Coffee microroasting workshop, Sunday, May 25, 10am « Columbus Underground Messageboard

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Coffee microroasting workshop, Sunday, May 25, 10am

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Started 4 years ago by Bear
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Bear
The woods
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Slow Food Columbus presents...
Coffee Microroasting Workshop
Sunday, May 25, 10am
$4 members / $6 nonmembers
If you're a coffee lover, you've probably narrowed down a favorite type of coffee -- maybe a favorite region, or country, or even a favorite bean. And you might be wondering where to go from there. Or you might be chafing at the expense of whole-bean roasted coffee. Or perhaps you like a lighter (or darker) roast than most people drink, or you'd be interested in exploring the nuances in the flavors of some of your favorite beans as they go from a lighter to a darker roast. Or maybe you simply like the idea of always having really, really fresh coffee in the morning. Even if you have no desire to roast your own coffee, you might just be curious about the process of how beans are roasted.
If you fall into any of these categories, you may be interested in our coffee micro-roasting workshop. We will explore roasting coffee in 1/3-pound batches in a small, programmable fluid-bed roaster designed for home use. We will observe the roasting process and discuss the pros and cons of roasting your own beans, and we will sample three different roasts to compare their characteristics. The exact beans to be compared will be determined based on what crops are recently available, and interesting, in the weeks before the event.
The workshop will be held at the home of Colleen, leader of Slow Food Columbus, and led by her husband Bear, a coffee lover of long standing who roasts the beans that they make into coffee every morning. Because of the intimate venue attendance will be limited to no more than ten people; a reservation will be required in advance and a nominal fee ($4 per person for members, $6 for nonmembers) will be collected at the door.
See the Slow Food Columbus Events page for more details and to sign up.

Posted 4 years ago #
Bear
The woods
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A follow-up on this -- I've selected the three coffees to be sampled at the workshop. Brief summaries follow; more info on the Events page.
The first, and most unusual, of the three beans that we will explore will be the Guatemala Huehuetenango Finca San Vicente SHB. Huehuetenango (way-way-ten-AN-go) is the only coffee in the world at present that has been singled out for preservation by Slow FoodÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Ark of Taste program, which seeks to maintain biodiversity in the face of globalization, environmental damage, and the homogenization of taste. Finca San Vicente is situated at an altitude of 1300 to 1600 meters in the Cuchumatanes mountain range of Huehuetenango. It is unusually humid, and its terrain is steep, with soil that has a high clay content. While San Vicente has a few different cultivars, this lot of beans comes exclusively from their Bourbon varietal, from some of the higher trees in the farm. Because those trees mature more slowly, the beans tend to be more dense, and therefore more flavorful. These exhibit very nice milk chocolate overtones with a slight toasted-nut finish.
The second bean will be a classic coffee-loverÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s coffee: an Ethiopia Yirgacheffe from the town of Idido, the Ethiopia Organic Idido Misty Valley. This Yirgacheffe is produced by the Bagersh family, who have traded coffee in Ethiopia for generations. Abdullah Bagersh has adopted his grandparentsÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ technique of dry-processing coffee by sun-drying it in its fruit, and then separating the dried fruit from the green coffee bean, rather than separating the undried fruit from the bean by agitating them in waterÃ¢â‚¬â€a technique adopted throughout the region in the 1960s. Ethiopian dry-processed coffees can vary in terms of quality, because not enough effort is usually taken to ensure that only ripe coffee cherries are used, and the sun-drying process is, as often as not, less than systematic. Bagersh has worked hard to ensure that neither of these problems plagues the Idido Misty Valley, and the result is a truly exemplary Yirgacheffe. When roasted properly -- quickly at first, to preserve the brightness and acidity, then more slowly to a medium roast to bring out the varietal notes -- the flavor of ripe fruit explodes on the tongue in a way IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve never before experienced. Really a remarkable taste sensation.
The final bean will be a favorite, but an unusually difficult one to pin down: a Sumatra Classic Mandheling. The big problem with Sumatras is that they donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t follow the rules that most other coffees follow. You typically canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t track a lot back to a single producer or estate, because most Sumatras are cultivated by small producers and brought to cooperatives where they are aggregated and sold. Because soil and climate vary throughout Sumatra, and quality control standards vary as well, consistency is difficult to ensure over time. Why bother with such a quarrelsome and mercurial bean? Because, to me anyway, a superb Sumatra is the essence of what good coffee should be. I tried four different Sumatras and finally settled on this one, a very nice Lake Toba Mandheling from Sumatra Typica trees that has good earthiness and peppery overtones, without even a hint of acidity.
Edit -- a few details added, as I narrow down the right roast....

Posted 4 years ago #
Mercurius
First Avenue
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I use a pop-corn maker

Posted 4 years ago #
Bear
The woods
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Mercurius wrote I use a pop-corn maker
I considered that when starting, but I worried that there would be too many variables for me to keep track of... plus I'm a bit of a technophile. :) So I ended up with a programmable roaster, but the basic principle is exactly the same.
There's a nice page on popcorn-popper roasting here (I mention it for other readers who might be interested -- and because it points out that not all popcorn poppers will work for roasting coffee). Edit -- just ran across a full-blown tutorial on popcorn-popper roasting on Coffeegeek here. An excerpt:
coffeegeek.com wrote I canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t stress enough that this how to is a "do at your own risk" type instructional. Using a popcorn popper to roast coffee definitely voids the productÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s warranty. ...

Posted 4 years ago #
Bear
The woods
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Just wanted to bump this as a quick reminder that it's coming up this weekend. I get the sense from talking to a few people that they have the impression that it's only for those who are definitely planning to roast their own coffee. Not so! For the most part, we're going to hang out in my courtyard on a sunny Sunday morning, drink three different kinds of coffee, probably nibble some biscotti that Laurie is planning to make, and talk about coffee and the roasting process. Toward the end I'll talk a bit about techniques for doing this oneself at home, the pluses and minuses, etc., and I'll do a quick (maybe 15 minute) demo for anyone who's interested. I'll prepare some brief introductory remarks, mostly to signal the kinds of things we can talk about, but mostly we'll drink coffee and let the conversation go wherever it goes.
So CU folks are quite welcome -- even if you just feel like coming over, hanging out and drinking coffee, please feel free to drop us a line. Don't feel as though it's a roasters-only thing, or even a hard-core coffee-geek-only thing.
And for those of you contemplating going to church instead, well, you might luck out and end up with the best of both worlds --
-- but somehow I doubt it.
Hope to see you there!

Posted 4 years ago #
michaelcoyote
!seabus
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Lots of additional information on home roasting can be found at http://www.sweetmarias.com/. Some of you might remember when Tom used to be located down on 2nt Ave. near High St., but that was a few years ago.

Posted 4 years ago #
Bear
The woods
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Yep, Tom and Maria have posted basically a home roasting library, and the time and effort they put into their beans is impressive. They cup at least 10 coffees for every one that they carry, and Tom's reviews are models of thoroughness. Each bag comes with flavor and roast notes. All of their coffees are seasonal, and when they're out, they're out: all three of the coffees we'll drink on Sunday are from Sweet Maria's, and with the possible exception of the Sumatra (I forget), you can't buy any more this season.
And for all that, the value is amazing -- usually $5-6 a pound plus shipping, which brings it up to maybe $8. Premium coffee and a great value.
It didn't surprise me to find that the two guys who run Yeah Me Too used to work for Tom and Maria.

Posted 4 years ago #
michaelcoyote
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I think i'm in although 10AM is a little early for me :-\

Posted 4 years ago #
Bear
The woods
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michaelcoyote wrote I think i'm in although 10AM is a little early for me :-\
Great! Glad to hear it. Click here and let Colleen know -- she's handling the queue. Pretty sure there's still room, but the mail goes to her, not me.
And 10 is early for me too... fortunately, there will be plenty of coffee. :D

Posted 4 years ago #
Bear
The woods
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Still a couple of slots left for this -- if you wake up with an urge to sit and sip coffee with us, pm me before 9. I'll check messages then and send you location information etc.
In any event, enjoy the holiday weekend, everyone....

Posted 4 years ago #
michaelcoyote
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Thanks to Bear and Colleen for opening their home for this fun and informative event.
I loved the coffee, conversation and people.

Posted 4 years ago #
Stacky
Franklinton
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I second that! It was a beautiful day to enjoy home-roasted beans and I learned so much. Great meeting everyone and looking forward to going to another Slow Food event. Thanks :D

Posted 4 years ago #
Bear
The woods
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Aw, thanks, guys! It was a lot of fun for us too -- we really loved having the chance to meet everyone and look forward to seeing you all again... many of you over a steaming cup of Sumatra. :)

Posted 4 years ago #
Chester999

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Thanks Bear and Colleen! It was great, and I had a good time. Looking forward to doing more of these workshops.
:D

Posted 4 years ago #
Bear
The woods
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Chester999 wrote Thanks Bear and Colleen! It was great, and I had a good time. Looking forward to doing more of these workshops.
Thanks, Chester -- looking forward to seeing you there.
Colleen just did a nice little writeup of the workshop on the Slow Food Columbus blog for anyone who's interested... and Stacey, one of the attendees, was good enough to take a picture of everyone sipping coffee in the courtyard. Perfect morning for it! (She was modest enough not to mention that the orange ramekins contain the bread pudding that she whipped up -- from croissants and Toad Hill eggs -- which was really superb; and Laurie's biscotti, at the far end of the table, were absolutely phenomenal):

Posted 3 years ago #