I can't explain my angle here, but I can tell you that is an Expobar and Jeff Wikstrom in the background looks very worried about something.

Mike McKoffee's Portable Power Conditioner- I can't remember all this does. It's like a Variac, a Timer, and an Electric Chair all in one...

Alchemist John (Right) and Mike McKoffee discuss the finer points of roasting. Actually, this is when John is about to show us some cocoa roasting in a Poppery 1.

All I can says is "Wow!"

Is Mike obsessed? Does the icon on his espresso machine answer that?

A Hearthware Precision with 2 types of cocoa beans.

John roasts cocoa - check out his web site www.chocolatealchemy.com

John breaks a cocoa nib for tasting and John Kangas looks on...

We cupped the Panama Auction Lot coffees but it didn't go to well. I thought it might be low water temperature but in fact I think it was too many espressos for me, and for a few, too many espresso AND too many beers.... Here's me and John setting up the coffees for the cupping

Ditto

Oh lordy ... I don't know what's going on here. I think I was sniffing the dry fragrance. Maria took the picture.

John's farm is beautiful! I woke up early Sunday and walked all over with the dogs. It was so quiet and there was that neat early morning fog hovering over the low areas - just great. Oakland Oregon was a nice break from Oakland California.

Look at those wisps of early morning fog ...

John's goats. Maria and I stayed outside, slept in a tent with the dogs. It was great, a 1 day camping vacation for us. The goats started up pretty early though - seems there was a piece of corrugated metal in their barn and they liked to step on it a lot, making a very loud sound.

The Cimbali grinder went this commercial 1 group machine, both bought off eBay. It's a great machine - but I think it was running a bit too high because the Brazil shots I pulled had an overextracted character.