Good title and Jim is good enough to post the ratios for the blend:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
My current blend (WTC for "way too complicated")
is two equal sized 12 minute roasts (fast to 300,
pretty much 15F/min from there) to the first few
snaps:

Fast beans:
20% Harar
20% Kenya Kaiwamururu
40% Blue de Brazil
20% Aged Sulawesi

Slow Beans:
20% Antigua
40% Yauco
40% Bugisu
------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, I had to substitute some beans.. didnt have the Antigua so I used the Guatamalan "Arte de Maya" that I got from SM and didnt have the Kenyan so I used some Kenya AA that is from a Canadian supplier. Since I don't have any of the Puerto Rican Yacou Selelcto (must get it on my next SM order!) i subbed in some Cuban since I have read that they have comparable tastes. I tried out Jim's roasting profile and I recorded all the data and charted it out. Giving the beans a good 48hrs rest, then a taste test.

In the chart below, the Orange Square is beggining of 1st Crack and the Yellow Square is the beginning of 2nd Crack.

Friday, May 16, 2003

Mazzer Coming

Mazzer Mini is scheduled to arrive on Monday May 20th! Just did a bit of measuring for the mini's new home and i looks like it will be a tight fit under the counters. If the Mazzer is exactly 18" tall then I may have to resort to copping off a bit at the top.. but it may just squeak in there, since the counters are 17 3/4". Just got a 2lb of Austrailian Skybury green beans in, described by some as similar to Isle of St. Helena. So I may be in for a real treat there.

Thursday, May 15, 2003

New Mazzer

Just dropped my order for a new Mazzer Mini with Chris Coffee. Great guy and I cant wait til arrives. Also got the new Illy cup set , Illy Nude. great new cups that are completely clear. Also picked up the Illy 10th Anniversary book. What a beautiful book! Every artist and cup set is featured. I will be posting pictures in the Espreso section of my website. Just finished 3 roasts in my Alp, I'm so rusty using that thing. I when to dark on my first roast, Amber Espresso blend from Sweetmarias. The next two went better as I got a few for the arrival of the 2nd crack. Roast number 2 was a batch of Mexican Organic Chiapas also from Sweetmarias. The third and final roast was some new beans that are a treat for us Canadians, Cuban Turquino Lavado. Looking forward to trying them out.

Tuesday, May 13, 2003