Pausing on my world of cooking and DIY-related posts to give a brief update on something really cool I got to do on the clock today!
As a journalist, I often get to experience my community in a whole new way. Today, I got to visit the home of two local parents and entrepreneurs to see the inner workings of their start-up business, Narrativality Artisan Coffee Roasters.
Aaron and Christie Cromar bought an industrial roaster and placed it in their basement, which was quickly transformed into an entire fully-licensed business.
The two explained how they source their product and how the entire process works, and then walked me through a coffee cupping.
As I learned “coffee cupping” is the name of the sampling process for new types of coffee beans. Coffee is sniffed and loudly slurped so the taster gets a better idea of the entire range of flavors of the specific coffee bean.
Beans actually have different flavors based on where they are grown. Isn’t that crazy? I had always assumed that beans were somehow infused with some kind of crazy Starbucks magic or flavoring to get their different tastes. But that’s totally not the case. A bean grown in Ethiopia has an entirely different taste than one from Guatemala.
We cupped the coffee by placing grounds of each roast into a small bowl. Hot water was poured over each sample, and after a short period of time, a crust formed on top. We used soup-style spoons to push the crust back and grab a spoonful of the coffee to “slurp.”
This was probably the funniest part. You’re supposed to slurp as loudly and obnoxiously as possible. I was working and around two people I had just met, but they were totally cool and professional about something that could be perceived as embarrassing.
It was totally a cool experience. As much of a coffee fiend as I am, I had never had a chance to actually sample different roasts of different beans from different regions, and I was really excited to learn about how the roasting process works.
I bought a bag of coffee beans from Aaron and Christie after the cupping. It was really hard to pick a roast, but I ended up with “Brazil,” beans with hints of floral, caramel, honey and lemon.
My story about Narrativality is online here, and you can check the business out on their website.
Do you have a favorite way of drinking your coffee? Let me know in the comments!
