WildOats

I guess every now and then you kinda get board with the same old same old. For a while I was taking pictures of flowers. I decided to go out and buy some flowers, bring them home and take some shots. I liked that I was able to control my lighting. I like that I didn’t have to fight the wind. I liked that it was much easier to position the flower, and then also be able to arrange it in my view finder more easily than if I would be shooting outside.

But now after going to the store a few times, I’ve pretty much exhausted all their options of flowers. I was just there the other day, hoping to pick up something interesting. No luck. Nothing there that was new or anything that I’d be willing to take a chance on.

So to mix things up a little I decided to look around my place and perhaps photograph something I already had. After looking around for a bit, I decided on this vase type thing.

The reason I picked it was because the of the subtle variations in color and pattern to it. The trick of this shoot was in not getting too much of a refection of the left side of the vase. The light was coming from the left, and I didn’t want too much shine to ruin the subtle color patterns in the vase.

Overall I guess I’m happy with the result. I managed to keep the details on the vase, but at the same time I think the amount of light was good. The vase is bright enough, but not all washed out. I also managed to not have distracting shadows. Just a crisp white background.

It’s been about 1 week now since I’ve ventured in my coffee roasting journey. So far it’s been interesting. This whole roasting thing turns out to be more involved that I thought initially.

At first I just thought that all I had to do was roast the beans. And that’s exactly what I was doing at first. Just roasting the beans. I read a bunch on the topic, and started to get familiar with the different stages of the roast and stuff. But reading about something and understanding and actually doing it and understanding what’s going on is not the same.

When you roast coffee, the beans are heated and go from green all the way to brown or almost black depending on what type of roast you are looking for. But along the way there’s a ton of reactions that take place inside the bean, and there’s also a ton of things that take place outside the bean as well.

First the beans absorb heat, then they start to turn pale and then yellow and then brown and then darken even more. Also water starts to evaporate from the beans, and you can smell different scents as the beans go through the roast.

Another thing that happens along the way, the beans have these crack stages. Where the beans actually start cracking and you can hear it. But like anything else, sometimes it’s more complicated than it sounds. There’s two stages of cracks, and sometimes it’s hard to hear the cracks at all depending on the coffee variety. Sometimes the 2 separate cracks almost run one into another, it’s hard to tell which crack you are in.

Then there’s time, the actually timing of the roast. How long the roast goes on for. How long you roast till you get to the first crack. How long between the first crack and the second crack. How long do you roast after the second crack. There’s a lot of timing involved.

Another thing you can look at is bean temperature. So yesterday I went out and bought a temperature probe to watch the bean temperature. I’ve only roasted one batch so far using the probe. But I think it will help out a lot, in knowing at what stage you are in the roast.

After the beans have been roasted, you’re supposed to let the coffee rest at least a day before drinking it. And then, some coffees taste better at different times after the roast. I’m not advanced enough yet to know which coffee needs how much resting time.

The other thing about coffee is how they describe the flavors of it. When you read about it, it’s almost like wine when they describe the taste of it. Well……. I don’t know what they are tasting, but I can’t seem to be able to do that. I guess that comes with time. But so far, I’m not seeing much difference in the way the different coffees taste. They all taste like……like coffee.

So anyway, I’m having a fun time experimenting. I’ll keep at it, and maybe in a few weeks and more experience I’ll be able to get awesome coffee and be able to differentiate all the flavors.

P.S. The picture of the coffee up top is of one of the roasts I did. It’s cool to be able to combine my 2 new hobbies like that. How does the roast look?

As you know from my last entry, I’ve decided to look into roasting my own coffee beans. So I’m sure you’ve been checking in constantly since then to see how it all turned out. So…..how did it turn out?

Since the beans arrived I’ve roasted off two different varieties of beans. I really don’t know much about the different varieties, and how they should taste. I read all 8 of the labels and the coffee names. I think the write those things in Greek or something. Can’t understand a word…..lol. But they do put what type of roast they recommend to do for each bean type, and they also write what it tastes like. Thank God.

So I read all the varieties and my head was spinning. That’s when I decided to try this Columbian coffee. I figured it would probably be close to what everyday coffee that we all know would taste like. That was my first roast. The roast went fine. In fact, the picture of the roasted beans in the last post was of those Columbian beans.

I let the beans rest overnight. And I then tried them the next morning. And…… so what did it taste like??? you say? Well it tasted just like regular coffee. LOL, It was good, but nothing spectacular. I was kinda disappointed, cause I guess I was expecting it to be different from regular coffee. You know….being fresh and all. But at the same time….. I did pick the Columbian beans, so maybe they are meant to be like regular everyday coffee.

That afternoon, I’m back at it. This time I decided to try an Ethiopian coffee. The roast again seems to go well. The beans look fine. So I’m happy with it, and let it rest overnight like the first batch.

The next morning comes along, and I’m all excited to see what this Ethiopian coffee tastes like. I grind the beans, and get the coffee going. Then I take my first taste. And…….well….. can you guess what it tastes like? It tastes like coffee. Not bad, but nothing spectacular either. Hmmmmm.

Overall, I’m not sure what all this means yet. I guess I’ll have to play around with it and see what develops. Maybe I have to adjust my roasting technique a little. Maybe I need to let the beans rest longer than I have been so far. Maybe the other varieties will taste different and more outstanding. Maybe I need to play around with how I grind the coffee. Or maybe it’s just all supposed to taste pretty much the same regardless….hehe.

Anyway, I’ll have fun with it for a while. Something new to tinker with.

A few years ago, I read about roasting coffee at home. I thought it sounded pretty cool, but I never did anything about it. I guess I forgot about it, and it never went anywhere.

About 2-3 weeks ago, I again read something about roasting coffee at home. I do like coffee, and this time I decided to read a little more about it. So I went online and did a little research on the subject.

I’ve known for years that coffee tasted better when you grind coffee beans at home and use the grinds right before you make your coffee. The reason, apparently is that ground coffee goes stale very quickly. So I’ve been buying roasted coffee beans, and grinding them right before making my coffee for years. What I didn’t know is that the coffee beans, even though they are unground go stale very quickly too. How quickly do they go stale? Apparently 2 weeks after the beans have been roasted, they are stale. So what’s the big deal? Well the thing is that when you buy your beans at the store, you have no idea how long ago they were roasted. So the idea is that everyone has been buying stale coffee their whole lives and not knowing it. Who knew??

Enter the idea of roasting your own coffee beans at home. So the more I read up on the concept, the more I thought I should try this out. Not only do you have total control of how fresh the beans are, but you now can roast the beans exactly the way you want them. You can make a medium roast or a more full roast, or a French roast. Whatever you want, you have total control.

So I liked the idea of this whole thing, and then went online to check out the beans. I don’t know much about all the different varieties of coffee. So I decided to get a sampler pack of beans. The pack arrived today, and I now have 8 different varieties of coffee I can sample. Kinda cool.

The unroasted beans in a way look like small peanuts, but green. They are much smaller than the coffee beans you are used to seeing when they are roasted. I took a small amount of the unroasted beans and took a pic of them.

The beans took a little over a week to arrive by UPS, so I spent the time looking around online. I tried looking at different sites to educate myself and watched a few youtube vids. It definitely helped out a lot.

Today I roasted my first batch of the beans, and it was easier than I thought it would be. It worked out pretty well as far as I can tell. The beans look ok. I took them to a full roast, but not too dark.

Now you have to let the beans rest for 4-24 hours. Apparently the flavors develope over that time, and also CO2 gas comes out of the beans as well. So I now have to wait and see how the coffee tastes. I’m looking forward to seeing what it actually tastes like.