I recently went on a coffee origin trip in Kona, Hawaii, accompanying –and following the adventures of- London Canada’s Fire Roasted Coffee, owner David Cook and manager Patrick Dunham.  The trip was to learn from David and Patrick’s process of meeting with coffee farmers, and forming long-term relationships with them.  On a side note, we were also on a fact-finding mission regarding the malicious borer beetle that has been eating half of Kona’s vaunted coffee crops.

Read: Touchdown in Kona Hawaii
Read: What is Decimating Coffee Crops in Kona?

     One of our first stops was to Greenwell Farms in Kona.  The Greenwells have been growing coffee in Kona since moving there from England in 1850.  It is now a third-generation family-owned business, today in the heart of the Kona growing region.   The family’s farming practices have been modernized, but on the same farmland that was first cultivated in the 1800s.  Their scale also allows them to buy coffee cherry from other farmers in the area, which they pulp, dry, store, and roast, all on-site.

The three of us went on a tour of the farming and processing.  The images above show the progression of coffee growing from initial stumps to trees carrying the coffee cherry.  At the time of our tour, the cherries were nowhere near being ready for picking, obvious by their bright green color in the far right image above. 

     Coffee cherries ripen to a dark red before they are ready to be picked.  The coffee beans that we know are the seeds of this coffee cherry, and there are two such beans per cherry.  I had learned much of this growing process on my last trip to Kona, and it is fascinating to see in person.  It tends to change your whole appreciation for the coffee in your cup.

Read: Profile Ueshida Coffee Corp

 In the above image, Lola is the “groundskeeper” dog.  The Greenwells are hunters, and their companion dogs have a great “retirement home” full of space and friendly people like us to play with them.  In this image, he is rooting around in the coffee trees, possibly looking for borer beetles!

Further in the process is where the coffee beans are dried.  The beans have been separated from the cherry, and from the mucilage that encases them.  From there, they are evenly spread out as you see above to dry in the sun, before they are warehoused.

     Accompanying Fire Roasted Coffee on this trip was a great experience, not just for myself but for the tour guide and other patrons.  In this image, the tour has turned to David Cook to walk us through the roasting process with the beans after they’ve been shipped from the farm to roasteries all over the world.  Having followed the growing process through, it was very cool for David to explain this last step that local roasters carry out in their communities with beans from farms like these. 

     Finally, David and Patrick wanted to learn more about Greenwell’s own roasting practices for the retail and wholesale coffee that they sell locally.  We were given access to the roasting operation where David and Patrick could compare notes with Greenwell’s roasters, both on properly roasting their specific beans and on the equipment that they use.

     Like a kid in a candy store, I could have bought every coffee they sold.  They had samples of nine varieties of their coffee, including roasted to different degree, in one case flavored, and as you can see by the one I selected, the peaberry variety of coffee bean that I love so much.  It didn’t survive the trip home – David, Patrick, and I made short work of it in our remaining time in Hawaii.

I strongly recommend that you try Greenwell’s coffee.  You can order it by visiting their website.  While locals tend to prefer their coffee roasted dark, my personal preference and the rest of us off the island, it seems, is a medium roast.  If you’re looking for suggestions of what coffee to buy from their site, I suggest either the medium roast or peaberry coffee, both excellent.  You will be very happy with either one.

     I recently went on a coffee origin trip in Kona, Hawaii, accompanying –and following the adventures of- London Canada’s Fire Roasted Coffee, owner David Cook and manager Patrick Dunham.  The trip was to learn from David and Patrick’s process of meeting with coffee farmers and forming long-term relationships to roast their coffee in Canada.  On a side note, we were also on a fact-finding mission regarding the malicious borer beetle that has been eating half of Kona’s vaunted coffee crops.

Read: Touchdown in Kona Hawaii

I met Dave and Pat several years ago, when I decided it was time to upgrade my coffee.   I had already decided how much better the coffee is when you stop buying it pre-ground in a giant tin can from the grocery store.  However, the only better coffee I knew was the charred whole bean coffee by the pound from Starbucks locations.  One day, I was shopping in a market that is a vendor of Fire Roasted’s coffee, and saw their stand, inviting people to visit their roastery in person.

Read: Profile Fire Roasted Coffee Company

     Dave Cook is a world traveler, visiting coffee and cacao farms all over the world to stay in touch with the source of his product.  Dave has a culinary background, and after having heard him speak with farmers, clearly a deep appreciation for growing practices and the communities he visits.  One of the first things he shared with me when I first met him was his sympathy for the coffee farmer, the worse off in the supply chain while we all enjoy their product.  Fire Roasted Coffee has been an advocate of Fair Trade and Organic coffee to support the communities that grow coffee, and raise awareness of poverty there.

     For me, there was no substitute for this experience.  I was already familiar with the standard of quality from Fire Roasted, but to hear Dave and Pat talk shop with the coffee farmers themselves made me realize the importance of quality throughout the supply chain, not just when the green unroasted beans arrive in London.

Kona is full of small coffee farms.  In fact, almost 700 of them are on less than three hectares of land.  While we talked coffee with one of the local farmers, a sight like these two donkeys getting frisky with each other wasn’t uncommon.  Get a room, donkeys!

     I also got to live like a world traveler.  Here’s a picture of me on Day 4.  To quote Patrick, “That’s what I love about the coffee business, I don’t have to shower as much.”  Here, you can see that I was sleeping on the right side of my head, likely very shortly before taking this self-portrait that I don’t quite remember taking.

     With Kona’s reputation for quality coffee, it’s no surprise that there are cafes everywhere, serving “100% Kona coffee”.  If you ever visit Kona, I suggest looking for the less obvious and less trendy looking cafes.  They may all be advertising the same coffee, but coffee is a perishable product whose flavor and freshness depends on care.

      We learned that lesson from the café below.  They may be serving a quality coffee to their retail customers, but we learned differently when Pat bought a pound of their coffee to bring back to our apartment for the week.  The bag advertised “100% estate-grown Kona coffee”.  Both parts of that tagline are true, it is from beans 100% grown in Kona, and use of “estate” is vague so that if a land can grow coffee, it is an estate.  And behind this fancy marketing was a burnt, stale coffee that we made once in the apartment, before throwing the rest out.

An excellent lesson.  Sometimes, all the right words can be used, and it still doesn’t mean quality.

An amazing experience for me as a coffee enthusiast.  To watch the process from the beginning has given me an even greater appreciation for the steps that go into a quality cup of coffee.  Any weak link in the chain will impact the flavor in your cup.  If you are visiting a country of the world that grows coffee, I suggest going on a farm tour, and gaining that appreciation for yourself.

   I recently had the opportunity to join Fire Roasted Coffee’s owner David Cook and manager Patrick Dunham on a coffee origin trip of Kona, Hawaii.  Both were in my city of Portland, Oregon for the industry’s largest trade show and were flying to Hawaii from Portland when the show ended.  How could I not jump on that opportunity?

Read: Touchdown in Kona Hawaii

Kona produces one of the world’s most vaunted coffees, costing roughly triple what other coffees cost.  Fire Roasted already sells Kona coffee, but had two goals on this trip: first, to make direct contact with farmers in the area, and two, to learn more of the borer beetle that is decimating Kona’s coffee crops.  The borer beetle was news to me, but as a coffee enthusiast (read: snob), I was blown away by what I learned.  The beetle snuck onto crops across Kona undetected, actually mistaken as a harmless twig beetle.  The result: half of Kona’s coffee crops have been destroyed with an impact of approximately $20 million on the local economy.

   Our first stop was at Greenwell Farms, a third-generation coffee farm and one of the oldest on the island.  If Kona coffee has a global reputation for quality, this is one family that has had an undeniable influence.

   David and Patrick wanted to know how they could make arrangements to source green unroasted coffee beans from Greenwell.  The answer was sobering: it would be March of 2013 before this farm, one of the largest in Hawaii, would have any green beans that they could supply.  After satisfying local obligations as well as contracts already in place with other companies, there was simply no other coffee to sell.  The borer beetle has hit all farms in the area, and the impact to one of this size is huge for the market.

   From there, we got up to speed on this major threat, courtesy of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association and the College of Tropical Agriculture.  The Coffee Berry Borer lives on surface of coffee cherry.  

When the cherry matures and hardens, the beetle drills its way into the cherry, destroying it from within, and destroying farmers’ crops.  The two organizations are collaborating to provide instruction on how to protect crops from this threat, and promote field sanitation.

   We moved on to Mountain Thunder, another Kona farmer that David and Patrick wanted to meet.  The answers there were no less inspiring.  Like all farmers, they too had been badly hit.  One of the family that runs this farm even broke open a coffee cherry for us, so we could see the tiny borer beetle that had destroyed it.  The beetle was almost literally as small as the head of a pin.

   What does it all mean, and why should you be interested?  If half of Kona’s capacity for coffee is not making it out of Kona, and since Kona is such a vaunted name in coffee, there are a number of repercussions.

   First, “Kona blends”.  Since everybody wants Kona but so many shop on price alone, if ever you see Kona advertised as anything other than “100% Kona”, don’t get too excited.  It’s vague and for all I can tell, means there’s at least one Kona bean mixed in with who knows what else.  This is how Jack in the Box can sell a Kona Blend coffee.  Don’t be fooled.  As the reduced supply of Kona coffee drives up prices to unreasonable levels, expect even more “Kona blend” coffees and expect them to get even worse as the actual Kona content decreases.

Second, if you want Kona in the next year, be prepared to pay for it.  It’s supply and demand, and supply has been rocked.

   Third, trust in your local roaster to be providing you with real Kona coffee.  I expect imitators will flood the market as they did for equally-priced Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee.  The difference however is that to a large extent from lack of control, Jamaica allowed such imitation to happen.  The state of Hawaii takes its reputation for coffee seriously, so it will be difficult for imitators to pull the wool over our eyes, at least in the long run.

     I was on a coffee origin trip with my former roaster, London Canada’s Fire Roasted Coffee Company.  Owner David Cook and manager Patrick Dunham were in Portland for the year’s largest coffee industry trade show, and the three of us flew to Kona, Hawaii from there.

Read: Touchdown in Kona Hawaii

David is also the owner of Habitual Roasters, a chocolate roaster in London, bringing the same awareness of quality and experience to chocolate as he does to coffee.  David wanted to find a source for cacao beans while in the area.  He explained to me that it’s rare to find regions suited to grow both coffee and cacao, and that Hawaii was one of them.

 The biggest secret in chocolate is not how they get caramel in Caramilk bars, it’s that there is great complexity and grade of quality in chocolate, just as there is in coffee or wine.  Different regions of the world produce cacao of varying taste, and David processes and roasts cacao to bring people bars of chocolate sourced from different parts of the world.  To date, David does not have a Hawaiian chocolate bar, nor do any other chocolate craftspeople in the area.  He wanted to bring something new to London. 

David had learned of a small farmer on Hawaii’s Big Island that was growing cacao.  His name was Sharkman.  On our second night there, David made contact with him and set up a meeting to tour his farm and learn more about his farming practices.

“Is his name really Sharkman?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but he insisted that I call him that.” Dave answered.  How could this not be interesting?

From our rental in Kona, we would be driving virtually the entire Big Island to get to Sharkman’s farm and back. 

The Big Island boasts of an unusual number of individual climates over one land mass.  As you can see, we drove through distinct three weather patterns in less than three hours.  The weather and landscape changed as quickly as it changes in these images. 

As we approached, I became the co-pilot.  With Patrick in the back seat with our map, and David driving the car, I manned the phone and took directions from the Sharkman himself.

 “Hi there!” Sharkman bellowed over the phone.

 “Is this the Sharkman?” I asked.

 “Yes it is!” Sharkman answered with enthusiasm.

 “Is that what I should call you?”  Yes, I thought it was pretty cool just to say we were going to meet somebody named Sharkman. 

 Sharkman proceeded to give me directions that even a local would have had to write down.  I scribbled them down furiously, occasionally shouting out random city, river, or street names, looking for confirmation from Patrick in the back seat that he could see any of these places on the map.

This was old hat for David.  David has been on coffee origin trips to Latin America, and assured us that you rarely find a farm without getting lost along the way.  We didn’t get lost too badly.  Deep into farming territory, we realized we were on the wrong road and had to turn around.  Sharkman had said he would leave a white lawnchair on the street in front of his property so we wouldn’t miss it.

We passed this cute future café along the way.  Sharkman is renovating it to feature the coffee and chocolate that he grows on his own farm.  Customers at that café will be treated to product as fresh as it comes.  Farm fresh.  The future café was on the way to his farm, so Sharkman asked us to stop there and throw some energy at it.

We eventually found the white lawnchair, and Sharkman’s farm. 

 His name is Thomas “Sharkman” Sharkie.  I asked him to pose for this picture, I really liked his “Happiness is a cup of coffee” shirt.  On his small farm, he grows coffee, cacao, and small amounts of other produce, some of it unique to Hawaii’s growing conditions.  He roasts and processes both coffee and cacao on-site, selling it locally as Hilo Shark’s Coffee and Hilo Shark’s Chocolate.

 Sharkman took us on a tour of his farm.  It was important for David to understand what exactly he would be buying, and farming and processing practices were essential to David’s decision.  With his knowledge of how cacao is supposed to be grown and handled, there were specific things that David needed to see, hear, and understand from Sharkman.

From cacao pod to the drying process to the roasting to forming the bar itself.  I will never look at chocolate the same way again.  It was an incredible experience.  Sharkman had us each try fresh soft chocolate made from the cacao trees we were just looking at.  You don’t find chocolate like this at 7-Eleven.

From coffee cherry, to the green bean inside it, to the roasting, to grinding and brewing a cup.  We also sampled some delicious coffee, in case David had an eye towards one day sourcing this from Sharkman as well.

 Have you ever seen on the Simpsons when Homer is easily distracted by the dog with the fluffy tail?  Well, I’m like that for dogs in general, regardless of their tail.  Sharkman’s dog Lola accompanied us on our tour, and I was side-tracked playing with her.

Just as interesting as any other part of the experience, was how the meeting ended.  Many business owners feel that brow-beating their suppliers is part of regular business.  David and Sharkman ended on a different note altogether.  Once the tour was over and all questions were answered, David shared his company’s vision with Sharkman, who was as interested to hear about David’s business as he was committed to providing him with a consistent quality product.  When it was over, the two men hugged and agreed to a long-term partnership.  No agreements were signed, and there wasn’t a single dispute about price.  Sharkman will bring the cacao into the world.  David will raise awareness in his market of just how special and unique it is.  One is buying from the other, but the two formed a business partnership that day.

Sage advice from the Sharkman…

   Today, we touched down in Kona, Hawai’i.  I’m here with my old friends from London, Canada’s Fire Roasted Coffee Company, owner Dave Cook and head roaster Patrick Dunham. 

Read: My posts on Fire Roasted Coffee Company

It’s great how this all came together.  I live in Portland, Oregon which this year hosted the Specialty Coffee Association of America‘s 2012 industry trade show that Dave and Pat were attending.  Since they planned to fly here in Hawai’i when the show ended so that they could meet with coffee growers in the area, I jumped at the chance to join them.

   There is great coffee available throughout Hawai’i, but coffee from the Kona Districts is often the most lauded.  A blend made up of 100% Kona beans can fetch a price triple what other more standard coffees cost.  Unfortunately for the area and its reputation, the laws here in Hawai’i that dictate how the area is referenced on labels and menus don’t apply to the Mainland.  And that’s why Jack in the Box can sell something called a Kona Blend, that is a disservice to this area.

There are over 600 farms in Kona, and this week, I will have the chance to visit at least a couple with Dave and Pat.  They will be assessing whether they want to carry that particular farm’s product, and I’ll be along for the ride to drink great coffee, enjoy this beautiful part of the world, and learn more about the source of coffee.  It is the second time that I visit this area, and was fortunate last time to get a tour of one of the Kona farms.

Read: Profile Ueshida Coffee Corp (Hawaii)

 The reason that Kona coffee is one of the most expensive in the world owes to the growing conditions of the area.  On the slopes of Hawai’i's Big Island is a mineral-rich volcanic soil, and high elevation.  One of the first things I ever remember reading about Kona coffee is that weather conditions are consistent on an almost daily basis.  Sunny mornings, cloud cover with possible rain in the afternoon, and mild nights are almost like clockwork to produce a consistently strong quality.

I am looking forward to this learning experience.  The chance for me to learn from Dave and Pat, as they learn from growers in the area, will give me an even greater appreciation for coffee, and everything that goes into its quality.

  It’s been a big year for Sacramento’s Old Soul Roastery and Bakery since I first met co-owner Jason Griest.  I happened to be in Sacramento for the day, and stopped in to pay a visit.  As will quickly become our Sacramento tradition, we met at Benny’s on Q Street, this time to watch Jason’s Pittsburgh Penguins play Game One of their series with Philadelphia.  But not before I stopped at Old Soul’s original L Street back alley location where Jason and I first met, to pick up some coffee to bring home.

Read: Profile Sacramento’s Old Soul Roastery and Bakery

When Jason and I first met, he told me the company’s origin as a bakery that happened to make great coffee for themselves, and that attracted local residents and workers on break.  Coffee became a natural fit.  In the company’s five years in roasting, they had even been approached by the mayor of Sacramento to open another location in a failed and closed Starbucks outlet.  This is now a very successful Old Soul location, and one where I stopped on a recent trip to the city where Jason and I didn’t have time to meet, but I wanted some good coffee to bring home.

Since then, Old Soul has even opened in the Sacramento International Airport.  While not the only game in town, Old Soul is the biggest and in many respects a pioneer of specialty coffee in the city.  In the last year, an employee of Old Soul‘s broke off on his own.  Jason doesn’t mind the competition, since it raises local awareness of specialty coffee as a whole.

Jason and I talked about his recent cupping experiences, where roasters get together and sample new coffees that have not yet been imported in bulk.  This is the opportunity for a roaster to decide if any of the coffees being cupped will be carried by them and offered to their customer.

When I stopped at Old Soul, I bought a pound of Papua New Guinea Peaberry.  I love Peaberry coffee, and I’m looking forward to making short work of this coffee at home.  I didn’t realize that Jason had brought a pound of Rare Reserve Ethiopian Beloya to Benny’s for me, and maybe best of all, a sample of Washed Bourbon Brazil that has not yet been sold in the US.

 An excellent night…well, except that Jason’s Penguins lost in overtime.  He had to pace for a bit, and may have punched something in the restroom, but it all ended on a happy note.  We agreed not to take so long to get together again.  Jason Griest is another example of today’s coffee entrepreneur…serious about his community, serious about quality, laid back on life.

Visit Old Soul online.

One of my coaches and mentors recently returned from a trip to Mexico with his family.  When he returned, all tanned and disgusting for us rainy Portlanders to look at, he told me about a coffee stop he had made across the way.  The roaster’s name was Baja Beans Roasting Company, located in Pescadero, Baha.

He told me a few things about them that intrigued me right away, and were familiar with other roasters I’ve met in my travels.  First, that all of the coffee they sold was locally grown, so I could only imagine from direct relationships with farmers of choice, and at a price that supports the community.  Second, that they organized local fun events, and that their very location was a form of community center.  And last, that they were Canadians which means they’re good people (yes, I am Canadian ).

I had to learn more.

I could tell the latter was true simply by visiting their website and seeing the upcoming community Ping Pong tournament that they were organizing.  When I contacted them directly to learn more, owner Alec Tidey was all too happy to share of their cause and story with me.

Traveling from Vancouver, Canada to Pescadero, Mexico, they were helped by Vancouver’s Cowboy Coffee in establishing a roastery in Mexico.  Their mission was simple: feature the best coffees of each of the premier growing regions of Mexico.  They learned Spanish, practiced the coffee craft until perfect, and got to work.

Their first tour of a farm was in the hills of the Sierra Norte, and involved two days of touring the plantation and processing plants.  They were drawn by the family structure of the farm and environmentally sustainable practices, far in excess of the standards required by the seal on their coffee.  This is the same Arabica coffee that Baja Beans serves today.  Expertly roasted and brewed.  Supporting the local community.  Emphasis on quality.

As far as social events, they have enough “stage space” for bands to perform for tourists and locals while enjoying great coffee.  I hope to see it for myself one day.  With beans grown locally and roasted professionally on-site, they travel a very short distance before they end up in your cup, and that kind of freshness is going to make for an amazing cup of coffee.

“Let’s make a toast to the roast.” – Ben and the Men (house band)

Learn more about Baja Beans.  Or, visit this short promotional video.

I’ve said it before, but every Christmas, family members tell me that I’m difficult to buy for, and every year, they get me amazing gifts.  This year, my brother did his research and identified a quality coffee roaster in Portland, Oregon, and got me a gift certificate there.  This week, I paid a visit to Jeremy Adams, owner of Cellar Door Coffee.

When I arrived, my attention went straight to Cellar Door‘s stock of coffee gear, and the Aeropress I’ve heard so much about but still didn’t own.  Despite it coming with directions, Jeremy was good enough to walk me through the process, taking time to talk through the uniqueness and benefits of this method of brewing coffee.  He had some fresh coffee from Bali, Indonesia, and made me a few sips so that I could decide on this brewing method for myself before buying the gear. 

A unique coffee to begin with.  Freshly roasted.  Specially brewed.  We were off to a good start.  I committed to buy the Aeropress.

I’ll write on the Aeropress in a future post, after I’ve had a chance to play with it, and use both methods that Jeremy walked me through.

Cellar Door Coffee has two roasting machines, a small one in their front retail area, with proper ventilation out above the front of the store, and a large roaster in the basement.  The small roaster upstairs allows Jeremy to roast a half-pound to a pound at a time when sampling a new coffee, and before committing to a larger quantity of it as something that will be offered to customers.  I’ve come to appreciate the finicky nature of good coffee roasters.  It has to pass the test before it’s offered to you.

The large roaster and packaging operation in the basement consists of three employees, filling demand for wholesale accounts in the area and for regular retail customers.  Jeremy started this five years ago as a home-based business, winning wholesale accounts and developing a presence at farmers’ markets with a quality coffee.  It sounded very familiar to my old friend Dave Cook‘s story at Fire Roasted Coffee Company.  A year later, Jeremy moved into the shop he manages today. 

Part of Jeremy’s tour included introducing me to the flameless afterburner that he built, coupled to his roaster, as a method of reducing pollution for his neighbors.  I’ve found this common theme of respect for community in most of the coffee roasters I’ve met to date.  Click the image to get Jeremy’s full tour from a previous YouTube video.  In it, Jeremy does much better justice to the science and benefit of it, than I can here.  In short, this releases less particulates into the air, and uses less natural gas to break down the by-product of roasting coffee.

There are a couple other traits I’m finding in coffee roasters.  The first is that while they are intent on raising awareness of social issues related to their craft, they are also quite modest about their own achievements.  Jeremy didn’t notice me taking notes from a Certificate of Appreciation hanging in the packaging area, made out to Cellar Door Coffee from Mercy Corps, a community-building not-for-profit that combats suffering, poverty, and oppression.

The second trait is how approachable I’m finding almost any roaster I meet.  Not only did Jeremy sit down with me after the tour for as long as I had time, but regular customers all knew him personally.  A regular customer named Andy even helped me select the coffee I went home with – a medium-roasted Guatemalan coffee.  Andy even made sure I knew how to operate the Aeropress I had in hand.

Another amazing encounter with a craftsperson of this business.  Another amazing gift from a family member.  Thank you, Jeremy and brother Jacques for making these arrangements behind my back.

  At a coffee tasting at London, Canada’s Fire Roasted Coffee Company, head roaster Patrick Dunham introduced me to a boxed set of individual coffee essences known as Le Nez De Cafe, or translated from French, the “smell of coffee”.

Read: The 36 Tastes of Coffee

I know I love coffee, but I don’t always know how to describe it.  There are so many unique flavor characteristics of coffee, Le Nez de Cafe is meant to isolate them so that you can experience each one in an overpowering way.  This boxed set captures each of these essenses in a small vial.

One day, I’ll probably invest in it, but since it can cost up to $400, I decided to invest instead in a “starter kit” that the same company has devised for wine flavors, known as Le Nez Du Vin.

  As you see in the image, this condensed version of the larger Nez Du Vin includes six of the 54 flavor essences of wine.  The thinking is that as you become familiar with each one on its own, you can begin to pick up on that flavor accent in the wine that you drink.  The six that came in this set are:

#2: Grapefruit
#10: Pear
#13: Raspberry
#15: Blackcurrant
#39: Violet
#48: Toast

The manual that comes with the set explains more on the ability and potential of the sense of smell, as well as how to train it to pick up flavor accents.  It also includes some light science on our sense of olfactory, and how through practice, you can build up an olfactory “memory” of individual flavor essences detected only by the sense of smell.  With this new memory, you begin to detect the essences in the wine you drink, giving you a foundation to identify them, and also identify the extent of their quality.

Wine and coffee are very similar for their complex variety of flavors and accents.  I will practice identifying wine flavors with this kit, and see how it translates to actual wine-tasting.  I’m confident this will, if nothing else, be a fun experiment, after which I will likely shell out the $400 for the full-size Nez de Cafe. 

Worst case scenario: I end up drinking a bunch of wine!

A year ago, I interviewed Bill Barrett of Planet Bean Coffee in Guelph, Ontario. 

We spent a lot of time discussing all of the care that Planet Bean puts into sourcing and roasting its coffee to perfection.  But naturally, they can’t follow you home into your kitchen and make sure that you are taking full advantage by properly preparing the coffee for yourself.

Read: Profile Planet Bean Coffee

So I asked Bill, after a customer buys properly roasted coffee and brings it home, what next?  What should a person keep in mind in order to make the best coffee they can?  Bill gave me four pieces of advice.

1) Enjoy it soon.  Don’t overbuy.  Make buying coffee a part of your weekly ritual.  Coffee begins to expire slowly but surely from the point that it’s roasted.  If you’re drinking coffee that was roasted many weeks earlier, it’s not fresh.  Since coffee is often sold by the pound, if it takes you two weeks to go through that much, then buy it every two weeks.  But, don’t buy more than you will go through in two weeks.

2) Keep coffee out of your fridge and freezer.  Since coffee is perishable, many people make the mistake of assuming that it should be refridgerated or frozen when it’s not used.  Bad idea.  Coffee absorbs the odors of everything around it, and your fridge and freezer are full of all kinds of things.  Besides, the dramatic temperature change of going from room temperature to freezing and back to room temperature will sap freshness -and flavor- from the coffee.

• Read: Coffee Beans in the Fish Truck

3) There is no law on the ratio of coffee to water.  Experiment.  Play around with it.  Find your own preference of how much coffee to use.  But if anything, take note.  Once you find your perfect ratio of coffee to water, you’ll want to remember it for future servings.

4) No milk or sugar.  Good coffee doesn’t need it.  As somebody who only ever drank coffee with two creams and two sugars, it was a challenge for me to ever give it up.  Now, I can’t drink coffee any way but black.

• Read: Try Drinking Your Coffee Black