The Girlie Way

I spent way too much time yesterday following a conversation on roasting with the iRoast-2. I love my roasters' Email list, but it sure can be a rip-roaring time waster.

The discussion began innocently enough. A person who was new to the list mentioned that she was seeing a whole lot of posts about another method of roasting, but not much discussion about the iRoast-2. Predictably, all of us IR2 users crawled out from the woodwork and posted with great abandon.

I would guess that about 95% of list members are very geeky guys. So I probably should not be surprised that most of them approach coffee roasting in an analytical, numbers based, way. Post after post dealt with measuring bean mass temperature using devices like thermocouples and then plotting the numbers onto graphs to create roast curves.

I understand that an advanced degree in physics, chemistry, or mathematics can provide insight into roasting really great coffee. I even understand the siren call of the kind of number crunching that creates lovely macro embellished spread sheets; after all, I am not only a techie myself, I am also married to an accountant. That being said, after the barrage of posts had calmed down, I found myself forced to admit, both to myself and publicly, that my own roasting is hopelessly girlie in a Mars vs. Venus way, and that I need my coffee roasting to have a little more romance, even if it means a little less techie goodness.

The intense sensory experience of roasting coffee wins hands down given the choice between checking and recording bean temperature every 15 seconds, or gazing into the roasting chamber watching the beans change colour, breathing in the changing scents of the roast, and listening for the telltale sounds of first crack, then a bit of silence and, perhaps, if I am roasting dark, the tentative beginnings of second crack.

I guess it is like my experience baking bread. I know I can get terrific bread using a specialized dough mixing machine, but I want, or mebbe need, to get my hands in the dough and to feel the texture develop with my finger tips. And while I can't touch my precious beans as they transform themselves, I can still have an equally sensory laden experience.

And what am I drinking today? Well, the cup of the day is an organic Guatemalan, lovingly produced by a small coffee co-operative, carefully watched over, with all of my senses, as it roasted, and then finely ground, meticulously brewed, and finally served in my favourite bone china cup. 

There are other ways to do it, but my inner girlie-girl wants the whole experience to overwhelm me. 

 

posted by taming at 08:48 | link | comments (1)|
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On the one hand...

A few days ago, I made my monthly pilgrimage to my nail salon. I always (and very secretly) wanted to have nice looking nails, but I had pretty much given up on that particular expression of female beauty. My nails, in their natural state, or after a home done manicure, are just plain ugly. About a year ago, I decided that I am now willing to pay someone $35 to do something about it, and began the acrylic nail experience I had always associated with true empty-headedness.  

As if that were not embarrassing enough, I also have been getting my eyebrows waxed there every three or four months. Yes, on Tuesday, I actually paid someone to pour hot wax on my eyebrows and then rip it off. That form of torture was then followed up by a bit of tweezing, a process that is far more uncomfortable than the wax part of this superficial journey.

As a teenager, I looked at the pretty young girls around me and felt hopeless (and somewhat desperate) about my own appearance. Looking at magazine models made me want to crawl into a hole. My solution was to dismiss it all as frivolous crap, dress myself in bell bottoms and character t-shirts, and triumphantly avoid both mirrors and make-up.

It worked, more-or-less.

As I entered my 50s, I found my attitude about this sort of things was changing. As a younger woman, I had felt like people either chose beauty or brains, and that as long as I had the latter, the first was too silly to think about. 

These days, a whole lot of things, and not just arguably inconsequential things like manicures, seem less black and white, less dichotomous. I can even occasionally understand the rationality behind political ideas I don't support.

I guess it could be that I am getting more mellow, or less passionate, but I don't see it that way. Instead, I see myself as being less rigid, less judgmental, and more accepting of other ways of navigating through the world.  I still have enormous passion when it comes to injustice or social responsibility, and in fact, now that my days of active mom-hood and full time employment are over, I have more time to work (in my own way) on those important issues.

In any case, I didn't feel even the slightest bit ashamed when, lovely manicured nails and all, I put in my  hours this week at the local housing not-for-profit that gets most of my volunteer time these days. My nails may have French tips, but I'm still not afraid of getting my hands dirty.

 

posted by taming at 16:42 | link | comments |
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Nope, Not Me

I feel like a pusher, a coffee pusher, but still...

I have a dear friend who has always claimed to enjoy coffee, but somehow was oblivious to the fact that the stuff she served tasted remarkably like dishwasher. I schemed a bit, and introduced her to the good stuff, some months back. And while she is not nearly as addicted as I am, she has begun to take a look at roasters.

There is actually an organization for people like us. It's called Coffee Snobs Anonymous, created by Kona Konnaisseur miKe mcKoffee, one of the  active and knowledgeable members of the Sweet Maria's Home Roast mailing list. 

From his webpage:

Coffee Snobs Association
The Twelve Steps of CSA

(or Anonymous - you're a member when you say you are:-)

1. We admitted we were powerless over fresh home roasted coffee, but of course we can manage it.

2. We came to believe that no power could force us to drink pre-roasted or pre-ground or perish the thought canned coffee.

3. We made a decision to turn our will and our bank accounts over to the care of Tom and Sweet Maria's, as we understood him.

4. We made a searching and fearless inventory of our greens stash.

5. We admitted to no one they knew more about coffee than we did.

6. We were entirely ready to have inferior coffee removed from lives forever.

7. We humbly asked our spouse for a larger coffee budget.

8. We made a list of all persons not home roasting, and became willing to convert them all.

9. We made direct donations of fresh home roasted coffee to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would deplete our precious stash.

10. We continued to take stash inventory, and when low or not, promptly ordered more.

11. We sought through new and exotic roasting and brewing methods to improve of coffee consumption, as we knew it to be best, begging only for money to carry that out.

12. Having had a coffee awakening as a result of those steps, we tried to force this message on sludge drinkers and to perfect these principles in all our cups.

*13. Continued to buy any and every green recommended seeking ways to store and means to justify our excessive beans inventory to our spouse.

I'm not a member. Nope not me. I am merely a wannabee, yup, mebbe a pusher, but still...

 

posted by taming at 15:06 | link | comments (2)|
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Monday Morning Tastings

I made two different coffees today. Our morning shared pot was the Sumatran Mandheling I roasted on the 21st, and then later, I made a pot just for myself of the Horse Harar #19. For this batch of Horse, I roasted twice, and combined them. The first batch was to City+, and the second (barely) to Vienna. My Oh My, I think I'm in love.

The Mandheling was very good, but I am looking forward to seeing how it tastes tomorrow. I think I will grind it a bit finer as I am not sure the varietal part is coming out in the cup.

The Horse was just perfect--lots of body with a very nice finish. I can't say I noticed the blueberry in the cup, though I could smell it, but that might be because the roast was older than it should have been. I had planned on trying it on Saturday, but parts of my life that have nothing to do with coffee intervened.

My sinus infection is on its way out, finally. I just may have to try all the roasts I did over the last two weeks again. I'm pretty sure it was throwing off my ability to really taste all that good coffee.

 

posted by taming at 11:39 | link | comments |
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KCTV5, via Fark

10-Year-Old's Bandana Causes Controversy

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- If you go shopping at the Battlefield Mall in Springfield, be careful what you wear.

A 10-year-old girl got in trouble while shopping with her mom, because she had on a bandana.

Lydia Smith was wearing a bandana, decorated with peace signs, smiley faces and flowers.

A security guard approached her at the food court and said the bandanna violated the mall's code of conduct, which is "wearing apparel which is likely to provide a disturbance or embroil other groups or the general public in open conflict."

 

posted by taming at 07:50 | link | comments (2)|
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