Getting into light roasts
Wow, light roasts are the bomb.
I was in San Francisco the other day for work and went to get coffee from the excellent cafe in our office building like I always do. I love the people that work there. They really know their stuff and they're always so nice.
As I was waiting for my drink, I saw they had this bag of coffee for sale from a roaster I hadn't tried before called Hydrangea Coffee Roasters. I looked at the tasting notes and I was intrigued. I've brought home light roast beans before, like an Ethiopian single origin from Ilse Coffee (also picked up from one of the cafes I regularly go to). It was delicious, but I wasn't necessarily moved to get more once I finished the bag. I also bought a lot of beans from Onyx Coffee Lab during my first year of owning an espresso machine (motivated by hype and great packaging).
This one's different.
I brewed it 1:2 with 17g in and 34g out in about 32 seconds (yes, as an espresso, I'm sorry) using my excellent new grinder from Option-O (beyond pleased with this purchase and I'll have to talk about it separately). My house was overwhelmed by this fragrant, peachy smell that my husband even walked over to check out the source. I took a sip and wow, my eyes were opened. I know that's hyperbolic, but I've been brewing almost exclusively medium roasts because I get 5lb bags of "Beachwood" by Canyon Coffee. I'm on my third giant bag of these beans because I like them enough, especially for that rich crema. But light roasts... they are just so interesting and fun to drink.
Naturally, this took me down the rabbit hole of light roasts, which I now understand are more appropriate for pour overs (at least according to Reddit). I get it, but my undeserving ass will continue to make espressos out of these delicious beans because I spent too much on my gear to not do so. And no, I will not buy pour over equipment. So before that day ended, I giddily ordered various light roasts from different roasters to discover more exciting, fruity, or even funky flavors for my daily coffee.
Some quick takeaways from my hours spent on the internet:
- There is a globally renowned coffee producer named Diego Bermudez who's behind famous (and very expensive) beans like "Letty Bermudez" and "Luna Bermudez" (named after his children). I almost stupidly ordered some from overseas, but luckily the shipping fee sobered me up. I will try them eventually, but maybe when I'm more experienced, have a flat burr grinder, and can justify this cost.
- A friend who's in the coffee business told me Colombia is the best origin for coffee right now. "Nothing else is even close." This gave me some guidance on what else to look for.
- Flower Child Coffee was often mentioned, so I ended up doing a 1 bag per month subscription to try out their stuff.
- I did order more Hydrangea, specifically to try out their decaf which is supposed to be great.
- I also got some Ethiopian beans from Enderly Coffee Co. in Charlotte, North Carolina that's supposed to be "bright and sweet". Not a lot of info on their page about this, but at 50% off, I had to get it.
Oxie, Sweden
A quiet, sleepy town just outside of Malmö.
One of my favorite things about living in Oxie was the one mile walk to the grocery store from my house. We were outside of Malmö, surrounded by rural landscapes, and this walk during the summer and fall was absolutely gorgeous. Colors changed rapidly, depending on how the light was hitting. I felt like I was in a Hayao Miyazaki movie.
Southern Sweden had plenty of beautiful nature reserves that offered miles and miles of walking trails. We would spend the weekends looking on Google Maps and picking a random nature reserve to go to. This became an essential activity for us during our time there. As it got colder and darker, we sank deeper into depression (both of us, unknowingly, at the same time). We missed our friends and family back home, and we missed the comfort of going to places where there was a possibility of walking into people we knew.
Living in Scandinavia had been a dream for both of us, but we severely underestimated the toll of doing such a huge move in your 30’s. We both had established lives back in California and we didn’t really leave because we hated living there. We were hungry for something different, after living in Los Angeles for over a decade and then not quite finding our footing immediately in Northern California. We were also disillusioned by our lives in the US after the pandemic and political turmoil of the last few years. We were exhausted and needed a break.
Our long walks in nature reserves became a practice of gratitude. We spent this time reassuring each other that our decisions weren’t permanent. That we can go back if we really wanted to, that our friends are still our friends, that our family will welcome us back warmly, and that we were extremely privileged for all of it. We had these talks so often, almost every weekend as we tried to process the difficult week we had just faced.
We were plagued by different things. He had accepted a position as a teacher in an international school (where the children held more power than the adults and knew it), and I had quit my very stable job for the last almost six years. He was dealing with an intense and demanding job, and I was unemployed and idle for the first time in more than a decade.
During the week, we found it hard to articulate to the other the many different feelings of uncertainty we were dealing with. But on weekends, during these long walks in Swedish forests, we found our words. We comforted each other and helped each other recharge for another difficult week ahead.