Let’s talk coffee, shall we?
I was given a blend of beans the other day with no information other than the person it was from, and the name he had given it. I was excited to try his homemade blend and see if my coffee knowledge was up to speed. Upon grinding the beans I immediately detected scents of berries, a characteristic of a sun-dried coffee.
Once the fresh ground coffee steeped in my French press for four(ish) minutes, I plunged, poured, smelled, slurped, and savored. My palate was overwhelmed with flavors of blueberries and nuts, and I immediately knew this blend had African and Latin American grown beans. What I didn’t pick up on was the Indonesian beans, which I was told about after I had guessed the blend. Apparently the full body and herbal flavor typical of Indonesian beans comes out as the coffee cools.
I didn’t wait long enough to let it cool. 😉
I haven’t been focusing on the tasting aspect of my job lately, simply because I’ve been focusing on grasping everything there is to grasp about being a supervisor. Now that I’ve got a handle on things I want to get back to my coffee tasting adventures.
I remember a time many moons ago when I tried to combine two very different coffee blends into one because I wanted to save space in my pantry. Coffee is coffee right?
Oh how wrong I was, I ended up throwing it all out. RIP handpicked beans.
I’m now comfortable with combining blends, knowing which will pair well, and which will not. When I noticed I was a handful of Maui beans shy of a full French press I knew exactly which blend to complete my morning brew. The Pike Place special reserve has similar notes to the Maui coffee and they went together perfectly.
They also paired perfectly with my new obsession: two ingredient almond butter maple cookies. The simpler the ingredients the better for me. 1 cup of almond butter mixed with 1/4 cup maple syrup and a dash of salt gave 10 chewy, nutty cookies that I couldn’t get enough of. Two cookies per serving thanks to the “fit in my hand” rule.
Those cookies and coffee were the perfect fuel for a few extremely enjoyable runs.
I debated on up-cycling some discarded snake skin I saw while on this 5 mile run (which turned into 5.10 because I insisted on a 10min or below pace) but then I found this paracord bracelet in perfect condition! I love finding treasure!
Q: Do you pick up treasures you find while out exploring the land, or leave them behind? I usually leave behind the used Kleenex pieces and needles, but $$ and hiking tools are a must grab! Also I was totally joking about the snake skin.