This is a story about two hosts. Both of them love having people over for dinner and conversation. They are both excellent at entertaining and love to see their guests enjoying themselves. After dinner, both hosts decided to put on a pot of coffee as they prepared desert. The first host used a standard, run-of-the-mill grocery store coffee. They drew no attention to the coffee, seeing it as a necessary logistic. The second understood that a good host shares stories. The second hostess reached for their bag of Paravisini Coffee. 

The first host served his guests a coffee they all knew, and it's commonality left no room for questions. The muddy flavors were quickly masked with excessive cream and sugar, and the night went on. It was not a 'bad' coffee in the strictest terms, but it was quickly forgotten as the night ended.

For the second hostess, things took a different turn. One of the guests noticed the messy handwritten label, with an unfamiliar name, a prominent roast date ("that was only days ago!"), and the incredible aroma that filled the room as the bag opened. The questions began and the hostess seized the opportunity to discuss this little Rhode Island artisan roaster who roasts coffee fresh on demand. She went on to describe the qualities of a great coffee, and some basic techniques she had learned to keep and brew a fresh and delicious cup every time. The guests commented on how delightfully smooth, yet flavorful the coffee was. One of them commented on how they didn't even need cream and sugar! Desert was served, and the guests went home delighted with the hostess' wonderful and interesting hospitality. The story quickly spread, and soon the hostess aquired for herself a quite reputation.

What story will you tell?

Figured i'de share a snapshot of some of the samples from upcoming roaster's club coffees. Right there in the middle, we have our first-ever aged coffee! There might also be a dry-processed in that mix somewhere, but I won't spoil all of the surprises ;)

If you are not already a member, you are most definitely missing out on some awesome rare and exclusive coffees. Go ahead and request an invite here: http://paravisinicoffee.com/coffee/roasters-club

For all of its wild popularity, caffeine is one seriously misunderstood substance. It's not a simple upper, and it works differently on different people with different tolerances—even in different menstrual cycles. But you can make it work better for you.

-Lifehacker.com

Check out What Caffeine Actually Does To Your Brain over at Lifehacker. It is well worth the read if you are interested in the science behind your caffeinated mornings.

Putting Coffee in a Freezer Keeps It Fresh Longer

This is not necessarily a myth, It's more like a half-truth. If you are talking about keeping your bag in the freezer section of your fridge, by all means no! The constant open and closing of the freezer door, combined with much warmer temperatures and neighboring food results in moisture build up on your coffee wich can make it go rancid as well as attach all sorts of unpleasant flavors to your beans. However, if you have chest freezer that can stay around -15°F, you can store sealed portions of whole beans and get around a 2 month shelf life (compared to the standard 14-28 days stored at room temperature). This can be helpful if you want to order several pounds at a time to save on shipping.

Storing Coffee in a Sealed Container Keeps It Fresh for Many Months

The 2-4 week limit is taking for granted that your whole beans are stored airtight and away from heat and light. The coffee has already been exposed to oxygen right after the roasting process is over, and oxygen break down flavors. If the variables of whole bean, cool, dry, and dark are not in place, you can expect a much quicker stale time. A good test if your coffee is fresh or not is to see if the grinds "bloom" when they first come in contact with hot water.

Coffee Stunts Your Growth

This was a theory that arose many years ago when it was thought that there was a link between osteoporosis and caffeine intake. Caffeine has been shown to reduce calcium in a minor way, but if you are already living an overall healthy life in regards to your nutrient intake, the effects will be negligible. It still might not be a good idea to give your 2 year old a shot of espresso if you cherish your sanity ;)

Microwaving Coffee Is a Good Way to Reheat It

Besides the highly probable, yet currently untested affects on the radiation on the various fragile chemical compounds in a cup of coffee, there is the fact that microwaving by definition heats unevenly at extreme temperatures, causing bitterness to become the prominent character of your once delicious cup. If your coffee has cooled significantly, your best bet is to throw it over some ice and call it a day. Using a thermos or thermal carafe to store your coffee before you get a chance to drink it is a good way to hold onto the great flavors and heat longer.

Coffee Dehydrates You

The fact that caffeine (and any stimulant) acts as a diuretic has caused much controversy over the question of coffee being a dehydrating drink. The actual science of the matter is that coffee is 98% water and it has been proven that the amount of water alone overtakes the dehydrating effects of the caffeine. 

I just finished laboring in front of a 400+ degree roaster on an already hot night. I feel gross and need to shower. The smell of the coffee smoke has settled on my sweat, leaving me with a creepy intimacy with the roasts tonight. Don't worry, I'm not actually sweating into the coffee or anything.

After a tiring day, I am up until midnight roasting coffee. Why?

Paravisini Coffee Company is not making me a millionaire or anything. There are so many flaws with the business plan in regards to making quick money. Most of the techniques that I use end up costing me more time or money.

Something else drives this. A weird obsession, yes, but there is something amazingly rewarding about this. The endless pursuit for the perfect cup of coffee no matter the cost. There are times that I get a roast so perfect, that the resulting coffee is almost intoxicating. Every roast logged adds to the data farm, creating a mosaic of the various ways that beans respond. It is man and machine striving to be in harmony with nature &em; to tame and subdue it.

Nature rewards those who wrestle it. 

Feeling philosophical,
-Joe Paravisini

6 Shots over ice. The perfect cure to a hot, sleepy day!

Finally dusted off my Cona and brewed some of the “secret” coffee (see previous post .) I had to share a picture and some more tasting notes.

So after the roast rested a couple of days, I brewed it in my Cona (pictured on the right, also lovingly known to many as my “coffee bong”). This coffee is simply incredible. It literally has no flaws, everything is perfectly balanced. A medium brightness lets you know it has strong Latin American roots. It has a very full body and an overall incredible flavor profile with an undeniable almond with some sort of fruity/berry type of notes (I obviously need to do so more cupping).

I was super specific measuring and brewing this batch, measuring down to the gram and obtaining a perfect 125ml/8.25g ratio. Doing so, compared to the standard cupping, I was able to detect significantly more subtle flavors that I had not even noticed last time. The aftertaste also increased from around 20 minutes to at least 40.

All in all, an incredible coffee brewed in an incredible brewer makes an incredible night.

Here are some notes from my initial cupping: “The cup was perfectly balanced with a mild/medium brightness and a medium body, milk chocolate, almond, incredible aftertaste that lingered pleasantly for 20 minutes, overall almost perfect cup”

Items needed

• Press Pot
• Fresh-roasted, Whole-bean Coffee
• Grinder
• Measuring Cup
• Spoon
• Timer

Step 1 – Measure

Measure out your coffee and water. The standard coffee to water ratio is 7.25 grams of coffee to 4-5 ounces of water. Most coffee scoops are twice that, since most people consider 8-10 ounces of coffee to be a “cup” (for some reason, the coffee equipment industry still considers a “cup” to be 4-5 ounces of coffee).

Step 2 – Heat

Bring hot water to around 200 degrees Fahrenheit. If your workplace has a water cooler that provides hot water, this is usually in the right range, so you can skip to step 3. At home, bringing the water to a boil, and then allowing to cool for a minute will do the trick.

Step 3 – Grind

Grind your coffee to a slightly coarser grind then for auto-drip. Note that sediment at the bottom of the cup is normal, but if you have actual grinds floating around, this is a sign that the grind is too fine, try slightly coarser next time.

Step 4 – Soak

Pour hot water over your grinds slowly in a circular motion, allowing all the coffee grinds to become saturated Note that pouring too fast will cause the coffee to clump, and allow some of it to remain dry.

Step 5 – Steep

Place the cover on, with the plunger raised, and set your timer for 4 minutes. Meanwhile, get your cups ready by rinsing them with hot water to ensure the coffee does not get chilled during the pour.

Step 6 – Stir

Take the cover off, check for the bloom (The bubbly, frothy layer at the top, the sign of fresh coffee) and then stir the coffee gently, allowing the grinds to sink. The grinds should resurface momentarily.

Step 7 – Press

Press the plunger down slowly, and evenly. The plunger should give some resistance, but should not be stuck. If the plunger is stuck, do not force it, as it could cause the glass to break which is a dangerous and messy situation. A stuck plunger indicates too fine of a grind. The total time to press a full-sized french press should be around 30 seconds.

Step 8 – Pour

Pour yourself a cup and enjoy!

The plant

Despite the term being popularly used, coffee is not a true “bean”. Coffee “beans” as we know them were once seeds inside of a coffee fruit, or cherry. A single coffee tree will take up to 5 years before it begins producing cherries. Each tree produces roughly one pound of coffee per year. The Arabica plant grows at a higher altitude and requires significantly more care then it’s lesser quality, higher caffeine-content counterpart Robusta. Higher grown coffees result in a smaller, denser, more flavorful bean.

The harvest

Coffee is harvested when the coffee cherry turns bright red. Ripe coffee cherries are then hand-picked by a discerning harvester, with defective or damaged cherries being disposed of. Even after cherries are selectively harvested, they are placed in large water tubs prior to processing. Unripe cherries sink, ripe cherries float.

The processing

The processing begins with the cherries. The problem, there is delicious coffee yet to be untapped within the pulpy mess of fruit. The beans themselves are also encased in a hull. There are two main systems for getting those little beans out of the cherries, Dry processing and Wet processing. These terms affect the resulting cup character in very profound ways.

Dry process

Dry processed coffee is cleaned and then put in the sun to dry out. After around 4 weeks of raking and turning, the coffee is hulled. Dry processed coffee allows the coffee cherry fruit to continuously shape the flavor of the bean during drying and results in a complex cup with a heavy body.

Wet process

Wet processing starts by passing the cherries through screens that strip off the skin. The remaining pulp is typically allowed to stay on and ferment under much supervision, and then removed with large quantities of water.

Hulling

Hulling is one of the final steps in this process. The coffee beans still have the parchment (or hull) and silver skin. The hulling process typically uses a machine to remove these flaky remains. Sometimes coffee is polished after hulling to allowed the green bean to look pretty. Shiny coffee does not trick us however, since we blind taste test the many samples we receive in order to make unbiased, quality choices.

The shipping

Once the coffee has been graded and sorted, little pests such as sticks and pebbles have been removed, it needs to be stored in Jute bags (those big burlap sacks with fun logos) in a cool, dry place. Coffee at this stage can stay stable for approximately 1 year. This environment must be maintained during shipping. Unfortunately, many good coffees at the farm can end up becoming flawed by the time they reach American warehouses due to improper storage. The final step is the coffee reaches a warehouse owned by a Coffee Broker. These brokers send us many samples, and we get to enjoy lots of free coffee trying to find the best of the best. When we find a coffee that truly sticks out, we buy a bag and the roasting begins! And that’s all the work that goes into specialty coffee, before it even reaches us as the roaster! Clearly, a great cup of coffee is not something that is created by a roaster, but is something that a roaster brings out of an already great cup. The Paravisini Coffee Company standard is that we only select the finest coffees available to start with. Happy coffee drinking!

The machine seemed to make a very good extraction overall, the coffee quality, however, was completely unbearable. I almost felt bad disliking it so much, the counter help was so friendly, and the bagels were delicious. The espresso tasted like rancid battery acid.

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So, initially, it was an experimental to see if we could have a blend that seemed to fit the mood of the winter holiday season. You know, a coffee that goes great with Christmas cookies, warm blankets, fireplaces, that whole abstract deal. So in the process of trying to create substance to sentiment, the blend itself actually came out incredible, and has been blowing people away. And just to keep the sentimental value alive, until Christmas, it’s ten bucks. That’s right, a coffee that is more expensive to purchase for me is cheaper for you. Why? Because it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And it’s easier then trying to shop for you, because seriously, I have no idea what to get you.

So why not grab a few bags of Caffè Noël and perhaps a few Thick-Walled Porcelain Mugs for your friends and family? Oh, and by the way, for the month of December, I will be roasting much more frequently, so expect to see your orders quicker!

Cheers,
-Joe Paravisini