Choosing Your Coffee Roast

The are so many choices when it comes time to choose your coffee roast. there is the light roast, light dark, medium, medium light, medium dark, dark, very dark, and almost black. Now we come to the names, Cinnamon, New England, American , Light French, Viennese, City, Full City, Light Espresso, Italian, European, French, After-Dinner, Continental, Spanish, Velvet, Neapolitan, and many more. Do we want a dry surface, patches of oil on the surface, oily surface or a very oily surface. And let us not forget the taste, a grain flavor with acidic tones and a distinct sour taste. Americans prefer the grain flavor with a sweeter, richer flavor that has a definite acidy snap. Then there is the slight roast with a bittersweet tang and less acidy snap. As we search the coffees we find one with a definite bittersweet tang and all acidy is gone. But lets not forget the burned charcoal flavor with the bittersweet tang that has no acidy. I don't want to eat anything that taste like burned charcoal so why would I want to drink anything with that flavor? So it is safe to say this would not be one of my choices!

It's no wonder so many people just go buy whatever coffee is on sale, go home and work with a combination of ground coffee and water to find a taste they can live with. After all it's your taste that needs to be met. It doesn't mater if it's a light roast or dark roast on sale, a person can either add more coffee to the water or more water to the coffee to get something they can enjoy. Who thinks about the different roast, names, or oil surface? It's too much trouble to try to understand and is there really a difference and who has the time.

But let me tell you, once you have tasted, fresh ground coffee beans, no matter if it's a light roast , dark roast, French Press, or espresso, you will be well on your way to becoming a coffee snob. I prefer a blend, mine is a combination of a light roast, medium roast, and a dark roast, each one of the combination comes from different countries, is organic, and shade grown. Not only can I tell the difference in the taste but so can my family, friends, and customers. This season when I opened the espresso shop my coffee order was not delivered in time for me to open my espresso shop for the winter ski season."OH, NO!"

I had to substitute other coffee each day until my coffee arrived. It was noticed by all of my regular customers, some that had not had my coffee in a year and some, it had only been about 6 months. After three days the comments started, "what did you do to your coffee, did you change coffee, is your coffee watered down, there is something different about your coffee." How happy we all were when my coffee order arrived.  Four days late but "YEAH" it was finally here. Usually when I place my order it is roasted the next day and shipped that afternoon, then it is delivered to me the day after it was shipped.  So day 1 I order, day 2 roast & ship, day 3 delivered and I am serving it. Not bad! Always fresh! Because from the time it leaves the roasting machine it starts to loose its oil and is loosing flavor. For these reasons I keep mine in an air tight container and only grind it as I need it. When roasted coffee beans are exposed to the air the oils starts  evaporating, the oil is not really oil because it dissolves in water. It is coffee essence, coffeol, a fragile substance and is the very taste of the coffee.

If your want caffeine in your coffee fix, keep in mind "The greener the bean the more caffeine" so stay with a light roast or blends, the oil and coffee flavor is still inside the coffee beans. If it's a strong taste you want remember "The darker the roast the less caffeine" because the hotter the beans get and the longer they are roasted the more caffeine is cooked out. Your light roast will have a dry surface, the medium roast will have patches of oil on the surface and the dark roast has a oily surface. The darker, shinier, oilier the surface the less caffeine you will have and the more burned charcoal bitter taste you will have. Whole beans stored in a air tight glass jar with a rubber gasket stored in a cool dark place is the best choice for having fresh coffee all the time. Buy in small amounts. Grind only what you need as you need it. I use my coffee beans so fast they don't have to to dry or loose flavor.

Enjoy a great cup of coffee, stay warm, stay happy, become a coffee snob,  I'll see you on the flip side......Light Roast

Dec. 13 Koffee Chatter

A brand new day...started at 3:00 am. when my alarm went off. As my feet hit the floor my new day is off running. I shower, dress and all the things that goes with getting ready to leave the house, hurry down stairs to make the chocolate mix I use for our "HOT CHOCOLATE & MOCHA'S". It brought back memories of the days when I first bought the  espresso shop. The espresso shop was and still  is in a small corner of a lounge at a ski resort, so every thing has to be put away and locked up. I try to have as many "homemade" items as I can. One of those homemade items is the chocolate mix. Back in the early days I would measure out the cocoa, powdered milk, sugar and then sift it with an old time sifter. There would be cocoa dust every where. That was when the powdered milk was like powder (or flour). Then as things happen, I could not buy that same powdered milk any more, so I had to get the coarse grainy kind. To make it as fine as flour I had to put it in a blender. After a year of doing this the light bulb comes on....I can add the cocoa powder and sugar in the blender with the powdered milk and the process will be much faster. And it was, however now there is a lot of cocoa dust in the air. You just can't use dry products in a blender, open the top and not have a cloud of dust come out.
 Or at least I can't, if someone knows how to stop it please don't tell me now...I have moved on and up. By the end of the ski season cocoa powder was hanging off my walls and ceiling. It would take a week or more to clean house in that one room.

The Best part of those "Good Ole Days" is that the chocolate mix makes the best "Mocha & Hot Chocolate" that can be found. Everyone who drinks one of these drinks not only keep coming back year after year, they also tell there friends that come here to ski to stop in my espresso shop. It still makes my day when a customer walks up and says "well I'm back for another one of your hot chocolates or a mocha" or "I had a friend tell me this is the best place to get a hot chocolate or a mocha."

The Good comes with the Bad...it all works out in God's plan....and makes for a wonderful day doing a fun job, meeting great people, making lasting friends and enjoying life.....See you on the flip side....Light Roast

Dec. 12 Koffee Chatter

In 2000 I bought a espresso shop. All I knew about coffee was; go to the store and buy the cheapest brand on sale. Go home, add or subtract the amount of coffee I used to make a drink I could drink. If I by some strange chance ended up in a "real coffee shop" I would read the menu, try to decide if there was any thing on it that I might like. I did not have a clue what "espresso" was or how to order a drink with espresso in it. Latte' seemed to be the safest drink to order because it had a lot of milk.
Well time does change everything sooner or later. From the days of on the job learning (mostly from customers) I have come a long way. The person I bought the coffee shop from was suppose to train me and work with me for a couple of months. That however lasted about a week. Maybe two, just to be generous. Can you even imagine what it is like to have 20 to 40 impatient, in a hurry, angry, knowledgeable coffee drinkers trying to  order coffee drinks you don't know how to make or what the price is? It will turn you hair "GREY" in a hurry.
Then there is the coffee its self! What type coffee beans to order. Why get a light roast, medium roast, dark roast, or a blended roast. Why did I buy a espresso coffee shop? So much to learn, so many questions and no time to do anything except make the espresso drinks on the learning curve. Froth....what the heck is froth and where do you get it and why would anyone want it. Did that customer just ask for a "Dopio" or call me a "Dope"? Keep the wand clean...do I have a Fairy God Mother I don't know about? And where is her wand and why do I have to clean it?  If I had to go back to the beginning, not knowing what I know now, would I buy a espresso shop? Would I want to retrace all those stressful days....I think I would. Along the way I have become a "Coffee Snob". made Great Friends, and learned a lot. None of these would I give up or trade. God has blessed me.
As my blog comes along I hope to share my experiences, knowledge, and people fun with you. So I'll see you all on the flip side...........Light Roast