So I have bragged about my local library before, but this summer is the first opportunity I have had to take advantage of its offerings. Last weekend I went to a Herbs 101 class taught by a local author, who talked to us about herbs that can be scavenged in the area and used them in smoothies that we all tried.
Today I went to a coffee class thrown by a local roaster, Huckleberry Coffee. We learned about the brewing process and what makes coffee good or bad. We also learned about coffee cherries, how they are harvested, what it takes to get them from the tropics (where coffee grows best) to here. We also had an opportunity to sample their coffees, including one coffee that was processed dry vs. wet.
Some notes that I took during class
1 tablespoon of coffee to 4 Oz of water is the appropriate ratio
-coffee that is ground too coarse or too fine will be sour, bitter, watery
-brewing can be done by combining pressure heat and water, and altering those variables will alter the flavor of your coffee
-espresso is simply coffee that is concentrated through the use of pressure
-coffee beans are located within the coffee cherry. They must be processed in order to get the bean
-dry processing involves fermentation to extract the beans from the cherry
-wet processing allows the cherry to naturally dry out and extract the beans
-darker roast coffee has more caffeine than lighter roasts
-they determine the roast of a coffee by measuring its volume before and after the roast