Berries to Brew.

Let us first wish you Happy New Year!  We hope that 2013 is a year in which you seek growth and pursue a path towards joy.  Now, onward to coffee talk.....

A few posts back I introduced the concept of single origin coffees.  To quickly recap, single origin means that all of the beans in your cup of coffee were grown in the same region of said country.  Some single origins are of another class and were all grown on the same farm and this is a more rare find.  But, typically, the beans come from coops or collectives that serve as a meeting place for the smaller farms to pool their harvests. 

I am a bit of a single origin snob.  I like knowing the origin of consumables.  Sometimes I think about the location from which the beans came from while I drink.  I attempt to notice the nuances of beans from different countries; there are attributes that different countries produce in coffee berries.  Lately, I've been more aware of the different types of "buzz" I get from the varying countries.  Do you every notice these things?  Lets talk.

If you want to start paying attention to 'single origin' we always have one on tap.  It's the medium/lite roast.  Anodyne, our roaster out of Bay View, is quickly becoming well known for their ability to prepare single origins.  They focus on the roasting exclusively.  Anywho, they're developing methods(temperature and time) which cook the bean in such a way that the flavor profile is best displayed.  Lighter roasting time puts on a better show from my observations. I'd love to know your opinions....please share!

I wanted to share a couple of interesting facts about coffee (beyond my obsession with single origin!).  Coffee is usually grown near the equator; between the tropic of cancer and the tropic of capricorn.  You can probably deduce that the reason for this is the balmy nature of these locations.  The coffee plant requires consistant warmth to produce the delicious berries that travel from afar to wake us up in the morning.  So, unless global warming really changes our climate, we won't be seeing coffee grown in Wisco anytime soon.    

Last fact:  coffee beans are sometimes referred to as coffee berries.  A coffee bean goes through MANY processes before it greets our cup in liquid form.  The plant actually produces a fruit commonly called the berry or cherry.  It even sorta resembles the cherries we're most familiar with.  Inside these little, red globes are 2 coffee beans, sometimes there's only 1 bean and this is called a peaberry.  There are 3 layers removed from around the "beans" before they'll even look remotely close to what we visualize as a coffee bean.  After, the silver skin, the parchment, and the pulp have been removed, we now have a GREEN coffee bean.  Again, this piece will undergo another series of processes involving cleaning and drying.  We'll stop here for now, I don't wanna bore anyone.  Just be assured, the beans we're brewing are selected using this knowledge and more! 

Happy New Year Friends!  Lots of Love.  Please, drink good coffee and be well.