Martin Baxter wrote:
Joe, I get all my coffee from these guys:
http://www.cookesfinefoods.com/coffee.html
Looks interesting. Their minimum shipment is three pounds, which is a
lot for someone who wants real fresh
from work) it's hard to beat the convenience. And as you now know, and
Jeff will certainly attest; it's impossible to beat the taste of fresh
roasted.
Yup. Its hard to tell which is more important, the bean, the roast, or
the freshness. I rate the bean first, probably because I've been
drinking the highest quality for 30 years now. (I was weaned on "Coffee
Connection" whose owner became the founder of the "Cup of Excellence"
program.) Second is the freshness, but the decline is slow if the
roasted beans are sealed in the special bags. Once open, or put in the
supermarket bins, about two weeks and much of the value is gone.
Personally, I don't think the bags are good for more than a month, but
some sellers insist they work for 3 months. Roast is important because
so many roasters go too dark for my taste. I believe this is an effort
to make mediocre beans taste "gourmet" or to accommodate a lot of milk.
A high quality roast is needed to get the last bit of flavor out of a
bean. Even though I've been practicing roasting beans from a particular
farm for 15 years, I can't come close to what a few masters can do with
it. However, mine fresh is better than theirs after a few weeks!
If you want to get a peek into the world of real coffee snobbery, go to
the "Cup of Excellence" site and check out the auction prices.
http://www.cupofexcellence.org/
This program encourages farmers to create the ultimate bean and rewards
them with high prices at auction. This is the opposite of the "Fair
Trade" program, which gives a co-op (not individual farmers) a mediocre
price (roughly $1 a pound or a bit more) for beans that meet a minimal
standard.
check out this winner, and then find the finished product:
http://www.cupofexcellence.org/Count...3/Default.aspx
http://buystumptowncoffee.com/index....PROD&ProdID=80
I would not be buying the winner, but I wouldn't mind having a cup. I
might, however, buy the ninth place, which Sweet Maria's sells green at
$9.80.
http://www.sweetmarias.com/coffee.ce...nicaragua.html