SL28ave

I should have revised my statement to say, "I taste the espresso betwen 2-8 days." There shouldn't be an absolute consensus that all beans are no good for everyone after 8 days anyways. I know of at least one roaster in Europe that is doing amazing light roasted single origin espressos, and they claim it peaks slightly more than a week after roasted. But the beans need to be stored away from oxygen, heat, light at every moment. (this is not a time to be shutting any doors, IMO) Is it the new crop Yellow Bourbon you're liking?

Good point. Thanks Chris. For those that aren't aware, I'm used to tasting a blend of different varieties from the Daterra farm of the Cerrado, Minas Gerais, Brazil. It's roasted to between the end of 1st crack and beginning of 2nd crack (light roast). Beans given 2-8 day gentle rest, pulled on La Marzocco, with ridged double basket, 198 degree water, 13 gram weight, 1.8 espresso volume pulled in 25-30 seconds.

I found a slight taste difference... higher astringency and bitterness perception..... It's a very interesting development, but I prefer the taste of my espresso from spouted right now, because it tastes smoother, clearer, perhaps lusher.... perhaps because of filtration or some sort of solid breakdown that happens in the spout... definitely worth exploring

"Strength" should be approached from multiple angles; especially by people who really want to understand coffee. Ask yourself: What's strong? Strong sweetness? Strong astringency? Pungent "leather"? Strong bitterness? Acidity? Too high richness? Should strength be the "be all"? Or should strength be a tertiary factor in, but not exclusive to quality? I prefer the latter. I'm drinking a very "light" roasted Colombian micro-lot right now. I drip brewed it to a translucent amber color. Many would describe it as "weak", especially if it's their first time trying this style of coffee. But if I were to increase the "strength" of this coffee, it would somewhat "close" and become harsh, like bitter resinous hops. Every coffee has a strength limit. But at this "amber" strength this is one of the best coffees I've ever had, with a ripe richness, soft acidity, cranberry and pomegranate flavors, smoothness, and persistence. Also, I'd someday like to hear less people state that their cups of coffee are merely "strong cups", and "caffeine kicks"? There's more to coffee than that.

"electronic selection" I think he's referring to the picture. It's an "electronic eye" sorter, also known as a bi-chromatic or tri-chromatic sorter. It uses different wavelengths of light to find defects, like "high chlorophyll", or "mold". It sees some defects that aren't always visible to the eye, and even defects deep in the core of the bean that can't be seen on the surface. With a burst of air, it shoots these defects out of the batch. Definitely a great tool. But, being defect free is only a prerequisite.

Hi all, Just to be transparent, I work for Terroir. We switched to 12 oz about a year ago. I didn't really get mixed in that entire debate. But, I can assure you that there is absolutely NO intention to deceive. No where do we call it a 12 oz pound (let me know if you see that listed anywhere). We simply call it 12 oz. To many people 1 Lb was simply too big, especially if they wanted to try more than 1 coffee. We like people to try more than one coffee at a time; it's a learning experience. As we are a small roaster and our costs are honestly probably higher than any other roaster in the world, it simply wasn't cost efficient to package both 8 oz and 16 oz bags. We want our dollars to be put into our coffee quality, as it currently does, not frantically pouring capital into trying to manage different size bags (I know that sounds silly but, it was also very real for us). There are many roasters out there who sell 12 oz packages. Allegro at Whole Foods is one of them, btw. I wasn't really involved in the management of this decision but, that's how I feel towards it. We can continue this dialogue if you wish. I can assure you that our COFFEE is more perfect than our fault-filled small/new company is; that's what we're about and what we celebrate. My apologies. Our prices will always be higher than most other roasters. But, that's simply a reflection of the coffee quality (green flying, green freezing, roaster/green R&D, QC, green price etc.). There's simply nothing we can do about that without compromising quality somewhere. Though I can't do this for everyone, I can buy you a bag or 2 of coffee waves2ya. Just e-mail me at peter@terroircoffee.com I'm being honest, so I hope no offence is caused. Thanks for your time. -Peter Sample Roaster

Hi Owen, A quick clarification..... Terroir doesn't limit its green procurement to only one source or protocol; we use auctions, brokers, direct etc. It's pretty simple: if a coffee is great on the cupping table, we find a way to aquire it and, try to give the consumer, to the best of our ability, the identity of the farmers. It doesn't matter if its a co-op, single estate, blend of small farms or, even hand picked by Panda Bears. The industry is set up in a way that this is absolutely necessary to attain the highest qualities from each region, each harvest. Nor does Terroir buy in major quantities, in fact you could say we are champions for the opposite. Large quantity lots are the norm and also a great boon to coffees meeting their potential; in most cases a great 200 Lb lot is blended with thousands of other pounds of mediocre coffee. This is the exact reason that George Howell co-founded Cup of Excellence; to find the masterpieces that are ALWAYS blended with coffees of lesser or generic quality. Last week we had a 4 bag lot, that's the size of the entire lot, FLOWN in directly from Colombia. That's completely revolutionary. Even most of the "speciatly" coffees that most roasters buy from distributers at 1 or 8 bag quantities are usually part of container sized lots that the distributer sourced. In most cases, that's not where the quality is at. Last year a masterpiece 2 bags in Nicaragua was about to be blended into a random large Fair Trade lot. Geoff Watts luckilly found it before it was blended. So, naturally George Howell and Geoff Watts decided to purchase these 2 bags. When the US importer received it at port, he absolutely refused to go through the mixed container to find the two bags. He thought we were nuts. This is what we're up against. -Peter

I've heard some Italian guy refer to that as "Spuma". He stirred so much sugar into it that it became creamy, like a topping. He actually did it with an espresso I served him. I prefer that my espressos not be adulterated with anything. I wanted to tell him, "YOU'RE NUTS, probably because you eat too much sugar!"

coffee from a-holes for a-holes. the real craftsman farmers deserve higher prices for real quality produced. not scam artists selling mythological coffee. the coffee industry is too young for anomolies (like noble rot), especially fake misleading anomolies.

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Noooo, not the Huehue!!! Coffee fryers can have all the Jamaica Blue Mountain or Kopi Luwak they want, but no Huehue. You've got me worried, I'm gonna purchase all the Huehuetenango coffee and store it in a secure warehouse where only authorized drum-roasters may enter. Kopi Luwak fried coffee, how about that for you compulsively exotic coffee lovers.

Hello, George Howell of the new Terroir Coffee company has been freezing green for over 4 years. If done properly, the aging is slowed dramatically without degrading any good aspects of the coffee. Terroir is so very applicable to coffee, but it's difficult to taste through all the defects that are present in almost all specialty coffee. The coffee needs to be ripe and clean, then the terroir should shine through. A new coffee age is now beginning, full of exploration and revelation.