Roasting has been going great. In about two weeks time I did a little over $100 in sales just by word of mouth. The feed back I've gotten has all been really positive and encouraging. I think that instead of moving into the Farmer's Market at this time, I'm leaning more towards building relationships with local businesses who may be willing to carry my coffee. I'm already realizing the limitations of my roaster and am looking at what I would need to do to be able to step up my production level. From batch start to finish it takes me about 45 minutes to make one pound of coffee. If I were able to move even to a 5 kilo roaster I'd feel more capable of running a website and selling from there, but as it is, if I were doing more than a few pounds at a time I could very easily fall behind.

My next endeavor is to find a decaf that I like. From what I understand decafs roast differently than caffeinated because the processing that the beans go through mean that they're yellow, like unprocessed beans become after a few minutes in the roaster. So, I'll be back to some trial and error there, but I keep getting asked about it, so it's worth playing with!

We've had a crazy last two months since my last post. My husband had surgery and we had a cross country move - so things have been a little busy in our household, but despite all of that I'm still happily roasting and working at getting my coffee out there.

Clarification

I realized after my first post that I could be a little more specific as to what my direction is. I'm starting on a home roaster (my Behmor) to get a feel for things. I want to learn the nuances associated with different roast times and temps for different origins and I want to better understand everything that goes into a finished product. I know it would be silly for me to just decide that I'm a competent enough roaster to grab a commercial machine and go to town selling crappy coffee willy-nilly. I recognize that I have so much to learn.

Earlier today I stumbled upon Daniel Humphries' blog. He's the founder of the New York Coffee Society and apparently an elbow-rubbing coffee guru with an obsession for El Salvadorian coffees. I love his picturesque writing and all of the things he gave me to Google from his blog. I think I'll be referring back to him more often.

Tonight, I called my mother-in-law, who was in El Salvador last month to visit a former exchange student. While there she had an opportunity to tour a coffee plantation, take part in a cupping, and meet the woman who owns the Monte Sion coffee plantations. I, of course, was extremely jealous! I can't wait for the day when I can travel to plantations and hob-nob with the people who have put their sweat into the beans I taste (not exactly the best word picture for flavor, hmm). I want to see their lifestyle and hear the stories of how getting fair market prices for their coffee has improved the quality of life in their communities.

I get so excited about all of this. My road will be long, I know, but I guess that's why it's such a good idea to start on it today.