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Isn’t it expensive?

June 22, 2011 By 8 Comments
Coffee Fields

Sometimes, even though I've only been involved in roasting my own premium coffee for a short time, I hear a question from people: Isn't expensive to brew specialty coffee? I can understand why people would ask.  I mean, I order coffee beans from abroad and have them shipped to me here in the Philippines.  I get coffee beans from regions all over the world.  Exotic sounding places like Ethiopia, Sulawesi, Rwanda and such.  Those beans are shipped to distributors in the USA, and then I buy the beans from them and have them shipped to the Philippines.  On top of that, these beans I am buying are the best of the best, so just the beans … [Read more...]

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Viva Brazil!

June 22, 2011 By 1 Comment
Brazilian Green Coffee Beans

Well, today is kind of a banner day here at MKLF Headquarters!  In other words, it's a big day at my house here in Davao City.  For the first time, I received a shipment of Green Coffee Beans that I ordered from abroad! Back on the last day of March, I ordered some Brazil Moreninha Formosa 2008 Crop.  I ordered the beans, 3 pounds of them, from Stubbie on the GCBC site.  Today, April 17, they arrived here in Davao.  Eighteen days for delivery, not too bad, considering they were shipped here from the USA.  They came via USPS Express Mail Service.  I ordered 3 pounds of beans, and according to my scale, I got a bit more than that, so … [Read more...]

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My Equipment

June 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment
roasting

Basically, you need some various types of equipment to do different aspects of the coffee hobby. My personal setup is very simple, not expensive, yet still produces delicious coffee. Let's have a look at what I am currently using. Roasting For roasting coffee beans, I am using a simple stovetop method. There are lots of types of coffee roasting equipment that you can buy, but for now, I just pan roast my beans. It's not the most elegant way of achieving roasted beans, but it is cheap, and good enough. I have a simple rice pot that I use to roast beans on the stovetop. It's a small rice pot that can handle roasting of about a half … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Coffee, Equipment, Featured Tagged With: ,

I’m going to Nyeri!

June 9, 2011 By 6 Comments
These Green Coffee Beans are Decaf beans, and they really are quite brown!

Nyeri is a district in the Central Province of Kenya, in Africa.  I'm gonna be going there!  Well, through my coffee cup, anyway!  That's right, I'm not going to physically go there and visit the place, but I just got two coffees that originated from the Nyeri area in Kenya!  Yes, the Postman visited yesterday to notify me that my fifteen pound box of green coffee beans had arrived and were ready to be picked up at the main Davao Post Office, so I headed down there and picked them up right away! Within 15 minutes after getting home with my box of beans, I was already at the stove and roasting them too!  I was so excited, because Kenya … [Read more...]

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How was the taste?

June 8, 2011 By 4 Comments
coffee-beans-jeff-kubina2

Remember last week, I wrote about a roasting that I did on some Yirg?  It was ugly, but I was hoping it would be delicious.  Well, I am happy to report that on my fourth roasting attempt, I was finally able to reproduce the delicious Yirg results that I got the first time I roasted it!  After going too light, then too dark, I finally hit it right on! Unfortunately, that was a small batch that I roasted, though, and I've already drank all of it!  You see, I was tired of wasting good coffee beans when I wasn't doing a good job of roasting, so I decreased the batch size until I hit on the proper results!  And, I did it! Like I said, those … [Read more...]

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Nice Visit

June 6, 2011 By 2 Comments
Mabel Sunga Acosta

We had a nice afternoon yesterday.  It all started when I got an e-mail through Facebook from one of my Facebook friends.  It was a Facebook friend, but somebody whom I had not met in person.  It was from Davao City Councilor, Mabel Sunga Acosta.  Mabel is the President Pro Tempore of the Davao City Council. Mabel e-mailed me asking if it would be OK to stop by for Coffee at my house in the afternoon.  I had a long standing invitation to Mabel to come by for some coffee and conversation, but we had not yet had a chance to do it.  Mabel said, though, in her message that she was going to be having some time for coffee with her friend, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Coffee, My Thoughts

Sulawesi Kalossi Toraja Gr. 1

June 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Sulawesi

OK, for my next coffee review, I am coming closer to home, to Indonesia.  More specifically, I am talking about a coffee from the Island of Sulawesi, the nearest Indonesian Island to my home in Mindanao, Philippines.  As a matter of fact, when I used to live in General Santos City, we could even receive radio transmissions and sometimes TV signals from Sulawesi stations.  So, I feel a little bit of connection with Sulawesi, even though I have never been there in person. Because of my tenuous connection with the Island, I was excited to taste the Sulawesi beans.  I actually roasted these beans a little beyond where I intended to go, to … [Read more...]

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Mexico SGH Organic Natural Terruno Nayorita

May 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Mexico

The next bean that I will feature is a North American coffee bean from Mexico (yes, Central America is geographically part of North America).  The bean I am talking about is Mexico SGH Organic Natural Terruno Nayorita.  Yeah, it's a long name, but it's also a tasty bean! Again, with this bean, I roasted them to a Full City+ level, just up to the second crack.  As I said in previous articles, this is a little darker than I normally go, but for this bean, I think this is a good level. For this bean, I found that after one or two days resting, there was little flavor in the cup.  It really takes 3 to 4 days post-roast rest for this … [Read more...]

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This and that… and the other!

May 14, 2011 By 2 Comments
Feyma with some Christmas Gifts we will give out

Well, it's been a busy few weeks in the Martin household in Davao.  I've been busy with a lot of different things, it seems.  I suppose that the holidays are like that.  So, I thought I'd just write a "general" article that is really not about anything in particular.  Just an update of what has been going on, and maybe an update of some of my more recent articles here on MindanaoBob, my personal website. One of the big pieces of news here, in my opinion, is that I have a new cat!  I should say that "we" (as a family) have a new cat, but I consider this one to be "my cat" and she stays in my office and in our bedroom, so she hangs out … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Coffee, Exercise, Featured, My Thoughts Tagged With: , ,

What’s that stuff in my cup?

April 11, 2011 By 2 Comments
sludge

So, you are sitting there drinking a cup of coffee, and you're getting near the bottom of the cup.  You take a drink without paying too much attention, and you feel a little grit in your mouth.  Almost like dirt or sand.  What the heck is that? What is sludge? Well, it's most likely sludge.  Coffee sludge.  What's that?  Well, it's sludge, or it will be!  You see, when you make coffee in a French Press, some sludge is inevitable. The photo shows how coffee is brewed in a French Press.  When you are brewing there will also be a lid on the coffee (to keep it warm) and a plunger built into the lid.  When the coffee is finished … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Coffee, Featured Tagged With: ,
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