Author: dlhitzeman

Breaking things in

Well, all of the parts of the new roaster arrived over the weekend, and right now, I am engaged in the process of breaking my roaster in with the hope of doing my first test roasts tonight. If all goes well–and I expect it will–I should be back to roasting on a normal schedule tomorrow.

In the mean time, I should also pass along the fact that I will be selling coffee at the Downtown Troy Farmer’s Market at least for the month of June. I will decide toward the end of June whether to do the rest of the season based on sales during the four weeks I know I will be there.

Also, as promised, I will be adding some new coffees to my lineup, specifically Brazilian, Guatemalan Villa Herminia Estate, Mexican Turqueza Estate, and Mexican Chiapas Free Trade Organic. In the near future, I will also add a classic espresso blend, a house espresso blend, and a dark roast blend. If all goes well–again depending on sales–I plan to add more varieties toward the end of the year.

Finally, and unfortunately, the run-up in commodity prices has hit the coffee market pretty hard over the past year, causing some single origin coffees to go up as much as 50 percent in price since last year at this time. Because I price my coffees based on my wholesale cost, I have no choice but to increase my prices in order to cover the cost of buying green beans. Most of the increases will be between 1o and 20 percent ($1 or $2 per pound).

Stay tuned for further developments.

DLH

Like the death of an old friend

At long last, after six years and several hundred pounds of coffee, my AeroRost II electric roaster finally gave up the ghost. It appears to be some sort of electrical malfunction inside the device that is causing the element to fail to maintain the proper temperature and is also causing the halogen lamp to shut off/burn out.

All is not lost, however, as I have a brand new Micro TostaCaffe and a cool-down pan on order. Hopefully, it will be here soon, and I can get back to the business of roasting.

DLH

The last of the Coatepec and a nearly perfect dark roast

Today was something of a sad day as I roasted the last of my stock of Genuine Mexican Coatepec (it is no longer available), but on the bright side, I nailed the dark roast I was trying to achieve with it. The finished product has definite hints of chocolate, caramel, and  (I know this will seem strange to some) freshly tilled earth. It’s beautiful, and I’ll miss having it.

On the bright side, I will be replacing the Coatepec with a similar coffee (Mexican Altura). Unfortunately, it’s a lot more expensive than the Coatepec I’ve been roasting, but it will be there for southern Mexican coffee fans.

Speaking of new coffees, I will be adding two new varieties to the mix soon as well: Mexican Chiapas FTO and Mexican Turqueza Estate (sense a theme here?). We’re also experimenting with new blends to add to our current very popular House blend.

Stay tuned, there’s always more coming.

DLH

Coffee has been roasted

My apologies to everyone who has been waiting to buy coffee from me. It turns out that my roastery is not heated at the current time, so I am at the will of the temperature as to when I can and can’t roast. Hopefully, this problem will be resolved soon enough.

In the mean time, if you were waiting for coffee, it was roasted today, so I should be contacting you shortly to deliver it, and if you want coffee, I will have several more pounds roasted by the end of the day.

DLH