Welcome to my new obsession

Knowledge is never wasted - only misused 

                                                                            --Rod Melotte

______________________________________________________________________

Not sure what the catalysis was for this one but coffee is on my radar.   All my life I have had coffee, good coffee, bad coffee, indifferent coffee. It never really mattered that much what it was.  Some good, some bad but I never actually THOUGHT about coffee and what makes it tick. 

Here is the weird thing - I get zero JOLT out of coffee.  I cannot ever remember getting a coffee buzz.  Caffeine for me is non-existent.  I can drink 4 cups and not feel any extra energy at all and go take a nap.  I WISH I could. 

On a 500 mile bike ride few decades ago I was with some people and they were drinking coffee in teh morning and one asked if I liked coffee.  Of course but going a week without coffee?  I never thought it was a weird thing.  It's like going a week a without a Coke.  No big deal.  

I just like the taste. 

So ANYWAY, flash forward to today.   

OH  SORRY - I do know the catalysis.  A friend posted a note saying JBC Roaster in Madison was ranked by Forbes as one of the top 10 roasters in America.  THUS - I had to try it. 

I went to Jennifer Street Market and purchased a 12oz bag of Tano Batak Sumatra - having ZERO clue what it was.    

OF COURSE Sumatra is one of the oddest areas in the world for growing coffee.  Odd techniques and a flavor which I'm told people HATE or LOVE. It's a special coffee (who knew). 

Most coffee farms in Sumatra are small with 100 coffee trees and then it goes to a co-op.  Sumatran coffee is processed by "wet-hulling'.

Typically the coffee seeds are dried to 11% moisture before being processed. They are laid out and sun dried.  But in Sumatra you only get 4 hours a day of sunlight and the rest of the time it's raining so they go to a 50% moisture instead and then the seeds are taken to a machine that uses friction to complete the process. This ferments the beans/seeds creating that earthy, wild mushroom , peat/mossy flavor. 

 Most Sumatra is roasted dark like a french roast.  I purchased some French Roast coffee from Ankora(sp?).  The roast date was 6 months ago which I now learn is 4 months too old (I'm told).

OH - JBC Roasters buy from small farms and give a higher price to the farmers then the so called

"Fair Trade" coffee which gives each farmer an extra nickle per pound.  

ANYWAY - Tano Batak is an interesting area.

In their culture the woman are in charge.  Woman own all the farms, they do all the harvesting, all the processing.  When they go to market the "Pajuar" who collect all the beans are also woman.   

Men do all the drying and hulling. "This is truly a socially responsible area that affords empowerment to women".

I need to find more Sumatran just to compare to this one. 

And then there is Kopi Luwak.  One of the most expensive coffees in the world that comes from Sumatra.

To get beans for this coffee farmers look for  palm civet cats.  These cats eat the fruit and poop out the seeds.  The farmers gather the poop, get the seeds and bingo.  Kopi Luwak.

While inside the cat the seeds are protected and continue to ferment.

The acid inside the cats stomach and the wet-hulling process  create a earthy tones of mushrooms and tomato (I'm told).

Good wild Kopi Luwak is about $160 a pound.


Sumatran coffee is different then most coffee you have tasted.

Let the adventure begin LOL

I bet many of you guys have smelled JBC Roasters.  They are right at the exit to the belt line from southbound I94 into Madison.   DJ and I are taking a JBC Brewing 101 class February 22.   $35 BUT - you get a bag of coffee worth $16.

*****************************

WEATHER - everybody knows about the coming record breaking cold but after Friday we have 3 days of reprieve.  Saturday the high will be 37 Sunday 35 Monday 33 and then back to the middle teens.   Some rain and wintry mix of course those 3 days.

BE CAREFUL with your dogs!!!! 

OH  Columbus  5.9 inches of snow. 

*****************************

So far - every dire prediction about cannabis has been false.   In Colorado teens are not smoking more pot.  There is no evidence that states with legal cannabis have more accidents.  In fact there is evidence that drunken driving is down.

17 States have bills going through their government to legalize cannabis       

        

***********************

WELL - the government shutdown gave us one lesson to remember.  We now know what the canary is for the American economy.  It's the TSA employees and airlines.

Once those to things get effected all of a sudden everything changes.  Government OPEN.

We also learned Trump is a very very bad poker player.

He continues to misread his hand.  He is like a poker player that holds Ace / King and THINKS he has a good hand.  Ace King is the hand you can lose the most on because you overplay it.  It LOOKS good and all is well until you are too deep and there is no way to dump the hand, TOO LATE.

People complain about bad beats but normally it's because you played the hand too long.   I would say I'm a pretty good poker player putting a down payment on our house,  island vacations and road trips across America and the way to win at poker is NOT to lose.

Winning is easy - NOT losing is the hard part.  Trump plays his hands too long and gets stuck.  He holds pocket jacks (the glass hammer) and thinks it's a good hand but does not fold when a "ace called Nancy" hits the board.   

*********************

 Nuff Said -

have a wonderful day and stay tuned to your dogs needs.  His paws and nose are not ready for -20 degrees