Local, Organic, Fair Trade?

Lovely Leslie roasting the beans

Ty and I were given the greatest gift of all: truly local (like right down the road), hand picked, totally organic, Tanzania coffee beans! (Not exactly a fair trade, since we didn't give anything to them except friendship.) The only catch is, they are GREEN! We decided we couldn't wait until we got home to enjoy the coffee-so we set up our own *very small batch* roasting company. First we roasted the beans in a single layer over a propane stove. It took several batches to get the roast right, but we settled on about 5 minutes of roasting (after the first "pop"), which makes a super dark and oily roast. It also takes out some of the "fruity" notes, which I don't prefer. Then we sifted the little flakey bits away, using a rice sorting basket and some wind. Next comes the hard part…how do you grind coffee without electricity? We tried several methods (mortar and pestle, rolling a coke bottle on top of the beans while pushing down, meat grinder) and finally settled on hitting the beans with a hammer!  T. LOVED that part. I imagine this is not really good grinding technique but it worked for us. The smell of the coffee while being ground was divine. We brewed up a pot via "pour over" method and it was declared some of the finest coffee ever consumed. Very smooth, not a hint of bitterness. I'm sure the freshness factor played a huge part. 

If you are lucky, I will brew you a cup when we get home…I saved some beans from the hammer and will be happy to make a cup for the first people to come over to the house to welcome us back, next week!

We look forward to seeing you all soon.

J.

My “automatic” coffee grinder

Light, medium and dark roasts!