How to Roast the Perfect Cup of Coffee!

Have you ever been in the middle of drinking that perfect cup of morning coffee and asked yourself, "How did they get this coffee to taste so good? And how can I learn to do it myself?". Well, we found the answer to these questions on our recent visit to Antigua, Guatemala. First, you must start with a coffee bean grown in GUATEMALA! Because Guatemala has the best coffee in the world! Secondly, with the help of our knowledgeable friend, Andres, we got a lesson firsthand on how to roast the perfect cup of coffee! Our first session of class took place in the comfortable school room located in Andres' back yard. He has an awesome work space where he has set up an industrial size coffee roaster and grinder. The aroma of freshly roasted and ground coffee permeated the air and was absolutely wonderful! We started with the end product. Andres brewed us a fresh cup of coffee and we were convinced we must learn how to roast our own coffee to get this great, fresh flavor! And then the coffee roasting began!

Marta and her sister packaging the coffee. First it is weighed and then sealed.



A bucket of oro beans ready to go into the roaster.


Here the coffee beans are being roasted and put into the blue bin to cool to prepare for grinding.



We all took a tour of one of the local coffee farms in Antigua to get a closer look.


This plate shows the coffee in all 5 stages: 1) cherry coffee bean, 2) dried yellow coffee bean still in its shell, 3) husked green (oro) bean, 4) roasted coffee bean, 5) ground coffee


After fermenting, the coffee bean is laid out on the ground to dry in the sun.


Diagram of how a coffee roaster works.


Once the cherry coffee bean are picked they have to be soaked.


Cherry coffee beans being de-husked (skin taken off).


After the skin is taken off of the cherry coffee beans, the beans then go into these fermenting bins.



Cathy standing in front of an orchard of coffee bean plants.


Jake roasting his own 10 pounds of coffee beans!!! What's the secret to roasting a perfect cup? Well, we will never tell because it's Andres' secret, but what we can tell you is that you can and should do this at home! Roasting it yourself is the best way to get the perfect cup!

2010

We're back on the move again.
After leaving San Francisco, Cathy and I some how got stuck in the cold again in the midwest.
We had a lot of fun in the snow. A little skiing, hot tubbing and hanging out with the family.

Here is Cathy in Iowa where you can see it is way too cold


You can see the cats love it when it's milking time


Here is the mighty Quinn skiing for the first time. GO Q-DOG!!!


About to head out for a day of skiing


India the speed race heading back up the hill



It's nice to get back to Guatemala. We haven't made it back to the Woodduck yet, but we are getting close. We finally made it to Lago Atitlan. It's just north of Antigua about 2 hours away. We enjoyed 3 nights chillin' out. Stayed in a town called Panajachal and visited a very hippie town called san pedro on the lake.

the Lake is surrounded by three volcanoes



The volcano " el fuego" was blowing some steam off. Here are some cool pics.





We visited a coffee plantation just outside Antigua.


very cool to see the process, and then I helped my fried andres with roasting some coffee at his shop.

Then he let me roast 10 lbs of coffee to take to the boat. finally some good coffee. I think Ive found a new hobby.

This is the roasting machine


Here is the Green or Oro bean


and this is the finished product cooling





this is our last night in antigua and we'll be on a bus back to the rio dulce in the morning. this will be our last attack on the boat so we can finish it and get back to sailing next season.

Oh and I almost forget to introduce the newest member of the Pruette family
Zooma. This is my mom and dad's new airedale puppy



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