[Sca-cooks] OT: home coffee delivery

[Jeff Gedney]

Actually, I just roast my own.
Zach and Dani's (offeeroasting.com)has a very good machine for a 
great price. The next step up in quality and price IMHO are Alpine 
roasters which cost ten times what Zach and Dani's machines cost. 
I get reserve and fairtrade green beans from a variety 
of sources on the Internet
Lately, though, I have mostly been ordering them directly from 
plantations in Kona, Hawaii.
Oh, and Papa Gunthar? ...
_Properly_ made coffee is NOT bitter.
Bitterness comes from overheating the coffee (percolators, leavign 
your coffee on the heater, and making coffeewith too little 
grounds - two tablespoons per cup is best), or using coffee that 
is just too old (no matter how you pack or freeze it, it starts to 
lose flavor as soon as it is roasted).
I made some last night, "French roasted", using a combination of 
Sumatra Mandheeling, fresh Kona Peaberry, and Yemeni Sanai Mocha 
(not chocolate based). 
I roasted it, ground it and brewed it in the course of one and 
a half hours. No bitterness at all! In fact, it was sweet, almost 
candy like. (and I never pollute my coffee with sugar or cream)
The problem with coffee is that the first flavors in the flavor 
profile to be lost are the good ones, as time goes by, or too much 
heat is added (greater than 195 degrees farenheit), the complex 
flavors are lost or break down into bitter oils. 

I may not know much about cooking, but Coffee? ...that is 
sacramental, and I am intimate in its mystery.

Capt Elias
Dragonship Haven, East
(Stratford, CT, USA)
Apprentice in the House of Silverwing

-Nonchalant girls in love are like diamonds that glitter...