Roasting Your Own Coffee

The wings of Time are black and white,
Pied with morning and with night.
Mountain tall and ocean deep
Trembling balance duly keep.
In changing moon, in tidal wave,
Glows the feud of Want and Have.
Gauge of more and less through space
Electric star and pencil plays.
The lonely Earth amid the balls
That hurry through [...]
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Roasting your own coffee is so easy. It's one of those things like changing your own oil, or making yogurt, I guess. Not sure why everyone doesn't do it. I wrote all about roasting Ethiopian beans in the Elephant Journal in August. Now, after doing is a few times, it was possible today for me to wake up, put some beans in a pot, open up all the doors, turn on the overhead stove exhaust fan and put a towel over the smoke alarm. A few minutes later, I was grinding, brewing and drinking yet another cuppa the best coffee ever.

Of course, now I am a little older and wiser. I put the smokin' pot on the porch and let the wind carry the smoke away. Hopefully, my neighbors enjoyed the smell! Nothing smells better than fresh roasted coffee beans in the morning... And, to think I used to say "Nothing smells better than fresh brewed coffee in the morning".

There's today's finished product. You know, the difference between ordinary and exceptional is that 80/20 thing. Remember the Pareto Principle: "80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes". Or, another way you might have heard it is "80% of your sales comes from 20% of your clients". The Pareto principle was named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of income in Italy went to 20% of the population. (from wikipedia).

So, sometimes taking a few extra minutes to do something exceptionally well makes a huge difference. I'll drink to that!