Musing #5

I have heard numerous words to describe how I view coffee. Some say I’m fanatical, while others will say I am just plain nuts. I have been called everything from a drug dealer to the coffee man. Then there are some, a very select few, which call me a connoisseur. Even though there are many different opinions about me and my coffee the one universal opinion is that I have the best coffee on the ship.
I am sure you are wondering what about my coffee is different. I roast my own coffee beans, every week. Yes onboard the ship. I have over 30 pounds of green coffee beans onboard from every different coffee growing region on the face of the earth. I can tell you the difference in coffees by country and region.
If you simply tell me what you like about coffee I can give you three or four recommendations on the spot. Chances are I have at least one of them onboard and can roast you some the next time I am roasting.
Do I have your attention yet? Did you know that coffee is not supposed to be bitter or sour? Not fresh coffee, fresh roasted coffee that is! I have sailors from all over the ship that come by weekly just to get a bag of coffee from me. The best part, I think, is that the finest coffee in the world can be bought for a fraction of the price of roasted coffee. On average I spend around 5 dollars a pound for coffee. The same coffee from a gourmet shop would cost around $30.00 to $40.00 per pound.
Am I obsessed? I don’t think so, I believe that I just enjoy some of the finer things and I am willing to go the extra mile to get them. Do I mind the name calling and the kidding? Not at all, I know that deep down every coffee drinker onboard wishes they had my “True Brew” coffee in their cup everyday.

Guest writer

A friend of mine Steven, wrote a review of one of my favorite Coffees the IMV or Idido Misty Valley. I just had to share this with all of you! Thanks Steve!!!

It was an early fall day, rainy and colder than one would expect at this time of year. After coming back from a work trip that took a lot out of me I was looking forward to a wonderful pot of coffee. I had just the thing. Dennis had roasted up a batch of IMV, and this man has remarkable skill. He seems to know the bean, to understand what it wants in a roast. For we all know that taking a roast a touch too far may bring us a good cup of coffee, but some of the flavors will be gone or will have a faint taste of being burned - very faint, but there, affecting the entire cup. Should the roast run a bit too short and some flavors don't have the chance to introduce themselves to the other flavors in the roast and to the cup one is about to drink. Dennis knows how to get them all to the party.

The first sip is a bit of a trick, for it tastes like a simple cup of quality coffee - the flavor is full, the "coffee" flavor present, a bit of an earthy tone is front and center. But, on the second and slower sip one can taste a multitude of soft flavors that by themselves are very good, but together make up a coffee that is like none other one will have tasted. There is the treasured chocolate flavor of many very good coffees, which in and of itself can be hard to bring out in a coffee, especially one as complex as IMV. And, sitting next to the chocolate is the true taste of a floral bouquet - how is that possible. And, it wouldn't seem they would go together, but they do. I believe it is the other flavors that bring them all together, for a fraction of a second after the floral flavor is a more citrus one, not sour, but the zest of a citrus fruit in a chocolate background.

It doesn't stop there. This roast is not a particularly dark one, and I believe this allows many flavors to come out without one dominating the experience for the taster. As the chocolate subsides I was surprised to taste a true hint of vanilla, another flavor not come by easily in a roast, but here it is in Dennis brew. While not overpowering, there is a sharpness to them, they cut through the "coffee" and earthy tastes, along with a sample of cherry, almost as an afterthought it hides among the other flavors.

I also live in Costa Rica and the coffee reminds me of that, not in the actual coffee, but in the tropical nature of the combined flavors, much like the cornucopia of fruits one would find in our yard down there. The taste lingers sweetly and dissipates with no aftertaste, the palate is cleared for the next sip.

My goal is to work at roasting this coffee to the point where Dennis, himself, would say, "well done." Care goes into this roast, that is obvious. For it would take very little to miss the true "sweet spot." I imagine that there are a number of places to "pull" the roast that would give one a very good cup of coffee, but there is a very small window which would allow so many varied flavors all to have their say without any of them taking command of the cup. This coffee, every sip, is a gift to the senses. Drink on, drink on ...

Musing #2

Why are We Obsessed?

You can find it almost everywhere on billboards, trucks on the street, television, magazines, the Internet, even in schools and churches. Millions upon millions of dollars are spent every day on advertising that pushes the latest fashion or trend. It seems everywhere you turn you can not escape the deluge of commercials, images and pop-ups from advertisers. Modern culture has showered us with what soap we should use, what car to drive, what cell phone is the best, where to shop, what shows to watch, but most importantly and the topic of this musing, What we should look like and what we should wear.

Let’s explore the core of this issue. Human beings all want to be wanted and loved. We want to be attracted to the opposite sex and looked upon as equals or even better than our neighbors and peers. With that understood, we go above and beyond our natural physical state in an attempt to make ourselves more attractive to the opposite sex. We dye our hair, wear make-up, obsessively workout in the gym, all in an attempt to fill that basic human need. We purchase the same car, electric devices, or clothing in an attempt to be like our neighbors and peers, otherwise known as “keeping up with the Jones’.”

The modern commercial businesses and advertising agencies know this. They feed on our basic desire to belong, be acceptance and loved. They exploit our needs and own self-conciseness to further their profits. They sell that in order for us to be one of the “beautiful people” or one of the “happy people” we must blindly follow (purchase) their product or service, which changes from month to month. If we don’t, we are doomed to unhappiness, loneliness, unattractiveness and being outcast. There are those who embrace this sub-culture of outcasts however advertisers have crept in and now have a “target market” for their demographic as well. Sadly we know they are doing it but we have been programmed to buy what they are selling from an early age.

When we are very young we mimic our parents then as we gain social skills and become more aware of our place in society we start to worry about how we are viewed. What our peers think of us and if we will fit in. These issues are very important to the growth and development of children and how they will perceive themselves as adults. Peer Pressure is a powerful tool harnessed by the advertising industry. If the impressionable youth of our culture learn the message as we did that to be accepted we must hide our true self and conform to our peers, that we must buy this brand of clothing or look like that model on the magazine cover to belong then they has been program successfully and the advertisers have won a new generations worth of customers.

All that has successfully been done is to teach children to hide their real and true self from the world only showing the superficial, just as the advertisers want, and the cycle continues. The more we buy into the idea that we can buy happiness, beauty and love the more we spend and the more they spend pushing the next “latest and greatest.”

If beauty is only skin deep then shouldn't we obsess about whom we are inside and what kind of person we really are instead of how we look and what appearance we show the world? If we believe the media and the advertisers then skin deep is all that matters.

I disagree with this whole idea of superficial beauty. Personally I find most “supermodels” not very attractive and apparently some of the world agrees with me. Recently, Spain and Italy banned size zero models from walking the catwalk due to the fact they send the wrong message to the younger generation. Finally someone has realized that the super skinny is not healthy and is a bad influence on young girls. I applaud their efforts and hope this counter thought will continue. At least it is a step in the right direction.

I truly hope that, we the consumers can send a message to the fashion world that enough is enough - That our culture dictates what is beautiful not them. I personally do not think that a woman with 30 rings around her neck is attractive but in some cultures in Africa she would be the most beautiful in the entire village. There are countless cultural differences the globe over. I guess in the end “beauty is [after all] in the eye of the beholder.”