What i look like before my pot of coffee in the morning!

Happy Halloween!

Charly Freedom Coffee Chronicles

In the late Twentieth Century( About ten years Before Charly) Coffee drinking grew more wide spread, especially on the west coast and Hawaii where it was already tolerated to some degree. Gone were the days of Nixon and the counter culture and the government no longer felt the need to suppress the coffee drinking anti-disestablishment types like it had during those turbulent times.

It was now the Clinton Era, and soon many states began to take steps toward legalization. Our northern neighbor had already justified its use for medicinal purposes, sighting its remarkable ability to clear the mind and even ease headaches. Research out of Scandinavia also showed that drinking it might even help with certain types of bowel cancer. Basement Coffee shops soon began to spring up all over the Bay Area as smugglers did what they could to sneak the bags over the border or through the port authority.

Homegrown coffee also became the rage to those who could afford it. the fact that the plant took five years to bear fruit made having a indoor coffee orchard a dangerous enterprise with a long payoff. Prop 6 had made it a bit less dangerous to grow one or two for "personal use" but profitable indoor farms were still at risk for being raided.

In Hawaii, it was a bit different. Since many of the islands had the perfect climate for coffee, many residents would grow them in the yard. the US government also maintained several "research farms on the islands of Hawaii, Maui, and Lanai. These government coffee farms were kept under tight security, and many online conspiracy theorists claimed that the coffee that was grown was being in the manufacturing of the drug "dirt". In reality, the coffee was quietly packaged and shipped to Cuba in exchange for enough cigars to keep the fat cats happy.

Ok, enough weirdness for today

see you next time folks

The full pound

What is the point of having a roaster that can burn a whole LB and then roasting only 8 oz? That is what I said to myself as I dumped a whole bag of Kenya AA Nyeri Nidaro into my drum, slotted into my roaster and cooked it up. I left the setting on P1 figuring that this high grown African Coffee would do better with a straight up roast as opposed to a gradual build up of heat that the ever popular P3 gives.

I had the timer set for 20:30 and let the one pound baby cook as I played a little Mario Galaxy on my Wii (with the sound turned down so I can keep my ears on the roast). The first crack came 15:30 into the roast prompting me to put down my Wii-mote and watch it further. Three minutes later the smell changed and another minutes passed before I heard a low turned rumble that kinda of sounded like a big man's burp. It was a deep bass like crack as opposed to the popcorn like cadence of the first cracks.

"this must be the second crack" I told myself and set my finger on the cool button which I then hit a few seconds later. The beans came out a nice uniform dark brown and smelt great. I immediately stored them in a Food Saver Steamer bag since it was the only thing I had that could hold the 13.6 oz's of beans i just produced. Having some Maui Red Catui to drink, I let this baby sit for a few day before cracking opening the bag. The coffee was great, especially out of the Chemex. It had that nice Kenyan acidity, but was a little more toned down than others. I transferred it to a degassing bag and savored it throughout the week.

Since I bought these beans a month ago, Sweet Maria's is completely wiped out of it. My loss I guess because this was a great coffee I would have loved to add to my stash. Now that this bean is off the map, I kind of regret roasting up the full pound, but Ca Sera Sera to that.

folgers 2.0 or VIA Brew Challenged

just like folgers

So Yeah, i took the Starbucks VIA brew challenge and ended up sorely disappointing the challengers by correctly guessing which one was the crap and which one was the coffee.

So okay, the stuff is a step up from folgers fucking crystals, but it still has that bitter, bland aftertaste that comes with coffee crystals. I wonder what The Starbucks pretended to do to get this primo swill to taste a little better? More research on my part will be needed to find out. I will make a note to google it later and then come back and let you know.