Eight Pounds
Aug. 27th, 2022 04:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coffeedaivLast week, I learned that Seattle Coffee Works got bought by Victrola coffee. AND, to pile disaster on tragedy, they no longer sell Green Coffee.
So, after an appropriate temper tantrum and period of mourning, I visited Sweet Maria’s coffee website. Among other things, they offer a subscription service. Every 1 or 2 months, they will send 4 or 8 pounds of coffee (those two factors being individually configurable). These are beans that are not otherwise available, being samples from roasters, or going out of stock, or just cause. I decided, for a start, to get 8 pounds, every two months. Minimize shipping and all that.
Side note. In the meantime, I bought a growler of cold brew coffee from Analog (aka, downstairs) to get me through the week. It was pretty good, but. I was NOT prepared for how strong the coffee was. Not just the darkness of the roast (and it may not have been all that dark, i just reacted to it (with headache and general grumpiness) as though that were the case. Over the course of a couple days, I figured out how much to dilute it.
A lot, in a nutshell. And even then, i was Jittery AF, for several days this week. So, now I know. Back to the regularly scheduled irregular scheduling.
Today, I got my first shipment. 8 pounds from all over the world. What to roast first? The only way to decide was to do what anyone in my situation would do; I rolled a d8. It came up Brazil. Brazil Minas Fazenda Verdas, to be exact. I roasted 2 100g batches to a medium roast, and I will partake of the beany goodness tomorrow morning.
And it occurred to me, this could be a youtube channel. I mean, figuring out how to best roast each batch could be an adventure worth having. And then, figuring out how to best prepare it (drip v. French press v. Chemex v moka pot v ?). And, of course, the grind issue. if nothing else, such a project would give me an excuse to buy a bunch of coffee geek stuff (I already have a properly geeky roaster, but it doesn’t have precise temperature controls, so clearly my first purchase is some kind of thermometer). I have french press pot, and I simple not burr grinder. I would absolutely need a burr grinder, preferably an adjustable one.
And that is just for the coffee. If I am going to make videos? I have my iPad, so that is camera and sound. But lights, a better stand. Would i need a better than installed microphone?
It is a lot of investment. Or I could start from what i have, and see if I get traction, and learn and adapt.
It would be a project. At a time when I have … a lot of anxiety right at this very moment, due to a bad life decision (late afternoon espresso kept me awake until 2 am, plus work stuff causing a higher than usual anxiety, and the thing that no one ever tells you about lack of sleep is that it makes everything hurt more, including anxiety, which makes it hard to sleep…) yesterday.
Recent conversation with C, she said “poor life choices were made” I told her that is my family motto.
I very briefly had a website called GeekHaiku. Still images with Haiku attached, mostly about Coffee and related stuff. It was a sell t shirts and coffee mugs and mousepads business model. It was not successful, though I had some fun with it. it has occurred to me that GeekHaiku is not the worst … brand name for such a project. And i am starting to think maybe I am not so completely unable to do visual art as I tend to think I am.
Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.
So, after an appropriate temper tantrum and period of mourning, I visited Sweet Maria’s coffee website. Among other things, they offer a subscription service. Every 1 or 2 months, they will send 4 or 8 pounds of coffee (those two factors being individually configurable). These are beans that are not otherwise available, being samples from roasters, or going out of stock, or just cause. I decided, for a start, to get 8 pounds, every two months. Minimize shipping and all that.
Side note. In the meantime, I bought a growler of cold brew coffee from Analog (aka, downstairs) to get me through the week. It was pretty good, but. I was NOT prepared for how strong the coffee was. Not just the darkness of the roast (and it may not have been all that dark, i just reacted to it (with headache and general grumpiness) as though that were the case. Over the course of a couple days, I figured out how much to dilute it.
A lot, in a nutshell. And even then, i was Jittery AF, for several days this week. So, now I know. Back to the regularly scheduled irregular scheduling.
Today, I got my first shipment. 8 pounds from all over the world. What to roast first? The only way to decide was to do what anyone in my situation would do; I rolled a d8. It came up Brazil. Brazil Minas Fazenda Verdas, to be exact. I roasted 2 100g batches to a medium roast, and I will partake of the beany goodness tomorrow morning.
And it occurred to me, this could be a youtube channel. I mean, figuring out how to best roast each batch could be an adventure worth having. And then, figuring out how to best prepare it (drip v. French press v. Chemex v moka pot v ?). And, of course, the grind issue. if nothing else, such a project would give me an excuse to buy a bunch of coffee geek stuff (I already have a properly geeky roaster, but it doesn’t have precise temperature controls, so clearly my first purchase is some kind of thermometer). I have french press pot, and I simple not burr grinder. I would absolutely need a burr grinder, preferably an adjustable one.
And that is just for the coffee. If I am going to make videos? I have my iPad, so that is camera and sound. But lights, a better stand. Would i need a better than installed microphone?
It is a lot of investment. Or I could start from what i have, and see if I get traction, and learn and adapt.
It would be a project. At a time when I have … a lot of anxiety right at this very moment, due to a bad life decision (late afternoon espresso kept me awake until 2 am, plus work stuff causing a higher than usual anxiety, and the thing that no one ever tells you about lack of sleep is that it makes everything hurt more, including anxiety, which makes it hard to sleep…) yesterday.
Recent conversation with C, she said “poor life choices were made” I told her that is my family motto.
I very briefly had a website called GeekHaiku. Still images with Haiku attached, mostly about Coffee and related stuff. It was a sell t shirts and coffee mugs and mousepads business model. It was not successful, though I had some fun with it. it has occurred to me that GeekHaiku is not the worst … brand name for such a project. And i am starting to think maybe I am not so completely unable to do visual art as I tend to think I am.
Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.
