Coffee

Happy International Coffee Day!

Here's some coffees I made today. A cappuccino Australian style (with chocolate powder on the foam) and the Aussie classic, the flat white. And since I wasn't carrying a knife today, here's my works kitchen knife.
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Nice art dude! I'm not nearly that good (never did anything coffee-related professionally). Maybe I missed it, are you located "down under"?

I took some roasting pics from my batches tonight, but it's late and I'm tired. Will post in the morning.
 
Monofletch said:
I was right! The Spyderco Gods have shown me the way!! A custom black muted Multi cam/DLC Military with a deep carry titanium clip and standoffs....and Death Wish! Does it get any better!!!!!! :thumbup: Thanks Wayne! :D

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Enjoy it John. :thumbup:
Was it sharp enough to open the bag though? :D
 
Roasted a Kenya AA last night. I've had this particular coffee several different years starting in '09, and it always impresses! This one is from 2014. It is from the Tambaya cooperative in the Nyeri region. Primarily an SL-28 varietal (some SL-34), 18 screen size (fairly large bean). The Sweet Maria's review of the 2009 lot can be found about halfway down the page here.

I roasted this batch to Full City, and it took right at 10 minutes from start to finish. Here are some pictures. :D

The West Bend Poppery setup. You can see the fan boost transformer, and the switch box I wired the fan speed control into. The bottom plug is variable voltage, the top one is FULL boost. Note the stuff flying out of the top of my popper. More on that later.



Right as I turned the popper on. Beans are heaviest at this point, and don't move around quite as much (making it easier to focus the camera).



3 minutes into the roast. The beans are losing a lot of their moisture at this point, and have started moving around. Temperature is around 250º F here, and it smells like wet hay.



5 minutes into the roast, and you can see the beans have started changing color. Smells yeasty, almost like baking bread. Temperature is around 325º F here.



6 minutes in, around 350º F here. Getting darker.



7 minutes in, about 365º F.



7 minutes, 30 seconds. Beans are rapidly getting darker. 375º F.



8 minutes, 30 seconds. First crack beginning. Temperature is about 395º F.



10 minutes. Roast is done! Stopped at 435º F.



Here's a quick shot of the "chaff" that's all over the place now. This is the hard part about trying to roast coffee indoors. Messy! It is a thin skin (called silverskin) that was around the green beans. As they swell with the expanding water vapor, they break free of this stuff and it blows out of the roaster. Some coffees only have a little bit, others have LOTS!



Finally, here are the resulting beans! Smells SO good!!! :D



Hope you enjoyed this little write-up! Happy ICO International Coffee Day!!!
 
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cchu518 said:
That was sweet do you use an IR gun to check the temps?
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Thanks! I enjoy it immensely, and the results are tasty too! :D

My primary temperature readout is a fast-read bi-metal thermometer (visible in the first pic). That is calibrated against a SLE (special limits of error) Type K thermocouple on the back side, which I compare it with every so often. However, temperature readout isn't terribly critical to have until you get between first and second crack, and even then, once you have enough experience, it isn't really necessary. Your other senses are pretty reliable in telling you where the roast is at, and the temperature readout becomes ancillary at a certain point.
 
Second pot of the Kenya I roasted last night. It's good, but it'll be even better tomorrow. :thumbup:



A pair of Kershaw JunkYard Dogs; the coveted Ti/SG2 model and the first composite bladed model with CPM D2 cutting edge. :D Oldies but goodies! :cool:
 
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Afternoon cappucino. Sweet Maria's Ethiopiques espresso blend, roasted Wednesday evening.



A minor grail of mine which just arrived today, the legendary Busse "Leprechaun" Active Duty (discontinued green linen micarta handle scales) :cool: :thumbup:
 
Just ground some Kaldi's Espresso 700 blend.
Delicious, I'm a sucker for a smooth espresso with chocolate caramel notes.
I'll be ordering more of this one. :thumbup:

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And a little something else that was delivered today. :thumbup:
A great big slab of Italian made N690CO.
Thanks John. ;)

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I'm not much of an espresso guy, but damn Wayne...that looks tasty! Did you add anything to it or is that all beans and water?
 
Monofletch said:
I'm not much of an espresso guy, but damn Wayne...that looks tasty! Did you add anything to it or is that all beans and water?
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That's just the natural crema atop of my espresso. Nothing added.
I pack in about 16 grams and pull around a 30 gram shot. I'd go shorter but my little machine doesn't start making good crema till around 20 grams so I let it do its thing.
 
Couple from today. More Sweet Maria's Ethiopiques. Today is THE day for this roast!!! Here's a pic of my first shot from this morning. Sweet liquid gold from heaven!!! :D



Knife content!



My Benchmade 943. Other than a short trip to the spa to get Omega springs replaced, I've carried this knife daily since I got it, over 10 years ago. :eek: :cool: It's been through hell and back; I even melted about 1/8" off of the tip about 6 months ago cutting a Li-ion battery off of a r/c plane that was shorting out. Ooops! :o I re-ground and all is well again.

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More liquid gold goodness. Earlier in the shot this time (just as it started).



And the resulting cappucino (or probably more appropriately called a flat white in this case).



Kershaw Leek, special edition "Black Gold" (May '04)
 
I swill two cups of Tim Hortons when I get up, then grab a large double, double on the way to work. It's a Canuck thing. I like my coffee STRONG. If I don't feel like a squirrel on cocaine, I need more.
 
Barman1 said:
Just ground some Kaldi's Espresso 700 blend.
Delicious, I'm a sucker for a smooth espresso with chocolate caramel notes.
I'll be ordering more of this one. [emoji106]

TAtH9vj.jpg


And a little something else that was delivered today. [emoji106]
A great big slab of Italian made N690CO.
Thanks John. ;)

9y4cSoZ.jpg
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I'm a new fan of the Kaldi btw. The Mexican sicobi I tried was excellent!
 
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