I love a good sack, and this 60kg sack of Mexican green coffee beans looks good before I even open it. Hessian sacks are the very traditional way of storing and shipping bulk green coffee, but raw coffee before you roast it (cook it basically) can easily be degraded by external factors - damp storage will cause it mould, strong smells externally can affect it. So while the hessian sacks are always evident in new stocks - most speciality high quality green coffee has an internal "Grain Pro" bag - and it's not 60kg of green coffee in a plastic bag - the grain pro system is organic certified, protects the coffee from insects and mould while cause absolutely not detraction of flavour. What it does do, when you break the seal on a grain pro sack - immediately the earthy flavours of the coffee beans themselves are released - it's nothing like you smell from roasted coffee, or a cup of coffee even. It's a gift exclusive to those of us who purchase speciality coffee from origin, and it's an amazing and unique experience.

And here we have the green coffee beans, this Speciality Mexican coffee is excellent quality, the green beans are all of equal size - they do not grow like that - careful sorting at the plantation ensures only the perfect beans are shipped for roasting - same size, no defects just excellent quality coffee. There is also something very special about this Mexican coffee, in 2012 the plantation suffered a severe outbreak of "coffee rust" a disease of the coffee trees that destroys them. When replanting the trees following that devastating loss, they planted primarily the Geisha strain of Arabica which is resistant to the disease - but also is highly prized because the coffee beans from Geisha produce an excellent "cup" score (quality). This Mexican coffee commands a quite high price per kilo, but also boasts both Organic and Fairtrade accreditation - and as a washed process coffee grown at upto 1750m it benefits from an excellent SCAE cup score of 84.

So now we know it should taste really nice, it's time to roast those green coffee beans and find out what they actually taste like!

Roasted they look very different to green, you can still see the beans are still the same size and with careful roasting they are all the same colour - the white seam in the centre line of the bean is the remainder of "chaff" a parchment that falls off green coffee beans as they roast. Some varieties retain it in the seam like this, others do not and if you roast the coffee longer and darker then it is lost.

I have roasted this Mexican coffee light, just after first crack so all the subtle tastes and flavours can be fully enjoyed. My brew method of choice is the Aeropress by Aerobie - first I measure the beans in the brewer.

Then I tip them into my coffee grinder, and grind just finer the filter but not quite espresso - finer grinds are better for extracting flavour but too fine and you can bring out more bitterness then desired.

Add a little off the boil hot water, ideally 90 degrees celsius boiling water will detract from the flavours. Watch the bloom, fresh roasted coffee is still giving off gasses - when I stop filling 3/4 way up the brew chamber it climbs up on it's own with the gasses released and the creamy white colour devlops.

Time to brew this coffee, straight into the mug @saffisara thoughtfully sent me - not only does it have a really fun description on the outside of the mug, the top rim perfectly fits the Aeropress. Pushing down on the plunger forces the water through the coffee giving us a rich strong brew.

This tall cup is only half filled by the Aeropress, it is more then enough though of this rich brew. Concentrated flavours await.

And the taste, truly incredible a very fruity coffee with hints of Hibiscus and Lime. It's rich and summery, coffee flavours can be so complex but one thing is for sure - when you taste a really great coffee you can't go back.

It's easy for me to tell you of course this coffee tastes great, I selected and roasted it so my opinion is biased. If you want an impartial opinion though, I sent @saffisara a 250g bag of this exact roast to try - and I am hoping she will leave in the comments her own opinions on this coffee. In the twenty five years I have been selling coffee I can tell you one thing - every single person likes their own type of coffee - nobody has the same taste for coffee, and some of course do not like it at all. But even the people who like coffee - everyone likes different tastes and flavours, so just because I really like a coffee does not in any way mean anyone else will.

From plant to cup is an incredible journey, planting the seeds of a coffee tree means waiting for 3 to 5 years before you will see fruit - the coffee cherries to harvest and make coffee! But once established the trees can live for upto 60 years providing they are not affected by disease or insects.

As the official Witness for the @dstors project, I am excited to work alongside @derangedvisions and @kaliju to bring truly decentralised online shopping to the the masses, where anyone can sell their products around the world simply. I am also looking forward to opening the project with two entirely unique and different stores of my own - when blogging meets business the result is not just explosive.....it's @dstors

Some of my previous posts you might have missed

---

Witness Update by @c0ff33a 20.6 @dstors and more

The C0ff33 Vlog 5th October 2018

Sublime Sunday by @c0ff33a ☕️

---

Last Confirmed Block Number 28,107,138 Last Aslot 28,202,620
Steemd v0.20.6

Kind thanks to @enginewitty for employing his Ninja graphic design skills and producing this 🔥 banner

If you enjoyed my post don’t forget to leave an Upvote, feel free to comment on what you liked or where I can do better even. Follow @c0ff33a for regular and varied posts, photography, my weekly VLOG, posts on coffee roasting and brewing - just follow and see.

To grow your presence and following on Steemit, be active in the community Discords that offer the chance to learn, network, share and be found. The #SteemitRamble discord https://discord.gg/HZYzEry hosts a range of shows where you can join in and get your name shown, every Thursday there are two Pimp My Post Thursdays which are hugely popular and give you an opportunity to get your posts seen.

For fun and entertainment then #SteemStar is the discord to be in, https://discord.gg/ZDANjzy with regular shows during the week it’s the best place to relax, and also network the friends you make could be your future biggest upvoters.

All photos are my own, taken with my iPhone. All my Steemit posted pictures can be freely used by other Steemit users in their own blog posts - all I ask is that you follow me and credit @c0ff33a linking to my post you took it from. You can also follow me on Twitter

You can view my current Witness Statistics using this tool produced by Witness @justyy

The picture to the right kindly sketched by the wonderful @bridget.art , be sure to check her incredible art out https://steemit.com/@bridget.art

" A Shy Old British Geography and Biology Geek, is a Nut addict and loves Coffee and obcessed with Jax Jones" as @steemflow describes me.

The greatest challenge we face on Steemit is getting our posts seen, I have always believed the simplest and best value way of doing this is by commenting on the blog posts of others, the more you engage people and interact with them the greater the chance they will visit your own blog and return the favour. Other then spending all my free time commenting on Steemit posts, I also distribute coffee roasting machines and also espresso coffee machines and roast my own Speciality Coffee Range. being one of the premium coffee suppliers Yorkshire including a wide range of filter coffee sachets

!steemitworldmap 53.766547 lat -1.801500 long Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. d3scr

This awesome animated Banner has been kindly been created by the wonderful @snook

Don’t forget to vote for Witnesses https://steemit.com/~witnesses

I am the official Witness supporting the @dstors project by @kaliju and @derangedvisions, buying and selling products worldwide with Steem and @dstors contributing to the shipping with the reward pool. Learn More

You can vote for the Witness team c0ff33a and @derangedvisions if you like what we are doing for people and communities throughout the Steem blockchain - click below to vote easily

If you are uncertain about Witnesses and who to vote for you can set c0ff33a as your Witness Proxy and you will vote for the same Witnesses as I do.