A new decade is arrived. Are you ready for it? Is the world of Specialty Coffee ready for it?
Just to help ease the transition I put together a little list of things to look forward to in coffee, along with some things I hope get left behind as artifacts, as we flip the pages of the calendar.
Things I hope become historical footnotes:
Earlier this August roasters from all over the United States convened at the Skamania lodge in Stevenson, Washington for the 2009 Roasters Guild Retreat. The Roasters Guild is an organization committed to supporting community and education in the trade of Specialty Coffee roasting.
Last night I flew back to Chicago after a pedal-to-the-metal weeklong trip to Nicaragua and Honduras. Time is especially short these days. Between the launching of our L.A.
What a feeling! (And I mean that in both the Flashdance and the Toyota senses.) After months of working and waiting, followed by a few more months of working and waiting, we finally fired up our rebuilt roaster in our new Los Angeles Roasting Works.
Greetings from Los Angeles, where our gas meter was installed and activated earlier this week... and there was much rejoicing!
I have the rhythmic whirr of the sample roasting machine in my head right now. The repetitive sound of beans spinning around in the barrel of the roaster punctuated by the staccato clicks of the fan belt as it revolves, round and round and round...
As you may or may not already know, green coffee contains hundreds of volatile organic compounds that are responsible for its many flavors and aromas.
It's been an action-packed week, that's for sure. I am currently in Africa, and I actually enjoyed the 20+ hours I spent on the plane...it was a great time to turn off the mind and catch up on some sleep.
I'm up here at the lovely Sugar Lake Lodge in upper Minnesota, getting set up for the 7th Annual Roaster's Guild Retreat.
Caldas is the biggest coffee producing region in Colombia and home to some of the country's most well-known coffee farms. This region contributes roughly 11% of Colombia's annual production of 11 million bags. I'm in Manizales at the moment, the capital city of Caldas, traveling with a group of coffee roasters from the US, Canada, and South Korea. This May I took over the chair position for the Roaster's Guild of America (an association of professional roasters) and this is our first group trip to South America.
Spring is in the air today. Not the full deal, just a down-payment. But it feels good anyway, at least as a reminder of what's ahead.
