Living in rural America you are not likely to find a Starbucks, Target, Cosco, movie multiplex, Home Depot, Trader Joes, commercial airport, or a wide range of fine dining and entertainment hotspots “just around the corner”. More likely they are 90 miles in one direction or another. What you will find is a collection of family owned and operated small businesses serving an eclectic range of needs. One example is the Machipongo Trading Company with their local coffees from Eastern Shore Coastal Roasting Co.

The owners of Eastern Shore Coastal Roasting Co. have a solid range of coffees they have blended and roasted themselves and are not just some repackaged bulk purchase from “elsewhere”. What’s even better is they love to hear what people think and want. Kristen and James use treat their coffee just like a microbrewery treats their beer. You might even call them a “micro-roaster”. What is so great is that a micro-roaster can do small batches – all the way down to 7lbs. With this little tidbit, I contacted Kristen and setup an appointment to visit and talk about coffee !

Coffee has more distinct flavors than wines – most quote, “more than 700 flavor constituents”. Knowing what you like is one thing. Describing it is much harder.

Anyway, Kristen first had me try each of the blends they had available (over a period of weeks – not all in one day). Then I cam back with my comments. From that information, she selected and roasted three single-origin beans – Guatemalan, Sumatra Mandheling, and El Salvador Peaberry – as well as their house blend. They ground all to the same consistency and it was back to taste testing at home.

The first few days were tough.

• Day 1 – make a single espresso shot of each and taste side by side “strait up”. Serious buzzing ensured.
• Day 2 – make a single espresso shot of each with a measured amount of whole milk and taste side by side “strait up”. Again, serious buzzing ensured.
• Day 3 – repeat Day 1 with a 1/2oz of chocolate syrup in each (this is what I enjoyed while in Rome a few years back). Sadly, less buzzing ensured which meant I was adjusting to the mega dosage.
• Day 4 – blend 50/50 of Guatemalan and Sumatra Mandheling and add milk. Fortunately the withdrawal was not as bad as expected but I definitely did not want to escalate back to 4 shots before 8AM.
• Day 5 – blend 50/50 of Guatemalan and El Salvador Peaberry and add milk.
• Day 6 – blend 50/50 of Sumatra Mandheling and El Salvador Peaberry and add milk.
• Day 7..10 – I was traveling
• Day 11 – blend 1/3 each and add milk.
• Day 12 – make a mocha from the Day 4 blend.
• Day 13 – make a mocha from the Day 4 blend using a different espresso machine
• Day 14 – make a mocha from the house blend

So, now I have my notes from all of the above (along with a serious caffeine addiction). It’s time to return the Machipongo Trading Company for a tasty breakfast and a conversation with Kristen. Soon, theSalmonFarm may have it’s own signature coffee !

If you like coffee ice cream but are finding it increasingly difficult to find or wished there was some creativity involved, you might like to try this alternative …

Take 1oz of warm water and add 8-10 tablespoons of instant coffee. Let it chill in the refrigerator. When ready, get yourself a bowl of good ice cream and drizzle a little of the coffee syrup on top. Warning – if you don’t plan to mix it in, be sparing. If you’re inclined to swirl it all together, you can add considerably more syrup with out it being bitter!

The hint was the image was blurry because the camera focused on the wrong thing. I have zoomed, cropped, and mirrored a portion of the image to show the camera was paying attention to the espresso machine’s portafilter and not the surface of the liquid in the cup …

I had put the milk in the cup before pulling the shot of espresso and the first few drips created the latticed ripples like a spider’s web. The camera caught a the moment after a single drop had hit the surface and thus the crater.

I may have a lot going on but I still find excitement and awe in some of the most simple things like a thunderstorm, the sound of bees, wheat fields, or a hawk soaring on a thermal.

I enjoy watching my morning espresso nearly as much as drinking it (although watching it does not help me wake up any faster).

music courtesy Vielfaure at audiomicro.com.

I guess there was a theme to this year’s Christmas – CAFFEINE ! I received a wonderful Italian espresso machine, organic espresso, Italian espresso, chocolate cover espresso beans, and an variety of gourmet coffees. I spent last night learning to pull an authentic demitasse of espresso with the la Pavoni Europiccola Fusso. It’s a bit more work than my old machine but the results are much richer. It took 5 attempts to get the hang of it – and NO, I did not drink all the experiments (I left them for my iced mochas this weekend) <zzzzing> !