Espresso and Kahlua Cookie Recipe

Ran across this delicious-sounding fix for two possible addictions: caffeine and alcohol! This recipe called "BuzzBarz" by Barbara Fisher combines espresso and Kahlua in the one cookie. So let's all give it a "shot".

The picture of the BuzzBarz cookie is courtesy of Barbara's food blog: Tigers and Strawberries

Follow Up on i-Roast 2 Roasting Profile

This is a follow up to yesterday's post about customizing your roasting profile with the i-Roast 2 home coffee roaster. I'm happy to report that the beans turned out way better than using either of the two preset roasting profiles delivered with the i-Roast. I have been using green beans bought online from Vivace coffee roasters in Seattle. They supply their Dolce roast as green beans for half the price of the roasted beans, so once we get this nailed, we can all save a lot of money roasting our own beans!

The issue I have had with the two preset profiles on the i-Roast is that the bean is not roasted inside to the extent that the outside of the bean is. In other words, when the bean is ground, the color of the grinds is much lighter than the beans appeared before being ground. Following on from the reading that I mentioned in yesterday's post, I customized the profile to the following profile:

• 385F at 6 minutes


• 430F for 3 minutes


• 465F for 2 minutes

When I ground the beans for my breakfast coffee this morning, presto! The color was the same. The crema was also much better - richer and foamier. I think that the beans could be a tad darker yet, so next time I'm going to add 30 seconds to the second phase and see how that turns out. So the new profile will be:

• 385F at 6 minutes


• 430F for 3.5 minutes


• 465F for 2 minutes

Recommended Espresso Coffee Shops in Seattle

This post at the Google coffee group answers a member's question as to recommeded coffee shops for a straight espresso. An obviously knowledgable local replied with the following recommendations. As one who doesn't live in Seattle, this list gives me fishing ground for finding new roasters who supply espresso beans online. So I'll check them out over the next few weeks.

Broadway/Pike/Pine/Capital Hill:
Vivace 901 E Denny Wy
Victrola Cafe and Roastery 310 E Pike St
Victrola Cafe and Roastery 411 15th Ave E
Stumptown Pine and Boyleston
Stumptown 12th and Madison
Tougo Coffee Co 1410 18th Ave
Pettirosso Cafe 1101 E. Pike St

Greenwood/Phinney:
Lighthouse Roasters 400 N 43rd St (43rd & Phinney)
Zoka Coffee 2200 N 56th
Diva 79th and Greenwood
Herkimer Cafe 7320 Greenwood Avenue N



U District:
Cafe Zoka (U-Village) 2901 NE Blakeley Street
Trabant Chai Lounge 1309 NE 45th Street
Herkimer Cafe 5611 University Way NE


North-Downtown:
Vivace Espresso (near REI) 227 Yale Ave N
Caffe Vita Coffee Roasting Co 813 5th Ave N


Beacon Hill:
Galaxie Cafe 3215 Beacon Ave S (Hanford/Horton)
Caffe D'Arte 719 So. Myrtle

Using the i-Roast 2 Home Coffee Bean Roaster

It was some time ago that I posted this article in anticipation of getting my own "Heathware i-Roast 2" home coffee roaster - Roasting Coffee Beans at Home. I have taken to ordering a couple of pounds of green beans with my orders for the Vita roast from Vivace Coffee in Seattle.

Not being all that experienced with home roasting, I have up till now used one or other of the two delivered presets. The roast is "OK" but an interesting observation is that while the beans are a mid-dark color on the outside, when I grind them, they are a much lighter brown.

So I did some research on the web and found a couple of very useful posts about using your i-Roast 2. This one from Coffee Geeks gives a very positive review of the i-Roaster, but also has some interesting information about roasting, and they mention the observation I made above about the color of the bean on the outside being different from the color inside. A consistent darkish color inside and out is referred to as a "City Roast" and that's what I'm after. The Coffee Geeks post mentions that the i-Roast 2 is difficult to program the customized settings, but gave no specifics. I couldn't lay my hands on my user manual, so I did some further searching, and came across this post at Coffee Bean Corral which has very easy to follow instructions on setting a custom profile.

I just tried using the temperatures and times mentioned in the Coffee Geeks post for a "city roast". The beans are still cooling, but I'll let you know how it goes. The details of the profile are:

• An even ramp up to 385F, held there for a minute (no timing info is given for "the even ramp up", so for this first try I went for the first 6 minutes at 385


• Ramp up to 430, hold for 3 minutes (again, I just set the second cycle to temp 430 and time of 3 minutes)


• Then finished off at 465F for 2 minutes

The green beans came out of the fridge, which is where I have been keeping them once I open the vacuum bag. I'm presuming that while they are green, it is not necessary to store them in the same manner and roasted beans. (Here's my post of how to store roasted coffee beans). I do my roasting outside since the roaster sets off my smoke alarms, which is too bad, as what better smell could you ask for in your home other than the smell of roasting coffee beans or baking bread! Being late afternoon this winter's day in Southern California, the ambient air temperature was 52 degrees.

Get your own i-Roast 2 at Amazon.com

France prepares to stub out smoking in cafes

"France prepares to stub out smoking in cafes"

If you've ever been to France, or lived as an "ex-pat" in the company of "the Europeans" as I did for four years in Japan, you'll appreciate just what a big deal it is for France to be banning smoking in cafes, restaurants, and bars. It's now 17 years since I went to Japan, but one of the lasting memories is of my French and British friends blissfully smoking their way through our dinners at restaurants while "we", the "Yanks", Kiwis, and Aussies gritted our teeth and bit our collective tongues for the sake of "internationalization" in "world peace". Even the heavy-smoking Japanese wouldn't smoke at the dinner table, but not such consideration was extended us by our French and British buddies.

I guess a lot can change in 17 years...and obviously it has with France about to celebrate the New Year with clean air at eating and drinking establishments. Having been a non-smoker my entire life, I say "Three Cheers" that next time I visit France I won't have to breath in the blue haze with my espresso.

The story of course contains the usual stories about how business is going to be so bad now, etc. The same old stories I read 10 years ago after I had moved to California and we celebrated New Year with a similar ban. Have any tobacco companies, bars and restaurants gone out of business over the last 10 years in California because of the 10 year smoking ban? I presume not by the fact that I've not seen any stories about lobby groups working to for the restoration of smoking in bars and restaurants.

Now the many remaining states within the U.S. that still allow smoking in their eating and drinking establishments have yet another thing to add to their list of things to hate about the "damn French".

The Lands of the Arabica Coffee Bean Turning to Coffee?

Why the cultures of the Middle-East drink tea in preference to coffee has always struck me as curious. After all, the Arabica coffee bean gets its name from Arabia having originated from north Africa, so why is it that the countries of the Middle-East and north Africa are mostly tea-drinking cultures? Odd that, don't you think? If you have the answer, post it as a comment below.



I was prompted to write this post because I just saw a story about the success of an Italian espresso coffee business that has recently opened a store in Doha, Qatar, in what sounds like a terribly upscale shopping center. (Read the story here) The story makes it sound as if an espresso coffee shop is quite a trendy novelty in town. As even the people of the lands from which the supreme Arabica coffee bean originated turn to coffee, or is it back to coffee, does it mean we are near the top of the cycle? It sounds like most of the tea-drinking cultures of Asia and the Middle-East are in on the trend finally. Can the come-back of tea be far behind?