Where can I get some good medium roast beans?

[Ye Olde Phart]

Most of the coommercial roasters here seem to offer only dark roast.

[trogdor]

Originally Posted by Ye Olde Phart

Most of the coommercial roasters here seem to offer only dark roast.

Sweet Maria's has a limited different selection of roasted coffee every week (roasted and shipped every Tuesday). If you live near CA you could get it in time for it to be really fresh.

[EvanS]

Be sure to check out unlebeanz as well.

[lenguamor]

Originally Posted by Ye Olde Phart

Most of the coommercial roasters here seem to offer only dark roast.

Tsk, tsk...Captain Spaulding, you're going about this all wrong.

First, you will need to buy some fine coffee plants - Arabica, of course. Only Philistines use Robusta.

It will help if you live in the tropics, but if you don't you will need to establish a piece of land as your plantation, and set it up much like a greenhouse so that you can nurture these plants to give you the beans you so crave.

Then you must wait several years and a few harvests to be sure that your beans are top-quality; you wouldn't want to use any beans from unestablished plants, would you? Expect to wait at least 5 years before your first usable harvest.

When you are sure that your beans are up to snuff, you must hire a work crew of Salvadorean immigrant Monks to assist you with the delicate harvest of your treasure; your beans picked by the wrong hands would result in an inferior cup of coffee, to be sure.

Immediately after your beans are picked they must be de-pulped - IMMEDIATELY! Waste not a precious second, for you will be doomed to the horrors that will inevitably follow!

After de-pulping you will need to ferment the beans in the mucilage which remains adhered to the beans after the process of removing the fruit pulp.

During this time, the beans must be isolated from all external influences, sealed in sterilized vats in a US Federal Standard 209E cleanroom. No sound must be permitted to reach the beans except the music of Mozart; even then, the piano concertos only.

When fermentation is done and the beans have been washed they must be dried in the rays of the morning sun ONLY - the afternoon sun will only bake out nano-particles of the beans' natural oils, and that will result in...well, it's too terrible to contemplate. Morning only, 'nuff said.

Now, and ONLY NOW - are your precious beans ready to be roasted. But not to drink.

No, you must roast them only to their cinnamon stage, at which you will be able to perform the ritual of "cupping" to evaluate the coffee on a 100-point scale with 10 categories.

At this stage most commercial coffee purveyors would merely report back the results of said evaluations to their suppliers; however, since YOU are your supplier - because you only want the best...YOU DO WANT THE BEST, DON'T YOU???!!! - you must take your Salvadorean Monks to task for every imperfection in the results...punishments for quality lapses can range from simple beatings to execution.

Putting them to death should be reserved only for results lower than "Excellent," though. Good Monks are difficult to find anymore.

Now you must sort the beans to remove ones with imperfections or other defects; if your monks still have the use of their hands, they can assist you in this process.

Now you can roast.

Roast, roast, roast away to your heart's content. Be sure to use an Agtron roast analyzer to scientifically test the classification of the roast. If you roast too long or too short a time, you must discard the entire harvest and await next season's batch.

Don't bitch...such is life in the pursuit of perfection.

Now, the grind; a process so refined and delicate that the slightest fluctuation in microns can just devastate the ambrosia that you deserve to brew after all that work.

Therefore you must use only a grinder so accurate, so special, the it might take years for your very own model to lovingly be hand-crafted by a master grinder-maker in Tuscany. Better get on that now, before the whole plantation thing, otherwise there might be trouble later.

Now, brew your lovely coffee - using only the allowable tolerances of water temperature and mineral content and brew method, of course, and enjoy.

BUT ENJOY IT IMMEDIATELY! BECAUSE COFFEE BEGINS TO DETERIORATE THE MOMENT IT FINISHES BREWING!!!!!!!

I'M NOT PLAYING MAN, DON'T DAWDLE! DRINK UP, GUZZLE IT IF YOU MUST!!! YOU DON'T WANT TO HAVE GONE TO ALL THIS TROUBLE ONLY TO DRINK DETERIORATED COFFEE, NOW [SIZE=4]DO YOU???[/SIZE][SIZE=4][SIZE=2]

And have a pleasant morning.

Later, I'll meet you at Starbucks. We'll nosh.
[/SIZE][/SIZE]