Shade Grown Coffee

By Georgia Guse

{Editor’s Note: This is the very first column of our new “Koffee Korner”, written by gourmet coffee bean roaster, Georgia Guse of Guse’s Gourmet Coffeehouse! Each month, you will be treated to insider professional information regarding the almighty coffee bean and not-to-be-left-out tea leaves!!

Do you have questions for Georgia? She is ready to hear them and give you her best response in the next issue! Send in your questions for Georgia’s Koffee Korner to: editor@valleybugler.com or call us at (360) 414-1246}

To start off, I have a question for you! Answer this: Is there more caffeine in a medium roast or dark roast coffee? Check your answer below!

We begin the process of creating an exceptional coffee drink with the green Arabica coffee beans. Arabica, or Altura beans are grown at a high elevation, usually between 4,000 and 5,000 feet. This is considered Mountain grown or high-grown. We promote and endorse only ORGANIC SHADE GROWN COFFEE.

Why?

When coffee is grown in the shade, it has a fuller flavor. It ripens slower, achieving a richer, smoother taste. There are also several varieties of birds that call the large bean trees their home.

Single origin coffees, from small independent farmers who do not use pesticides, provide coffee lovers with a high quality product, and the farmers are proud of that fact. To be certified “organic”, the ground needs to be free of toxins for a full five years before they can obtain the organic certificate.

For you curious types, here’s our roasting process:

The green coffee comes into our shop, then we roast in small batches to ensure the consistent quality of the roast. We have a custom made roaster that uses both air and drum roasting techniques. We get to the right temperature with the hot air, and the process is similar to a dryer tumbling your clothes: the coffee rotates and tumbles as it roasts, ensuring an even roast.

Our roaster is built to expel the “chaff” - a silver skin of the coffee bean released during roasting. As the coffee beans are roasted, they expand to almost twice their original size. The dried out silver skin ruptures and is separated from the coffee beans. We often give the chaff to organic gardeners to use for composting. Need some?

Once roasting begins, you can hear the coffee “popping”. As the coffee gives off their own heat and suddenly expand, there is a sound similar to popcorn popping. This is the release of the oils, considered the first popping of the oils.

At this point, the coffee is medium roasted. The coffee has a drier, brown finish, and there are oils remaining inside the bean - more caffeine than a dark roast and with a milder taste.

As we continue to roast, the beans will darken to a dark brown. We will then again hear the “popping” as the internal oils of the medium roast is roasted away, creating a dark, shiny exterior.

The oils are roasted out at this point, creating a caramelized appearance. At the moment of the second popping, we stop roasting and begin to cool the coffee. As it cools, we can hear it popping away in the circular cooling rack. Once it is cooled completely, we package it and ship it nationwide - or sell it locally, of course!

Our fresh roasted coffee has more natural sugars and oils, which creates a full-bodied clean taste.
If you are interested in Fair Trade information, come talk with Jim. He has consolidated many local co-op farmers, so the farmers actually receive a living wage, and we receive an excellent organic coffee. (Terruno Nayanta Altura Shade grown certified Organic).

So that’s it for this month’s Koffee Korner. I hope this was interesting and useful information - and if you have questions, please eMail editor@valleybugler.com or stop by the shop in Longview. Next month We will be talking about decaffeinated coffee, and why you want to stay away from specific types of decafs - and which ones you will want to make sure to sample!