We’re rolling out a new coffee today, and it’s got quite a story.
Dennis, our master roaster, is friends with Tim O’Brien. Tim started an import company called Green Coffee Vault, and sends us samples from time to time.
Our last Costa Rica came from Tim, and we really liked it. A lot. Tim is friends with the farmers who grew that lot, and he put Dennis in touch with them. They talked, and decided to create a special “Honey Process” lot, just for Bow Truss....

The opinions presented here are the opinions of Barista Educator Greg Loring-Albright, and not of Bow Truss Coffee Roasters (though we don’t disagree with him — why else would we let him post on the blog?).
—-
At the core of this post is the question: Is caffeine necessary for coffee?...

If you google “cascara,” the first hits relate to a plant called Rhamnus purshiana, which you’ll quickly learn is a natural laxative.
We’re not talking about that cascara.
Instead, we’re talking about Coffea arabica, though not in the form we usually talk about it. Cascara is the name given to the dried fruit of the coffee plant. The seed is the part we roast, grind, and brew, and the fruit is usually discarded or composted...

So we just rolled out a new Ethiopia, and it’s got quite a name: Washed Ethiopia Sidama Yerga Alem.
I’ll break it down bit by bit, and then describe how it differs from the other Ethiopias in our lineup.
Ethiopia: The country where the coffee was grown....