Keurig Loving, Sumatra Swilling, Ethiopian Taught Newbie Dad

I originally posted this in Sweet Maria's Forum, but Jill loved it and suggested I put it here, too. This way, I can also add pictures.

You gotta hand it to Keurig. They make it so easy when there's only one busy coffee drinker in the house. If you have a minute, you can have a coffee. My two Keurig brewers kept me fat and caffeinated for a good six years.

Keurig has a big menu of coffees from a variety of places. I kept trying different ones, especially Ethiopians. But I always found my Ethiopian brews to be, well, sour. Same thing with other origins, more or less, except my extra bold Sumatra. I always gravitated toward dark roasts and Sumatra, especially. Still, I never liked Starbucks or worse, Peets. Even though I liked dark roasts, those always veered into charcoal for my taste. Who needs those places, anyways. I had my Keurig and it served up competent, extra bold Sumatra, extra fast.

I learned pretty early on that I could make my little boy really happy with just a little taste of coffee. Judge away, but it's in his blood. He had his own coffee tree growing up and used to roast his family's beans with his mom in a vented skillet over an open fire. My son is from the Sidama region of Ethiopia where most of the country's best coffee is grown.

There's a little Ethiopian bodega on the north side of Chicago and I was browsing it with my son. "Daddy, daddy, look!" My son was holding a black, vented skillet with a wooden handle. "Coffee!" He said. He pointed out a bag of green beans. I asked him if he knew how to roast and he said "Yeah! please, please please?" We brought the stuff home and forgot about it for about a month.

We found the beans one Saturday morning and he brought me over to the stove. "You go like this," he said as he swirled the skillet over the fire. "Daddy, I'm tired." he said after about 2-3 minutes and I took over. "When do I stop?" I asked, squinting the smoke out of my eyes. "When it's brown... that's good." And it was good. Really good. This was no sour Ethiopian, this was a whole lot of flavor.

It took me about two weeks to break the skillet. No offense to my Ethiopian son, but we pop a lot of popcorn and I thought one of those cranky stovetop poppers would do a much better job. So, I Googled it and discovered I wasn't the first person to have that idea. I also read that air poppers do the job better, but I felt like I had to go with my first instinct. That was a mistake. The crank popper I bought had a flat agitator and it didn't roll the beans. They just burned on one side and under roasted on the other.


Lucky for me I have an understanding wife and a local Menard's that carries West Bend air poppers, cheap.

Since then, I've been roasting my first four pounds from Sweet Marias. Here's what I've learned. Ethiopian Coffee (Sidama Aleta Wondo) can be fantastic, especially if light roasted (City / City +) though I like full city roasts, too. Guatamalan (Acatenango - Finca La Soledad) is wonderful, even with citrus fruit. Yemen (Mokha Harasi) was my favorite roast, spicy, earthy but full of flavor. Sort of like my beloved sumatran, but way, way, better. And My Sumatran (Tarbarita Peaberry)? That was easily my least favorite of the bunch. I probably won't even buy Sumatran on my next purchase. But I'll be keeping a sharp lookout for more Yemen.




So, what about my Ethiopian son? He still loves drinking coffee, but roasting in the air popper just doesn't cut it for him. His American-born brother, on the other hand... He runs to the kitchen whenever I say I might be roasting a batch. He climbs up on a chair, peers into the top of the popper with me and catches the chaff in his hands. "Dad, that was first crack, right?" I'll give him a little for breakfast, too. Judge away.