Friday, June 17, 2005


gift from a coffee devi

and yesterday i was deeply privileged to receive a most unexpected package in the mail: some coffee from the all-around devi, suzanne shriner.

suzanne is the ultimate bccy goddess: she's a kona estate coffee farmer, a coffee roaster, a yoga teacher, and a candy-maker! plus i believe that for the b&b portion of the coffee farm, she sometimes bakes as well.

in short, we here at bccy dream of growing up to be suzanne. if you're fond of kona's famous cloud-sun coffee (a "coffee blessed by nature," as ken davids says), you can put bccy principles in action by buying direct from the farmer/roaster herself!

it's pretty amazing that suzanne can roast on a monday and have the coffee fresh in my hands here in nyc in just 3 days. she doesn't really have a fulfillment or packing staff, you know.

lemme give you a quick description of suzanne's coffee, which is classically a slope kona. you'll forgive me for not "wasting" any of this in a formal cupping, but instead making up every precious bean to drink!

suzanne air-roasts her coffee to what i would call a mid-city roast. the dry grounds are fragrant and sweetly spicy.

i popped 60g. of this brown gold into my cafetiére (that's a french press to you!), poured over 1 liter of 203 degree water, stirred, and tapped my foot until those 4 minutes went by. . .

i was rewarded with an above-medium brightness (coming from the slopes, you'd expect suzanne's coffee to be bright; her air-roasting of course only serves to enhance that quality) and with a medium body (because i made in the press pot).

i thought suzanne's coffee had a strong sweet brazil nut taste. yummy. i especially liked it with a touch of light cream and splenda.

and speaking of our friends who roast coffee, lemme thank kevin of gimme for his compliments. gosh: you're too kind.

the best thing about the scaa is that we in the specialty coffee family are finally able to close the loop and connect all our friends together: the utz kapeh farmers, former scaa prez christian wolthers the greenie, myself as consumer, and of course kevin, the roaster/retailer. . .this has always been ted lingle's vision.

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