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By Valorie King,Owner & Coffee Maven This week we wanted to introduce you to Glenstorm, our coffee roaster. We call him Glen for short. He got his name from one of my favorite literary characters. He actually looks like the centaur he is named after too! Here's a video introducing him to you! Enjoy!
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By Valorie King, Owner & Coffee Maven It's true! I have a signed and executed lease. This past week I received the keys to my new space. Now even more hard work ensues. There are so many ways and areas in our lives where it takes a community to make things happen. It takes a community to move a coffee roaster!  Roastmaster Jeff and I would love to have you partner with us in moving our coffee roaster, Glenstorm (Glen for short), from our garage to our new brick & mortar store front. This past week we also launched a crowdfunding campaign through Indiegogo (like Kickstarter but a different company). We are inviting you to be a part of the community that will prepare Glen's new roastery space as well as transport him from here to there. We have prepared some perks and rewards for different levels of financial partnership. You can watch our video and read about our campaign here.  One of the most common questions I am asked is, "How can I help you?" Physical help during the build out is limited to a small circle of people. However, here is what you can do:
You can also send us encouraging words and cheer us on via email (info@lamppostcoffee.com) or by posting on our Facebook wall (@lamppostcoffee) or by tagging us in a post on Instagram (@lamppostcoffee or @coffeemavenval). Thank you for being a part of our coffee adventure! Myth: Dark roasts have more caffeine than light roasts or light roasts have more caffeine than dark roast  By Jeff King, Roastmaster We get questions about caffeine content all the time. Some just about how much caffeine is in coffee, and sometimes about if a dark or light roast has more caffeine. I’ll toss in a quick table at the bottom of this blog to roughly answer the first question, although how much caffeine is in some of the drinks depends on how strong you make them. A little surprise in this chart (see below) is that a shot of espresso has less caffeine than a “normal” cup of coffee. This is because the amount of caffeine extraction is related to how long the water is in contact with the coffee, and espresso is extracted in 20-30 seconds (ideally), brewed coffee takes a few minutes, and cold brew takes several hours. That was just an aside. On to the questions at hand… Myth 1 – Dark coffee (or bold) has more caffeine than lighter coffee This is derived from the fact that dark roasted coffee is more acrid or bitter, which is what caffeine actually tastes like. But, this flavor is actually caused by the carbon of the deeper roast and not by caffeine. Myth 2 –Light coffee (or even green or white coffee) has more caffeine than dark coffee This belief is common and can be found all over the internet. It is assumed that roasting burns off some of the caffeine. The reality is that the caffeine molecule is pretty much impervious to heat and there is a negligible loss of caffeine in the bean during the roasting process. The Truth A coffee bean has nearly the same amount of caffeine in its green state as after it is roasted to any drinkable level. If coffee is measured by volume before brewing, lighter roasts can have more caffeine as beans get larger during roasting. If coffee is measured by weight, the darker roasted beans weigh a little less than the lighter beans, so the dark roast could have more caffeine. So, enjoy your coffee! Drink up! The roast level isn’t affecting your caffeine intake.  By Valorie King, Owner & Coffee Maven Helping you win the day by fueling your real-life adventures is one of our top priorities, I want to point out: grind matters. Brewing consistent and enjoyable coffee involves paying attention to the grind of the coffee. Two of the most crucial things to remember about grinding coffee are: 1) grind right before you brew coffee, and 2) match the coarseness/fineness of the coffee grind to the brewing method.  Bonus Tip: Finding a grinder, particularly a burr grinder, is something to seriously consider as well because you will get a much more consistent grind. The blog about home coffee grinders is coming, but that’s for another time. For, I think it’s important to know that you will get what you pay for. With the invention of the internet and on-line shopping, you can find a burr grinder reasonably priced. My favorite grinder to recommend is the Baratza Encore conical burr grinder for the typical person brewing coffee at home. It does cost about $120, however, it is a quality grinder and will last a very long time. We are also getting great feedback from family members and customers who are using the Cuisinart DBM-8 Supreme Grind Automatic Burr coffee mill. Both of these are available on Amazon. Both of these grinders give you basic control of adjusting your grind size. Whatever you favorite brewing method, start with the manufacturer recommendation grind or see the pictorial coffee grind guide to decide on your initial coarseness/fineness of coffee. From this starting point, experiment with one or two clicks in either directions (from coarser and finer) to see if you like your coffee better one way or another. This leads me to the grinding Tip 2: It is important to match the grind size of your coffee with the brewing method you choose. Coffee is ground powdery fine for espresso but coarse, similar to coarse sea salt size, for brewing in the French press. (Although some would argue that coffee should be ground finer than American drip brewed coffee.) American drip coffee is ground somewhere between the two extremes. Manual pour over methods require a precise grind size in order to get the best extraction of coffee in the correct amount of time. Here’s a simple picture to help you choose the correct grind size for how you brew coffee. This has circled back around in the specialty coffee industry. Recently, The Perfect Daily Grind dedicated space and thoughts on this subject. You can read that article here.  I truly do want you to win your day and enjoy your coffee that fuels your #reallifeadventures. I would love to hear from you. Please post photos on Instagram. Be sure to tag me @lamppostcoffee and @ coffeemavenval AND use the hashtags #lamppostcoffee #reallifeadventures. Thank you for being a part of our coffee adventure! Now it’s your turn to venture into coffee… |
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