Rising Star Coffee Workshop

Last Saturday, I was lucky enough to have a spot in a coffee workshop held at The Brew Mentor. I had long been awaiting this moment - for about 5 weeks to be exact. I had a countdown on my calendar and every night before I went to bed I would tell Mike how many days left until the day. Some people say "I love you", my night time ritual went more like this: "Ahhh 17 more days until our coffee workshop! I'm so excited, I'm so excited, I'm so excited!" Poor Mike.

Our spoils from the day. 1/2 pound of each green coffee bean they had to offer!

So the day finally came and off we went to learn for the best, Rising Star of course! The owner, Kim Jenkins, was there to go over any and all things that related to getting to know coffee on a more intimate level. He described his trips to the coffee farms all over the world, where they sourced their coffee from, and the amount of care and specifics that go into choosing a coffee that fit their needs. No wonder the stuff is so damn good.

Here are all the different beans. Each on has a different size, shape, and smell - so much discovering to be done!

See! Look at the tiny Ethiopian Yirgacheffe beans on the far left...and then check out the size of the Panamanian ones in the upper center. Whoa.

There was tons that I learned in the 2 hour session, but I put together the top 3 things that can change your home coffee experience. Now sit patiently while I tell you.

Darwin's ready! Gosh he's handsome.

1. Your grinder matters.
       A good grinder is key to a good cup of coffee. Your grinder gives your coffee grounds their unique particle size, and consistency is what you want. A mill grinder chops the beans with a spinning blade, and just can't produce the consistency needed for extraction (pour overs, drip coffee, etc). A burr grinder has two metal plates that grind the coffee, the blades can move closer or farther depending on the size of grind you want, and it excels at a uniform grind.

Here is a semi-exaggerated visual on the difference the two: A mill grinder = dropping a hershey's chocolate bar on the ground and looking at the pieces, a burr grinder = breaking the little individual squares of a hershey's chocolate bar and looking at the pieces. Which will be more consistent? Burr grinder for the win! 

As I was whispering to Mike that we needed to buy the burr grinder immediately, he whispered back "beat ya to it" and showed me the checkout screen at amazon. Love that man. He picked the one they were using, the Baratza Encore Burr Grinder.

What a beaut'. . You set the grind by turning the top so the plastic notch aligns with a tick mark (you can see ours is set to 20 if you look real close). The higher the number, the larger the grind.

The inside of the grinder - looks smashing! Hah, pun.

And here you can see how it works; the blades will spin and the beans fall in, and then they are crushed to the indicated size.

And you only have to worry about an on and off switch, couldn't get much easier!

2. Roasting at home can be as easy as turning on an air popcorn popper.
    Literally. That's it! The general criteria is you want a air popcorn popper that has air vents in the base. The vents will shoot hot air out and push the beans around. High heat and constant movement are how you get roasted coffee. The amount of heat your air popcorn popped puts out will matter, which Mike and I found out after a few failed attempts. The one I have here is not one I would recommend because we had multiple failed attempts. But we found a better one the other day that has worked - called the Nostalgia. We found it at a Big Lots for $20...not too shabby!

Here is the first air popcorn popper we tried, the Salton. I wouldn't recommend it, we haven't been able to get anything to roast in this one. We think it doesn't get hot enough, because we never can reach first crack in it.

What you want to look for are those little vents near the bottom. The vents push the hot air out and help the beans spin, which help them roast evenly. Each air popcorn popper will be different, so definitely open it up before you buy it!

3. You are the biggest variable in every cup of coffee.
    Yep, you read that right. How are you feeling? When did you brush your teeth? What toothpaste did you use? What did you do last night? And so on. All of these things will make your cup of coffee taste different, so cut yourself some slack when roasting. You can make it as simple or as scientifically focused as you want, but just keep in mind that there are endless variables that can be altered, and it's supposed to be fun! Find what taste you like best and stay true to that! It's not worth it if you don't enjoy it :).


Here's the grinder in action!

 

And the final result looks like this! Evenly ground coffee, at last!