getting ready for a good cup of coffee, pt. 1

These are coffee beans. We order from Sweet Marias. The owner gets to personally go to the different regions he purchases coffee from and try the beans. You can go to sweetmarias.com and check out his sight, very good stuff.
they kind of look like split peas when we get them. Wes likes to order the ones that score no less then 90. but the Guatemalan is still really good and rarely scores 90.
This particular typ is a peaberry, because it is smaller than your regular coffee beans and it smells different as well. We also got some Sumatra Blue Batak and it is exceptionally good coffee.
Here is our coffee roaster. Looks like a BBQ grill huh, well we don't use this for anything but roasting coffee, we keep a spare tank of gas handy as well it gets to be troublesome if you run out of propane in the middle of a roast!!
This is the barrel that we use to put the beans in to roast, you can also order different variations of this online. the commercial ones this size usually go for about 10,000 for the whole set up, as you can see, we are not very commercial.
Here you can see the name of the drum, this guy also offers the machines online as well, the rotisserie motor that is.
Here is one more view of the beans inside the drum.


Wes gets the temperature to about 600 degrees inside before he puts the drum on the rotisserie. Then he sets his timer and waits to hear the crackle.

here is our high tech cooling system, as you can see it is very important to get the beans cooled immediately after cooking and this works well they are cool to the touch in about 25 seconds. Wes tells me this is a large flour sifter.
Here he is meditating over coffee
This is the motore, it has a toggle switch and a fan. the fan is new, last year the motor stopped working and he found out that is was getting too hot next to the grill, can you see where he bolted this on to the grill? Anyway the guy that makes the drum sold him another motor really cheap and added a cooling fan to run during the roasting time. Problem solved.
Here he has his hot mitt and he is getting ready to pull the beans, this part is really fun.
He uses a really technical set of pliers actually i think it is pliers, but this is how he opens the drum so as not to burn his fingers.
this is the cool shot!! when he pours the beans and the shells or "chaff" as he calls it blows all up in the air!!
And here is some beautifully roasted coffee!! If you notice the beans are not shiny and covered in oil. That is because they are not over cooked. Now they need to rest for about a day or two, depending on the type of coffee, the Guatemalan can be drank the same day, it is cool to drink and then the next day find a completely different flavor!! Tommorow I will show you how we brew the perfect pot of coffee, oh yes there is more, you novices out there just thought we dumped some coffee in any old urn well we have something in store for you!!

Cheap Trick

If you click on the link above, this is how I feel when i have a good cup of coffee, like right about now!!! I love this song it makes me happy!! Surrender!! So for todays gratitude list;

1. today i am grateful for my friends in recovery.
2. today i am grateful for the cold weather we are having, makes for some good coffee!!
3. today i am grateful my sponsor finally answered the phone!!
4. today i am grateful my vehicle is reliable and has a working heater, windows and ac.
5. today i am grateful for the time to post this blog. i will follow up tomorrow after Flash fiction Friday!!

I have been so insanely busy, i did not go to the gym today, but i had some exercise anyway. I am working on cleaning and getting these costumes ready. my daughters reprot card came in and she is going to be so upset she did not make the honor roll, she missed it by 4 points. her gpa is 3.46, she hates it when she doesn't make the honor roll, she is taking all honors classes and is declaring herself an early grad to attend KU by 2011. Very goal oriented i just know she will be heartbroken, but i am so proud of her!! she rocks!! So I hope you all enjoyed this lesson, i had to do it in two parts as there is a lot of technical stuff involved in making the perfect cup of coffee!! at any rate, as Wes always says, "friends don't let friends drink Folgers." I will show you the best way to brew this wonderfully yummie coffee. Yummie is my technical term for good coffee, very technical you know!! so for todays thought; “A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are.”- Anonymous