Author Archives: Nano

What exactly is “Artisan Coffee Roasting?”

I was at the grocery store the other day, and in the bakery department I spied two fairly identical loaves of Italian pugilese bread with spelt flour. One was in a plastic bag with the store label, and one was in a paper sleeve in a toney wooden shelf display. Upon closer inspection, it was clear that these two loaves were made in the same fashion from the same ingredients. The only difference was one was packaged differently and labelled “artisan.” I cry “foul.” Over in the coffee aisle, “specialty coffee” means hazelnut-flavored. Again, I shake my head. Doesn’t anyone know what “artisan” means? Maybe we need to define terms.

In the interest of clarity and integrity, I define “artisan” coffee (the kind you get from NanoRoast, exclusively) as

—small batch, not commercial run quantity, usually only a couple of pounds at a time, roasted only when you arder so it is really FRESH.

—batch is composed of specially-selected specialty-quality beans, a term used in the industry for the highest quality as determined through repeated tastings, to achieve the specific end taste profile desired. For example, I may have five kinds of Colombian beans, but I choose the specific origin or lot that will best meet the taste objective.

—roast has been lovingly attended from start to finish by me, not a computer program. It’s roasted properly when my combined five senses say it is.

—each component of a blend has been separately roasted and THEN blended to achieve the desired outcome. That is why any NanoRoast blend has different color shades and/or sizes (and why you cannot judge coffee by how it looks, only how it tastes.)

So then, you can see why artisan coffee really is art like painting a landscape of our local landmark, Mt. Hood, is not like painting my house. At NanoRoast, we promise you will always get ARTISAN coffee, made by your coffee artist, me.

Enjoy your coffee art!

S

Island Coffee Now Available

A quick look at coffees for sale almost anywhere can quickly impress you that Island coffees are very, very expensive. Maui, Kona and Jamaica Blue Mountain are origins that have become very famous for their “soft” floral refined taste profile and silky body, and as more people world-wide want to drink higher end coffee, competition for the smaller supply has driven prices high indeed. In my opinion, what’s left for the major market in these origins is often lacking in quality as well. As a result of this unfortunate conjunction of lower quality and higher prices, NanoRoast has never offered Island coffees on our menu. We just couldn’t in good conscience offer lesser quality, especially for the price they still command.

Good news! Recently, we have discovered two economic development projects in island locations that are working on producing specialty grade coffee, particularly the Jamaican Blue Mountain cultivar. They are producing in the same conditions using the same cultivars, but it takes about seven years for new coffee trees to really get producing. For the first time this year, I have received samples from one project that were truly high quality AND reasonably priced. Better yet, the development project managers are taking a “better than fair trade” approach to ensure that the farmers get enough for their crop to make sure they will grow, handle and process their coffees for highest quality. I’m encouraged that this will mean Island Coffee available for NanoRoast customers at last! Check out our Island Coffee blend here.

Enjoy!

s

Happy Holidays and Cake Recipe

Happy Holidays from NanoRoast!

Fa la la, it’s time to enjoy the holidays with friends and families, so we will be taking a break from roasting for a few days—22-27 December to be more exact. Instead, my family will be drinking a lot of very satisfying coffees and probably eating too much. Of course, we will pay for it in January…

I know our European-American traditions call for a lot of pie at our celebrations, but for those wanting an alternative, I will share our family’s favorite chocolate cake recipe as it was delivered to me by my mother before the earth’s crust cooled. Enjoy with a chocolaty dark roast coffee and you are in Nirvana, to mix a world-view metaphor. Happy Holidays!

Black Magic Cake

Combine together in mixing bowl:  1 3/4 c all purpose flour 2 c sugar, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp salt. (Salt is a flavoring that enhances chocolaty taste in this recipe.)

Add in 1/2 c veg oil, 1/2 c yogurt or sour cream, 2 large eggs, 1 c milk, 1 c strong dark roast coffee, cooled to room temp, and 2 tsp vanilla extract. (I think a chocolaty Latin Blend or Mexico at a medium dark roast is about the best.)

Bake at 350F in a greased bundt pan for about 40 min or until toothpick inserted in middle of the ring comes out clean. Cool, frost/glaze with Cream Cheese Frosting. Alternately, for a dark chocolate overload, you can melt semisweet chocolate chips on top and then spread them out for a quasi-glaze.

Cream Cheese Frosting/Glaze:  Soften and whip about 3oz cream cheese, adding 1tsp vanilla extract, dash of salt and 2tbsp milk. Add confectioners sugar to achieve the consistency you want, adjusting with tsps of milk.

Enjoy!

susan

Low/No Caf Drinkers Get Tasty New Option!

Tired of Boring Low-Caf or Decaf? Exciting New Option!

Coming up in January, we will be adding a tasty new option especially for low-caf/decaf drinkers: Monsooned Malabar coffee!  If you have never tried monsooned coffee, this could rock your coffee world (or be truly not your cup of tea, so to speak.) Intrigued? Read on.

India has coffee??  India has been producing ” Indo” type coffees from Typica varietals for about 350 years, but we in North America hardly ever get to try it. Generally, Indian coffee is produced in Karnataka or Mysore areas and tastes a bit like a Sumatra with a bit more smoke or pepper notes. Roasted fairly dark, it can be very smooth and slightly less rustic than the Sumatras. (We offer these Indian coffees on our Single Origin page when we can get really nice examples of this origin.)

Monsooned coffee??  We all know that India has a monsoon season. What is less well-known is that dried unroasted coffee beans sitting in storage start soaking up all the excess moisture in the very warm air, and it can either be a disaster or a strange blessing for the coffee producer, depending on how that “Monsooning” process is managed. As the beans absorb humidity, they lose color and puff up (leading to the nickname, Zombie Bean.) They also absorb surrounding odors and flavor notes that evoke, well, India. Monsooned beans are then re-dried and shipped in bags that preserve the funky, spicy flavors. Sorted, roasted darker and cupped again before it comes to you, Monsooned Malabar is super-rustic to the point of being somewhat funky in taste profile and extremely creamy in body. You either love it or hate it, but it is certainly different, exotic and not boring.

Here’s what we are thinking in terms of options for our customers:

1) Smaller quantities/samples:  If you are worried about not liking monsooned coffee (low/no/full caf), we have you covered. To reduce your risk, we will offer monsooned coffee for sale in 8oz bags, or we can send a smaller sample of the same for free along with another purchase if you drop us a note and ask.

2) Espresso option:  We have been playing around with adding it to a second espresso blend that is truly exotic, has no robusta (still) and will give low/no caf drinkers massive flavor and crema. We will also offer it in full-caf for the truly adventurous.

Look for these new options to join the menu in January, and please feel free to email us if you have questions or want to know more.

Enjoy your coffee!

s

NanoRoast Coffee Samplers Available

Now There is Help for Coffee Choice Overwhelm

Ok, you’ve been scanning our long list of single-origin coffee offerings, and you suddenly realize: “ I don’t know what to order first!” Never fear; we have an option for you–sampler packs.

NanoRoast Samplers are smaller packages (12 oz each) of our current offerings that are bundled together so you can try several before investing in a larger quantity, or just because it’s fun to try something new every day or so. Please note that you can choose the standard sampler, in which the choices of coffee selections is mine, OR you can choose a custom sampler, in which you choose the specific components.

How this works:

Custom Sampler:  Please email me the specific coffees and roast levels you want ([email protected]). I’ll invoice you.

Standard Samplers: Choose from the options below (4 pack) 

Tour of Coffee Sampler  This sampler consists of 4 @ 12 oz packages (3 lbs total) of coffees from each major coffee-producing region of the world–Central America, South America, Asia, Africa. Roast level will vary according to the particular coffee included, but you can state a general preference for lighter, medium or darker roasts. We want you to be happy, so your preference will guide the specific selections chosen. In any case, we will endeavor to amaze you with the best of each region.

Dark Roast Lover’s Sampler This sampler has 4 @ 12 oz coffees that will delight a dark roast drinker. While dark roasts tend to emphasize the chemical processes of roasting over inherent unique characteristics, we can roast darker while still maintaining variety. These will all come to you roasted dark enough to emphasize the roasty flavors, but they will not look particularly oily (this is a good thing) or be overly bittering on the palate.

Lighter Roast Lovers‘ Sampler This pack has 4 @ 12 oz of coffees that shine at lighter roast points. Usually, we try to include a variety of origins to showcase the distinctive flavors of different varietals and processing methods. These are roasted dark enough not to be sour or grassy but light enough to show off the best of the bean.

Susan’s Stash Sampler (2 pack, 1.5 lb total) This sampler is the one where I share two 12-oz packages of really top-quality coffees I save for my own enjoyment, e.g., the really good and pricey stuff. All are rated over 90 points by the SCAA rating standards, and all have come from award-winning farms or processors. They are expensive, but I think they are worth it! Obviously, I can’t know ahead of time which will be worthy of this group. If you want to explore the best of the best, email me ([email protected]) and I’ll send you a proposal with cost.

enjoy your coffee!

Exciting News in Which I Update My Dated Website

Flash: Nano Finally Updates Website!!

I am not a luddite in any sense, but taking the plunge to redesign and update my rather dated website is not something that I consider a good time. However, that project is now about to go live. As Bob Dylan said, “There’s a Slow Train comin'”….

The plan is to take down the site temporarily next Friday, October 19, install the new stuff and test it and have it magically back up and operational by Sunday, October 21. Unlike most IT department implementations, I don’t work at zero-dark-thirty on stuff like this because I like to be awake.  What could possibly go wrong???

I’m confident that the new site will be easier on the eyes no matter what device you are using, if not easier to navigate. We will still keep all the opinions, information and reviews. All that said, if I mess this up too badly and/or you want to order while the site is down, please email me at [email protected]. I’ll send you a PayPal invoice. Many of my customers have discovered the Easy-Peasiness of just emailing me to discuss recommendations, place orders and chat about coffee. You are invited to do the same if you like.

So, wish me luck, and enjoy your coffee!

s

UPDATE:  I think it’s done (fingers crossed), but if you see anything that doesn’t work, please email me. Many thanks!

What Do I Need to Know About Coffee Acidity?

What do I Need To Know about coffee acidity? (Not a rhetorical question.)

You hear it over and over: ” I love coffee but it’s too acid for me.”

I ran across an interesting comparison in my favorite wine blog recently on acidity in wine.  Sadly, it’s now requiring a subscription to view, but you can also search YouTube for the WineFolly videos discussing tasting wines (like this one: https://youtu.be/pJ_6QO-a5Us?si=UNvqGRjPODaafoFB,) They are excellent and very helpful in application to drinking coffee, too. There is more information on this page about acidity in general than most of us want to know, but there are at least three take-aways that I thought would apply to coffee lovers:

1. How Acidic IS Coffee?  On Madeline’s graphic, note where coffee ranks on acidity–at about 4.5 – 5.0 pH. Refreshing our high school chemistry, we remember that water is the perfectly neutral substance, and it is a 7.0. Numbers lower than 7 are acidic, and numbers between 7 and 14 are alkaline. So, in comparison to other drinks, COFFEE IS NOT ACIDIC. Note that soda pop is about the most acidic thing out there. How’s that for counter-intuitive?

So what’s up with that? As Madeline points out, soda doesn’t feel acidic due to the incredibly high sugar content of the drink. If you drink your coffee black, you don’t have the counterweight of the sugar blunting the feel of the acidity. It may also account for “acid stomach” after too many cups of coffee with no food along with it. I take this to suggest that we should by all means have that bagel with our coffee, for our stomach’s sake. Now you have science to back it up. You’re welcome.

2. Acidity and Climate. Wine grapes develop more acidity in cooler climates, especially in night temperatures. It turns out that the best coffee is grown at high altitude where temperatures are comfortable in the daytime and quite cool at night. If you like your coffee with some natural acidic tang, note the MASL (meters above sea level) where they are grown. The highest grown coffees are in East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi) and in the Andes of South America, where coffees are grown at up to 2250 MASL — almost 7,000 ft above sea level!

3.  Why Some Acidity is Good. Tolerance for acidity in taste varies from person to person. Since coffee’s acidity level is pretty comparatively low, it comes down to individual sensitivity level and prior conditioning as to what “tastes good.” I personally like tart things, so coffee that isn’t at all acidic seems flat and boring to me. I also like the way that a dash of tang in coffee sets off the other flavors in the cup. The key seems to be keeping it all in balance, and we do that through roast level. Now might be a good time to review what roast level adds to coffee enjoyment. Read our primer here.

Enjoy your coffee!

susan

How does a wine lover taste coffee?

What Can a Coffee Taster Learn From Wine Tasting?

For some time, I’ve been trying to figure out how to help others refine their coffee tasting ability in order to choose and enjoy their brew more fully. I even created a page outlining a process one can use to taste coffee more mindfully and enjoy it more fully.

Fortunately, there are parallels in other tasting domains, such as wine tasting. (Ok, I’m a wino, too.) I love the wine lovers’ website and blog at www.winefolly.com and Madeline’s guide to tasting wine. I am sharing her awesome article on the wine tasting process because it works nicely for coffee, too. Of course, coffee is more complex, but the steps to enjoying coffee more are the same. Make sense? Try it and see if you aren’t a better coffee taster, too. And thanks, Madeline!

Enjoy your coffee!

susan

Fudge the Decaf!

Just How Decaf Does Your Coffee Need to Be?

Many NanoRoast customers already know we offer reduced-caf blends, which till now have been roughly half-cafs. Going forward, I’m going to give you the option of telling me HOW MUCH caffeine you want in your lower-caf blend. Duh! I should have done this a long time ago, and here’s why:

The Reasoning  Suppose you are sensitive to caffeine and need an alternative, but you still want your coffee to taste really intensely good. Decaf tends to taste a bit washed out due to the processing it receives, so decaf drinkers often don’t get the same experience that full-caf drinkers do with their coffee. It makes me sad. However, it stands to reason that your caffeine sensitivity is not the same as other people’s sensitivity level, and since we are customizing everything else, why not allow you to customize the level of decaf  in that blend?? We are starting with 25% increments, but if you just really want 30% level of one component, email me or send me a note with your order.

Suggestion  This leads me to a suggestion in favor of more flavor: Unless your doctor has said absolutely NO caffeine*, you might try a very low-caf blend. One customer has me blend his 90% decaf/10% regular and swears it makes both his doc and his taste buds happy. I don’t know the exact answer for you, but we are dedicated to helping all our customers achieve coffee nirvana, whatever that looks like.

Enjoy your coffee!

susan

*I’m gonna trust you on this.

In Praise of Aging

When Aged Coffee is a Good Thing

Some time ago, I bought (actually it would be more accurate to say, ” invested in “) a Costa Rica Cup of Excellence entry that had great scores but tasted too “in your face” for most of my customers—almost uncomfortably acidic and bright. I know that raw coffee beans keep a very long time, so I put this lot aside to see what natural aging would do. Turns out, while some beans really fade and go horribly bland pretty fast, this lot mellowed just enough to bloom into the coffee I had originally hoped for over several months in storage. Serendipity!

I was about to chalk this one up to a fluke, but then a second lot, a Guatemala from a farm that’s won or placed in successive Cup of Excellence competitions over the years, did the same thing when put away for another 9 months. It is just coming into its own now.

What’s going on with these Central American processors? I don’t have a definitive answer, but I note that many new lots from Central America and Colombia seem to be processed so as to accent lively acidity in a way they previously had not. Maybe some coffee snobs prefer this level of acidity, but most of us probably wish they would dial it back a bit. The good news is that the underlying coffee quality is there, even if we have to wait for awhile in some cases.

PS. These specific Guatemala and the Costa Rica coffees are no longer available on our Single Origin page, but we do have some yummy ones that won’t break the bank. Check them out here.

Update:  I just saw a listing from my coffee supplier for Aged Sumatra. It’s supposed to be even funkier from storage in epic humidity, the way Indian Monsooned Malabar is. Are they onto a whole new processing method??

Enjoy that funky coffee!

s