The night before and all is stirring

Spent all day yesterday repeating the recipes for my coffees, getting ready for tomorrow where my work will be on display. Very exciting.

We will be tasting and offering all of the coffees I have been spending hours and hours on tomorrow from 10am to 3pm. I must say that the most surprising and astounding coffee there will be the sumatra. Mmmm, delicious. Many others that have turned out be very rewarding will be there, like the summer snow, dragon fire, guatemala, and more.

I did make a couple of mistakes during the roasting prep, but because of what I learned from the mistakes I am thinking of making it mandatory to accidentally do something wrong because it forces me to explore the bean's flavor and personality through that mistake.

I have noticed that the costa rica coffee turns darker and heavier at a lower temperature than most of the other coffees.

I have also made these wonderful tasting truffles that will be available. Made with 100% unsweetened chocolate, white chocolate and coffee liquor. Very much worth a taste.

With snacks, dips, and products on display, this party will be great. As far as coffee roasting goes, it's a whole bunch of repetition. I have placed an order for more coffees coming my way, including a new addition to the origin list: Yirgacheffe. Can't wait to play around with that one as a light roast, dark roast, and espresso. It's FTO, and I know some places like Tantra want an FTO espresso, and I love those ethiopian coffees as espressos.

Julie's new place, Wake the Dead, is getting a little bit of stir before the opening has even been anounced. I heard a barista at Tantra asking questions about the when and the where. I know her place will be awesome, and she has promised to dedicate an airpot just for Rivertown Roasters!

We may also be spotted soon in Austin! We went around on our intro to the neighborhood drop off some goodies round and stopped by Lava Java, an old employer. Tony said he was super impressed by the Summer Snow and the Nicaragua. Yay! Now we need to get our asses in gear and start offering whole leaf teas and whole leaf tea accessories.

I am in such a good mood, it feels so great to get such good response from my coffees. I hope to be able to grow and get even better as I continue to repeat, and make some mistakes along the way.

Oh yes, poster

Relaxing in the midst of chaos

Took the day off today to sort things out a little bit for the up coming weeks ahead. We are having our opening party on Saturday 9 Feb. Exciting, lots of coffee to drink, take home, and buy. Getting things ready and trying to create something that looks as appealing as it tastes is important to me.

I roasted a two days ago that came out fantasticly. It was sweet and smooth but still earthy. Really a great taste. I've also gotten a lot closer to my house espresso. It's spicy and sweet with a slight fruity finish. I think it might be a little too spicy for mass marketing, but I know I will enjoy this one as it develops and evolves through out the experimentation of roasting. I will make a more subtle, heavier espresso for most of the coffee shops around here. I'll be working on a really good light one, I'm sure, in a couple of weeks.

Went around, put up posters about the opening. Really hope it's all right and people want to buy this coffee. I have some strong blends and the origin roasting is just getting better and better everytime I roast. I am truly excited and hope this opportunity makes enough money to last.

I can't wait till the day that we get to go on origin trips and buy directly from the farms. Oh what a wonderful warehouse we would have to have. I love daydreaming about it. All fun and fantasy, but here and now I must work hard to get these coffees out. Quite a bit of work when your max post roast capacity equals to something around 3lbs.

Of to sleep for tomorrow's espresso adventures.