Another fantastic mistake: The Mystic Blend

This week, we shut down the coffee roaster for a few hours and did some much needed maintenance. We replaced some parts before they failed and tuned it up so that it now roasts with a smile. However, we allowed too much space between the face of the roaster and the roasting drum. For 10 hours yesterday, about 5 lbs.beans dropped into a pan inside the roaster and accumulated all day long. There were so many orders to complete that I could not shut off the roaster, let it cool down and then fix the problem. I decided to place all of the beans that accumulated in the roaster pan into a bucket and Julie named it the "Mystic Blend." I roasted the full 5lbs today after fixing the roaster.

So, with mystery blends, there are two possible outcomes. One, it's horrible and barely palatable. Two, it's one of the best coffee blends I have ever tasted. The outcome was fortunately the latter of the two. Get it while it lasts because it tastes like a chocolate milk shake- notes of banana, chocolate, and milky cocoa creaminess. I call this a great mistake.

Cooking with Chazzano Coffee

Here are a few products that use Chazzano Coffee in their ingredients:

1. Atwater Block Brewery, Vanilla Java Porter

2. Bacco Ristorante, Espresso Biscotti

3. BNektar Meadery, Ethiopia Harrar Mead, and a top-secret Mead TBD

4. Dave's Sweet Tooth, Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Toffee

5. Royal Oak Brewery, Java Porter

6. Corden's Chocolate, Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans (Ethiopia Yirgacheffe)

The greatest part of working with these awesome companies is testing the products!

El Salvador Apaneca Elite

For the two coffee catering events, one at BNI-GRO in Pleasant Ridge and the other at Painting with a Twist in Ferndale, we are brewing fresh roasted french pressed El Salvador Apaneca Elite. I'm in a good mood. Business is booming. Life is good. Therefore, I'm serving a $36/lb. coffee for catering. What makes the Apaneca Elite so special? First, it's grown over 4500-5250 ft. above sea level. This is significant because plants grow and develop slower at higher altitudes. Therefore, coffee grown at high altitudes develop slower over a longer period of time and often produce exceptional flavor profiles with tremendous complexity. In addition, coffee grown over 4500 ft. above sea level are called SHB (Semi-hard Beans) and SHG (Strictly High Grown). Roasting them to a Vienna or French Roast often brings out great sweetness instead of rich pungency generally associated with dark roasted coffee. In other words, they don't burn or char very well. In addition, each coffee cherry is hand picked when they are at the peak of ripeness. Most coffees are sorted out later, but the coffee workers pick the ripest coffee cherries. Finally, (there's more?) they are sun dried until they read 12.5% of moisture and then they are set to rest a period of 60 days! This coffee is organic and fair trade. It is inspected and cleaned so lovingly that it's almost a shame to drink it. Yet, I must, with a great big smile on my face

Brewing Temperatures

Have you ever had an incredible cup of coffee at Chazzano Coffee Roasters, brought some beans home or to the office, opened the coffee bag, were astounded by the fantastic fragrance, ground it fresh, brewed it, and...it wasn't as fantastic as the coffee that you had at the cafe? Well, it could be your brewing temperature.

French press, drip, pourover, and vacuum syphon must all be brewed within the sweet spot of coffee brewing, between 195-205 degrees fahrenheit. If it's below 195 degrees, you will experience an under-extracted brew, and above 205 (near boiling), you'll experience an over-extracted brew.

Here are some hints to brew the best cup of coffee. For french press coffee, boil water and wait 30 seconds for the temperature to reach 200-205 degrees. For the usual cheap drip brewers, use this secret method. After you place the ground coffee in the brew basket, fully wet the grounds in the basket with hot water. This trick will help the coffee "bloom" and begin the flavor extraction process. When you turn the machine on and brew the coffee, the grounds will already have a head start. This will mitigate the usual lower brewing temperatures that make drip brewers my least favorite method of coffee brewing. In addition, make sure that the coffee is finely ground for the drip brewer.

Finally, enjoy the process. Enjoy life. Drink fantastic coffee.

La Nubes Andrea Costa Nicaragua Maragogype

You know that we have over 40 different single origin coffees available and another 15 blends. I look for the best specialty coffee available. Smart farmers sample different areas of their farms that may cup at a different level than the rest of the crop. Here's the problem: If a farmer has 50 hectares (2.471 acres) of coffee trees and discovers that 1/5th of the crop contains coffee that has a superior flavor profile, should the farmer seek to sell the portion of the crop at a higher price and possibly lower the quality of the entire crop? That's a tough question.

You've enjoyed some of our awesome microlots like Brazil Moreninha Formosa, Honduras Cup of Excellence, Yemen Mocca Sanani, and Honduras Finca Las Canas. We have now secured some incredible microlot coffees from Nicaragua. The first selection is an Andrea Castro Nicaragua Maragogype. They produced only 38 pounds of coffee and picked out (by hand) only the best beans for us! This is an extremely small offering, now, of 32 pounds. (Did you know that 32lbs. of unroasted coffee beans produces only 25.6 lbs. of roasted coffee.)

Maragogype is a large bean that is a mutation of a typica coffee tree. Each of the farms in the Las Nubes (The Clouds) Cooperative is managed by women. How cool is that?

Our 32 lbs. of coffee...

Just wait until you taste this coffee! It will become part of your bucket list.

We're One Year Old!

I'm roasting Costa Rica Tarrazu Santa Laura now. It's truly bringing a tear to my eyes, because it is the first coffee that I roasted 10 years ago. My wonderful mother-in-law always sends a nice check every October in honor of my birthday. Ten years ago, with that act of lovingkindness, I bought a small Fresh Roast Plus from thecoffeeproject.com, a great home roaster's site. After roasting a small 2-3 oz. portion of green coffee beans, I immediately ground them for French Press and tasted a coffee that was syrupy, chocolaty, and nutty. It was the best coffee ever-just like a fine glass of wine. Thus began my journey and my passion for coffee roasting.

I want to thank you, our loyal customers, for helping us to reach this one year anniversary. There is a blessing that Jews say when we reach a special moment in our lives - Praised are You, L-rd, our G-d, King of the Universe, who gives us life, who sustains us, and brings us to this (special) time.

Please come in today and tomorrow and say hello. If you find the coupon on the website, print it out, and we'll take 50% off of all of your purchases on Thursday and Friday (21 and 22). www.chazzanocoffee.com

Thank you,

Frank