Thanks, Alan! The only photos I didn’t take were the ones that Louise kindly shot for me while I actively stepped through the coffee making motions. It’s just too tricky to try to pour with one hand while holding, focusing and shooting a camera with the other! But I took all the stationary product shots.

Heh! “Darkroom coffee”. A fair description; or you might call it Chemistry Coffee. Thing is, when I make French Press (and I now and again do that for variety) I still use most of the stuff you see here. I weight the beans and the French Press itself to make sure I pour the correct amount of water. I use the timer to get consistent steeping times. Of course I still need the grinder and the kettle.

In the past I would just pour a bunch of water over a bunch of sloppily ground coffee and I liked it just fine, but I decided to get more methodical and precise about improving every little bit of the process to make the coffee as awesome as I could. And the results have been well worth it! The coffee I make now is astoundingly tastier than what I used to drink.

I have been on the “bean quest” too. My latest mini-obsession has been to taste as many Gesha varietal beans as have been available around here. They only appear from time to time in the micro roasters and they usually cost about twice the average specialty coffee prices.

I had been drinking a lovely coffee from Mexico last summer/fall: Bella Vista Chiapas, from an all-woman collective in the southern mountainous regions. https://www.instagram.com/mayanharvestcoffee/ See if you can get some; heavenly.

Happy sipping, Alan!