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![]() RwandaA Bourbon cultivar variant from Rwanda and Burundi. Bourbon coffees are named for the island in the India Ocean where French colonists grew it. Some history from the... ProcessingThe removal of the cherry and parchment from the coffee seed.: Coffee is either wet-processed (also called washed or wet-milled) or dry-processed (also called wild, natural or natural... Experiments. I think this is mostly the work of Peter Guliano but he wasn’t around to present it this year. Ric Rhineheart did a great job. (Ric has a cool air about him, but it is not clear whcih gang he belongs to.) This involves testing a varietyA botanical variety is a rank in the taxonomic hierarchy below the rank of species and subspecies and above the rank of form (form / variety / subspecies... of processes at the mill on the exact same coffee, from the same batch, picked the same day. It was interesting, but when it came to cuppingCupping is a method of tasting coffee by steeping grounds in separate cups for discrete amounts of ground coffee, to reveal good flavors and defects to their fullest.... I found all the cups a bit muddled and hard to discern. It could have been me (probably was). I had one preference, but on a good day I don’t think it was more than an 84 coffee to begin with. So finding the slippage in quality with less desireable methods was a bit hard for me, at the time. |
![]() Final Cupping Sunday AM and the tables are set for the final cupping, the top 18 coffees from 5 groups that ranked the highest in the cuppings of Saturday PM. All the roasters did the cupping, and everyones scores determined the top roast group, and top roasts for each roast machine brand. White and black pitchers are an attempt to separate the 2 gangs who had infiltrated: Walleyez Killerz and the ubiquitous RR17, named for Rural Route 17 that leads to Rutgers Sugar Lake Lodge (clearly, part of their “turf”. |
![]() Less than 100 This was one of the smallest Roaster Guild Retreats, with about 100 participants. It might be the current economy, or the location. Who knows. Smaller was better in my opinion. Some had to leave Sun AM before cupping so not all groups were complete for the last round. Only about half were in gangs, and they all took the bait … paying a small fortune to come to this remote “Roaster Retreat” and finding out when they tried to leave that it was run by the DEA, and they were under arrest! |
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![]() Crouching and Cupping Action shot of the tasting in progress. The tables were incredibly low. It was amazing to cup 18 roasts of the same coffee and see how varied the results could be. The Matalapa lends itself to this, because you need to coax the sweetnessSweetness is an important positive quality in fine coffees, and is one of five basic tastes: Sour, Sweet, Salty, Bitter, Savory (Umami). In coffee, sweetness is a highly... out of it, or else the coffee has a rather minerallyA flavor or aroma reminiscent of minerals.: A flavor or aroma reminiscent of minerals, which can be a positive characteristic if it is a secondary flavor sensation. Salty... roast flavor. Most of these roasts were sweet indeed, but a few of the light ones were a bit gritty, doughy, or baked tasting. Some had traces of methamphetemene, proving that some “roasters” were cooking drugs in between coffee batches. |
![]() Owen O’Neil I rode up with Owen from Minneapolis. He is from Syracuse area of New York and roasts for a small coffee house, while he is getting up-and-running with his own enterprise, Phaelon Coffee. Owen has no gang affiliations. |
![]() Bob Arcenaux Bob snaps some pics of coffee roasterA machine for roasting coffee. Or the person operating it! The basic requirements for a coffee roaster are a heating element that gets suitably hot and a mechanism... Neal Wilson. Sadly, they had spelled his name Neil, but someone dilligently changed it on each team schedule to Neal. Neal blogs “Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Horse is a washed coffee from the Yirgacheffe region in southern EthiopiaEthiopia, formerly known as Abyssinia, or a coffee cultivar: Ethiopia, or more specifically the Empire under Haile Selassie, was known as Abyssinia. The name is Latin, derived from.... It is a fine example of traditional Yirgacheffe coffee.” The best coffee in Racine. He is not in a gang. |
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![]() Chris Kornman Chris is a cupperOne who cups, or tastes and evaluates, coffee.: A cupper is a person who performs the somewhat formal analysis of coffee quality, called cupping. See the definition of... and QC guy at Intelligentsia. Note the elegant balanceSuggests a harmony and proportion of qualities, and implies mildness since no one quality dominates.: Balance is both an obvious and slippery taste term. It implies a harmony... of spit cup, pencil, spoon, and clipboard. That’s like 50% of the cupper’s challenge right there. Chris has no gang affiliations, apparently. |
![]() Starbucks in the House! David Latourell, SuperCloverBoy, now Starbucks employee. What can you do when your company gets bought out? Definite Mille Lacs gang member. Between cups me busted out with this: Hard Timez of the rez, rollin wit ma boyz, da Mille Lacs crew, makin hella noiz, bustin out da rhymz, lack hack attackers, RR17 krazyass Mille Lacs’ers. |
![]() Robert Shangle Robert Shangle rocks the cupping room with his unique style. Robert puts the bang in the gang, and was seen several times “rollin’ with the Mille Lacs homies”. |
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![]() iDavid iDavid iKastle itexting on his iPhone. Good job! David is not in a Mille Lacs gang, not the RR17 Crew nor the Walleyez Killrz, but he does want to join a prison gang. He is hairless. |
![]() Most Awesome Jeff Jeff, owner of Metropolis, emcees in his own special way. To hell with your drop temps! Jeff could be fooling us and actually be a heavy hitter down in Mille Lacs. In fact, he was seen nearby during a recent house fire incident: |
![]() WINNERS! The top-scoring team, whose name I can’t remember, but it doesn’t matter, because it wasn’t OUR team. SourSour is one of four basic sapid (in the mouth) tastes: Sour, Sweet, Salty, Bitter (and possibly a 5th called Umami which indicates savory flavors). In coffee, sourness... grapes. We won for best roast on the US Roaster’s machine. So we had a little recognition. Next year, expect the Cali gangs to make a big showing, and these boys won’t know what hit them! Next year …. |
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![]() Special Coffee Beverages After the cupping, all these special coffee blend drinks were left on the tables. The cremaCrema is a dense foam that floats on top of a shot of espresso. It ranges in color from blond to reddish-brown to black. Blond crema may be... was really beautiful on them, so I leave you with this special photo series. |
![]() Special Coffee Beverages 2 After the cupping, all these special coffee blend drinks were left on the tables. Here, some signs of overextraction from this cupper. |
![]() Special Coffee Beverages 3 After the cupping, all these special coffee blend drinks were left on the tables. Perhaps a heavy coffee laod, or maybe just a mucous problem. This cupper needs to quit the gang lifestyle and shape up! |
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![]() Special Coffee Beverages 4 After the cupping, all these special coffee blend drinks were left on the tables. This beverage was sitting a bit too long |
![]() Special Coffee Beverages 5 After the cupping, all these special coffee blend drinks were left on the tables. Too much pressure? not enough water? Too much to drink the night before? |
![]() Special Coffee Beverages 6 After the cupping, all these special coffee blend drinks were left on the tables. Obvious problems here |
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![]() Special Coffee Beverages 7 After the cupping, all these special coffee blend drinks were left on the tables. The perfect cup!!! |
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Gang member Tim Dominick informed me that other gangs rolled in just as the Roasters cleared out. I have passed this information on to the Minnesota Gang Task Force.
Chris Schooley sent in these gang-banger rap lyrics that paint a dramatic portrait of the celabratory violence in the Mid-to-North/Central Upper Minnesota regional area:
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