MGLloyd

In the Seattle area, the best is a small local chain called Ezell's. Oprah is quite fond of it, in case some people think that is an endorsement.

As a life-long resident of Seattle, I am quite familiar with the Smith case. The reason why no criminal charges were filed, was that by the time the victims came forward, the statute of limitations had long since run. Thus, no criminal charges could be filed, and a civil lawsuit was the only remedy. And of course, no monetary damages are awarded to the victims as a consequence of criminal charges. Edited to add that a few years later, a leading judge in King County, Gary Little, committed suicide by revolver in his chambers, when his pedophile activities were about to be published in the Seattle Times. Judge Little had an even longer, and more icky history of activities then did Mr. Smith.

Or as an alternative, the most recent version of the heatgun\dogbowl roasting primer (with pictures) is maintained on Ed Needham's site at http://www.homeroaster.com/heatgun.html

In my experience, Owen, I think that most dry-processed beans are more prone to unevenly roasting regardless of method. I have gone to roasters here in the Seattle area and bought small amounts of Harrar, Yirg, Mocha, Sumatras and PNG, all of which were dry processed. I was fascinated to see how uneven some of the roasts were, even fresh out of the Probat, Dietrich, San Franciscan or the Sivetz. What was interesting to me was that the Sivetz, being the big fluid bed, was probably the most even of all. So I am of the belief that some beans, and some blends, are apparently immune to even roasting no matter which way they are roasted. And after much trial and error, I have found that my wife and I prefer our Liquid Amber taken just into second crack: probably about 20 to 30 seconds. Taking much further than that seems to kill off a lot of the taste, in our view. I will try to remember to take a picture of my next Liquid Amber roast, which will probably be within the next week.

Owen, it is interesting to see the roast color variation from your Alpenrost as compared to some of my multi-bean blends done with the heatgun\dogbowl. Bearing in mind that I really like dry-processed Africans and Indonesians, I think that your roast came out more uneven then a lot of mine. How very interesting. I don't think we can draw definitive conclusions unless we were roasting exactly the same blends in the same proportions, but I am heartened that I get such even roasts from my technique as compared to the 'set and forget' Alpenrost. But then again, some blends are notorious for roasting unevenly. I have never in my life gotten a completely even roast on Liquid Amber, despite using a HWG, HWP, popper, Whirly-Pop, Rosto and heatgun\dogbowl.

I can say with pleasure that I did eat at Boondock's, etc. during that time period, and ate that actual item. It was indeed a fairly classic Joe's Special, it also had onions in it as I recall, but I am not sure if they called it a Joe's Special. I want to say that it had some funky name, but eating it proved it was a Joe's Special. I like to throw some Worchestershire sauce into mine as I brown the ground beef and sweat the onions.

I have found this too, thus my use of the 3-M microfiber cleaning cloth. Those things are amazing in their cleaning and scrubbing capacity.

Immediately after I pull the shot, steam the milk and assemble the drink, I remove the PF, run some water through it to flush out grounds, and wipe the steam wand and dispersion screen, in that order, with a dampened 3-M microfiber cloth. Keeps everything clean and ready to go for the next time I pull a shot. Letting things get hard and bake onto the steam wand and disperson screen only makes the eventual cleanup that much worse. Edited to add that I have a Pasquini Livia 90 machine and a Rocky doserless grinder.

I cannot remember the name, but it is on Casino Way, directly across the street from the Fred Meyer. It is in the same complex as the State Lottery office, if I am remembering correctly.

Owen, the person who thought up the concept, and runs the website, lives in Rochester. Jeepers Mike..... I'm flattered but not sure what concept I thought up (not being facetious - I really don't know). I was a very active regular in the Coffeegeelk Forums but the credit the entire concept of Coffeegeek rightly belongs to the founder Mark Prince. Meanwhile.... I'm slaving away at my day job here in Syracuse, a bit east of Rochester... waiting for spring weather to arrive. It was bitterly cold with driving woind and snow yesterday but it appears that things may improve rapidly. I actually plan to do some roasting this weekend and will try out some version of Jim Schulman's WTC (Way Too Complicated) espresso blend. The plan is to document the blending and roasting process with a pictorial post here in the forum. I must have phrased that poorly. I was addressing Owen (you) by your name. I was not trying to intimate that you created the green coffee co-op. The person behind the green coffee co-op is Buzz, of Buzzroasters fame. He lives in Rochester.

Feaster, if you are using Malinal, then I suspect you or whomever supplies your coffee is buying it from San Cristobal importers in Kirkland. I wonder if Jim Kosalos is still running it. If I recall correctly, they store their coffee at Pacific Distribution Services in Sumner. I saw some bags of it when I was down there once picking up some Ethiopian Yirgacheffe.

Although somewhat off topic, in recent weeks I have had occasion to talk with several coffee brokers and importers for a homeroaster coffee-buying co-op that I am a member of. They all had an interesting take on fair-trade, organic or bird-friendly coffee: it primarily sold to the university\college market or businesses that cater to the university student or yuppie demographic. They also thought that with the current glut of coffee and depressed prices on the world market, the people who actually grow these coffees were not able to as readily sell them for premium prices and were thus doing relatively poorly from the economic side of things. Very interesting, I thought, but not as interesting as the price markups on coffee. Most green coffee vendors typically sell high quality green coffee beans at approximately $ 4-6 per pound. The same beans roasted typically go for $ 8-12 per pound. And when you buy that same green coffee from a broker by the 135 pound sack, it typically sells for about $ 0.85 to $ 1.75 per pound. Quite the markup.

Owen, the person who thought up the concept, and runs the website, lives in Rochester.

Properly stored, which is to say dry and covered, green coffee is good for one to two years. I have about 90 lbs. of coffee out in my garage, stored in individual cloth, burlap or Ziploc bags and kept in Rubbermaid bins.

Many of the home roasters who hang out on coffeegeek.com have banded together to buy green coffee beans at wholesale prices. We have a website at www.greencoffeeco-op.com. We have identified several coffee brokers or importers in the Seattle, Oakland, New Orleans and New York areas who are willing to sell green coffee by the single bag. A typical bag weighs between 110 and 150 lbs., depending on the origin of the coffee. A vote is made to choose which type of coffee to purchase, and people put in for an allocation of coffee in five pound increments. When the bag has been sold, a local co-ordinator pays for the bag, picks it up from the warehouse, and distributes it in person, or by mail, to those people who have ordered and paid for the coffee. The coffee is sold at cost, plus shipping at cost, with an additional small fee to the co-ordinator to compensate that person for his/her time and effort in picking up and shipping the coffee. The coffees that have been recently purchased typically sell between $ 0.85 to $ 1.75 per pound, as compared to buying the same coffee from a green coffee vendor at $ 3.00 to $ 6.00 per pound. I myself just got 20 lbs. of an excellent Sumatra Lintong for $ 32.00, as compared to the $ 60 to 100 I would have normally paid from a green coffee vendor. We are looking for new members, so please check out the website if you are interested in quality green coffee at wholesale prices. This is a strictly volunteer effort by the members, and we would be very interested in finding some members in the Bay area, who could provide logistical and distribution services for some of the coffee importers in that area. Please post to this forum if you have any additional questions. I hope to see some of you on the website!

I heartily second the list of digital camera review websites listed above. About 18 months ago, I bought an Olympus C4040 at 4.2 megapixels, powered by 4 AA batteries (can use rechargeables) and uses a SmartMedia card. I can get a 128 MB SM card (the largest size currently made) at Costco for $ 36. I bought this camera because it was a highly rated 'prosumer' model with the capability of both automatic and manual functions. A great camera, and it prints out gorgeous 8x10" photos on my Canon S900.

The north Eastside or south Snohomish county! Canyon Park! Alderwood Mall! Edited to add: Woodinville! Bothell! Kirkland! Redmond!

After I finished weeping over the lack of good hotdog options in the Seattle area, I felt compelled to take keyboard in hand to correct the statement as to Guinness being the same. When my wife and I toured the main brewery in Dublin, we were told that different Guinness breweries throughout the world made up to six different versions and up to nineteen different variations within those versions to account for regional taste and style of packaging. The main difference is draft vs. bottled vs. canned and in some areas, different amounts of barley, different amounts of hop IBUs and different yeasts. To the trained palate, there are taste differences. My wife and I have noticed perceptible differences in the Guinness available in the UK, Ireland, Canada and the USA. We preferred the all-malt draft available in continental Europe and many Irish pubs or the Special Extra Stout available on draft in Dublin. At home in the Seattle area, we prefer to bottled Extra Stout when we can get it or a room-temperature draft. Back to weeping over the sorry state of hotdog affairs in Seattle.

I have also often contemplated the popularity of Spam in the Hawaiian islands as well. I thought I once read a scholarly article pointing out that the popularity of Spam in the Phillipines and in Hawaii was largely a function of WWII when massive amounts of Spam were in the military logistical supply channel and subsequently in the civilian market as well.

Ditto as to what Mark said.

Ditto for Mr. Lloyd, MSc, MBA and Mrs. Lloyd, MHA. "Over-educated and underpaid" seemed to strike a real chord with us. Edited to add that Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd just ate a package of TJ's Mandarin Orange Chicken for dinner; which was not half bad at $ 4.99 for a 22 oz. package. Tasted pretty close to the Panda Express Orange Chicken. Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd are also planning to go to TJs tomorrow.

I live just north of Seattle, and I am familiar with the outlet malls in Centralia, North Bend and Burlington. None of them have a Le Cruset outlet store, and none of them are particularly good sources for high end kitchenware. You have your generic Farberware, Kitchen Collection and Corningware stores, and the North Bend outlet mall just added a Le Gourmet Chef store, but that is pretty much it. In terms of a bricks and mortar store, I would also suggest Mr. J's, in Bellevue, next to the QFC and across the street from University Bookstore on Bellevue Way adjacent to Bellevue Square. In terms of future development in the outlet mall area, the Tulalip tribe just signed an agreement to develop a 'high-end' outlet mall next to the tribal casino right off exit 200 on I-5. The developer is the same company who built the Woodburn mall south of Portland. Ground-breaking is expected to be later this year, with the mall completed in 2005. Another example of some brilliant business planning by the Tulalip tribe, who is becoming quite the economic powerhouse of north Snohomish County.

I don't think a conventional hair dryer would get anywhere near hot enough. My heatgun puts out a maximum of 1100 degrees F., and I have actually thought about trying to sear a steak with it.

It occurs to me that a heatgun would work well for this, too. Perhaps after I next use the heatgun to roast a batch of coffee, I will try this.

I could not agree more with this approach, and also do this when I am roasting a duck and want to have crispy duck skin. Absolutely bone dry skin seems to be a reliable way to achieve crisp skin.