Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi

For a little over a year now, I’ve been doing something that most people seem to think impossible: I’ve been roasting almost all of my own coffee.

If you’re thinking homeroasting would be expensive, difficult, frustrating, confusing, or at least not worth the time. You’re wrong. It’s less expensive than buying decent coffee in the store, amazingly easy, thoroughly satisfying, straightforward and well worth every minute it takes.

Of course, I’m convinced coffee, second only to humanity, was God’s crowing creational achievement. Indeed, although I have no biblical or theological basis for it, I secretly find myself hoping that the that glorious tree described in Revelation 22 might actually produce coffee.

Why am I writing this? Because, if you drink coffee, you should be roasting your own too! Less than 150 years ago, practically everyone did until canned coffee was developed. Of course, canned coffee isn’t nearly as good but the advertising was exceptional and before anyone knew what was happening “modern,” “sophisticated ” people bought (and served) coffee from a can.

Here’s the problem. Once roasted, coffee is really only fresh for about a week. Once ground that drops to about 3 hours (or less!) That means that the “fresh” coffee most people buy in stores (which is usually 2 or 3 weeks old) is already stale and the ground coffee is usually stale even before it gets canned (let alone taken off the shelf and opened in your kitchen).

Why do I care if you drink stale swill? Because good coffee is one of life’s little pleasures. Because it’s actually less expensive to roast your own coffee than buy the stale “gourmet” stuff. Because roasting your own places you in a position where you aren’t supporting the gigantic coffee companies, where you can know exactly where your coffee is coming from, and you can guarantee that the beans you buy actually provide enough income to the farmers so that they can support their families.

I get mine from http://www.sweetmarias.com/. They’re awesome.

want to know more? Tell me!

Grace and Peace,
`tim

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