Whew! We’ve all made it to Friday. Somehow this week seemed packed full and careening along at top speed, although I do know that time passes at the same rate every day. Next week is spring break for the schools around here, so we will be heading out of town. If you own a small business, or work for yourself, you probably know about the phenomenon of working twice as hard the week before a trip to get everything done, and then twice as hard the week after to catch up. And all this even though we have great employees who take care of everything!
The reward is taking a week off with no agenda. When we go on vacation, we don’t do much. There will be good food consumed, and lazy late mornings. I will read books to the kids before bed and sip good coffee while enjoying a new view. We’re staying at a place within sight of the ocean, so I’m looking forward to playing in the sand and investigating tide pools with my two young explorers.
A dark roast cooling.
We’re not leaving until next week, and we’ll even be at work Monday, but we’ve already taken home coffee to bring with us. The important things shall not be left behind! This week’s coffee of the week is our Extra Bold Sumatra, and we’ve got a pound to go. This Sumatra came up in our broker’s newsletter last month: she said “we have never had a finer cup.” It’s quite a statement from someone who cups coffee every day of the week. You can read the rest of the newsletter here.
Trace pulled this coffee before the second crack. I realized recently that many of you may not know to what I am referring when I talk about the “crack” of the coffee roasting process. I asked Trace to give a lesson, so here’s how he describes it, in his own words: “The seam in the coffee bean has two sides. Between 385 to 400 Fahrenheit, one side cracks open. At about 435 degrees, the other side cracks open. Then around 455 degrees, the second crack is completely done. There is a literal popping sound as this occurs, almost like corn popping. During this process the oils are being released from the coffee and the sugars are
caramelizing.”
To give you a sense of how fasts these changes take place, an entire roast of coffee on our Diedrich roaster only takes around a half hour. The difference between a light roast and a dark is a few minutes. We roast in our store every weekday morning, so feel free to come check it out anytime. While you’re here, you can try a cup of our Extra Bold Sumatra by using the code in red above (it’s second crack). This is not a dark roast (which would be second crack or beyond), but it is certainly full of flavor. It has a great full-bodied, earthy taste.
Isn’t that beautiful? –Holly Fike