Fresh From The Roaster….

We just finished hosting our training sessions with ESI. Ryan Haney did the honors of being our lead instructor. We first did training on the Franke Evolution. It was pretty cool breaking the machine down. In the picture you see Chris Edwards rebuilding the brew group.

 The next day we got our hands on the La Marzocco GB/5 and Swift Grinder. This was the first time I actually dialed in the grind on this style of grinder. We did a video pulling some shots.  I needed to tweak the grind a bit more, but our Cafe Vera still performed like a champ. The Creama looks yummy!  In fact it was!

Video Of Cafe Vera in Action

We had a great time manipulating the settings on the GB/5. There are so many areas to play with.  Temperature, Preinfusion, Preinfusuion time, and shot timing.  I know there are a couple more functions, but I can’t remember them all.  Talk about Coffee Geek to the MAX. You could constantly tweak and still not ever be satisfied.

Now I just have to pass the budget with Mary to replace my Linea in the Training Lab.

Summer months are supposed to be quiet.  Hardly. We’ve been busy little bees!

First off..We won the Nicaragua Lot # 5 from Jaime Armando Lovo – Santa Isabel Estate. YES! 

We were glad the we finally got to get our hands on some Cup Of Excellence coffee for our customers. We have had some great coffees before from the Santa Isabel Estate, its nice to know his special selection of coffee scored extremely well for this auction. Being ranked number five after all the National and International juries is outstanding.   This coffee has been consistently scored in the nineties!

I can’t wait to get this coffee in.  It is supposed to arrive in the US in about six to eight weeks.  We’ll do a few sample roasts and figure out how to achieve the best roast from this coffee.  It makes me feel like the Mad Scientist in the lab coat.  As I rub my hands together going “MuuuhHaaaaaah!!!” and plotting our schemes for world domination….  Wake up Tim!!  Stop daydreaming!  Ooops!  Better fall in line before Mary slaps me upside my head for being silly. Well, we try to have fun and have fun with our customers..  So shoot me! Better not say that too loud, she might take me seriously.

Speaking of lab coats… Last week we were hard at work roasting and cupping coffees for the 2007 Karnataka Espresso Blending Challenge. I’ve finalized my roast levels and tweaked my blends. I shipped them off and hope for the best. We entered six different blends. I think I heard that Sherri Johns will be one of the judges.  She’s a busy lady too.  She just got back from being the Head Judge for the International Jury of the Honduran Cup Of Excellence.  That auction will be coming on July 10th.

Now its time to put the lab gloves on.  I have to make our roastery presentable.  We are hosting a training session for ESI next week. I believe the training will be on the La Marzocco GB/5 and a Franke Superautomatic – I just can’t remember which one Ryan Haney told me about.  That reminds me; I have to go and purchase a Female L-6 connector to power these units up. So… I’ll make this short.

I’m off to the hardware store.  Wish me luck. Mary hates it when I go.  She says my eyes glaze over and I become the “kid in the candy store.”  Of course, I’m a guy; we want all the Toys!

Who says in the summer months the coffee business slows down?
Last week I was at Coffee Fest Atlanta, another one of my many road adventures. It started off as a really nice pleasant drive. I had my iPod cranking out talk podshows and music podcast. I was following my Yahoo Maps directions being happy as can be. At the directions of staying on interstate route 65 for 425 miles a no brainer. I couldn’t go wrong. Yet how wrong I was.

I crossed into Alabama seeing the amazing site of a Saturn 5 rocket. I could’t resist but stop to check it out. It was at a rest stop so easy enough to check out. Then I was back on my way. The exit numbers seemed pretty high (300’s), and my direction for an exit were at exit 123. Hmmm. That’s odd. According to my speedometer my turn was coming up in 30 miles.
So I trudged onward listening to my tunes. Thirty miles came and went. Houston we have a problem was mumbled, with the Saturn 5 still in my mind. So at the next rest stop checked the map. All I could think was how naive I was to trust Yahoo Maps and not verify it with a real map. I screamed mentally – Never Again!

It was too late to turn back; I was Birmingham bound and then a left turn at Albuquerque or was that right? So on to Atlanta Airport I go to pickup Mary. This little mistake ended up being 90 miles and 1 1/2 hours later. And to think of the price of gas! I made it to ATL just as Mary arrived.

The next day was our first day of Coffee Fest. We attended a few presentations and hit the tradeshow floor. It was reunion after reunion. We saw many friends that we didn’t get to see at Chicago Coffee Fest. I stopped by the Zoka booth and talked with Tracy Allen about the $130 lb. “Geisha Green Coffee – Best Of Panama #1″ Hacienda La Esmeralda. Tracy offered a cup off their Clover machine of their Brazil Santa Ines Cup of Excellence 2006. Yummy! Sweet, complex and smooth.

Along the way I ended up talking to Jeff and Fred at PT’s booth. While they were busy Pete Licata brewed me a wonderful cup of their Ethiopia – Biloya. It too was brewed on the Clover. For what I was expecting, the clover really brought out a lot of body in the cup. Still quite nice!

Then along the way I met up with Terry Davis of Ambex Coffee Roasting Equipment. Gosh, I sure took up a lot of his time. The conversation was stimulating – I just couldn’t let go! We were hitting topic after topic on relevant issues that we both see happening in the Coffee Industry. From the SCAA to the Roaster Guild and some projects in the works. Like myself, Terry is a busy man. So I really appreciated his time.

I ended my day over at Counter Cultures booth. I finally got to meet up with Peter
Guiliano. We have been passing ships in the night for the last five years. I’ve always been off to some event or other function, I even been to Counter Cultures roastery in that time too! However, I never got to sit down and talk with him one on one. We chatted for a bit. He invited me to their hosted event at Octane and then their new training facility. Both events were really great. Mary and I had a blast.

On Sunday I gave my class on Romancing The Bean: Up Selling Coffee Beans In Your Cafe. Overall it went well. I made the mistake to take questions after I said I’ll take questions at the end of the class. Live and Learn! This side tracked me a bit and I had to keep bringing the presentation back on course. This did make me rush the material towards the end. Sorry for that. But we did have a full class. It was standing room only in the back of the room so some folks didn’t get the handout. If anyone wants it, I can email it to you.

Then we were off to hit the road back here… Uneventful! No missed turns! I used a real map! All was well..

Now that I’m back in Indianapolis its back to work. This week I was roasting and cupping coffees for the 2007 Karnataka Espresso Blending Challenge. I’ve found the levels to where I want to roast the four supplied Indian Coffees. I will roast these on Monday. I will start the blending process to achieve my preferred blends. The challenge will allow us to use up to 30% of our own coffees if we chose. Hmmm… What shall I add? Or will I.