Crunchy Granola

Literally.

Last night I made some granola bars.  This morning, I wanted to get to the roastery early, so I grabbed some of the granola off the baking sheet, put it in a Pyrex bowl, and off to the shop I went.

I like to share, so I put my granola out to share with customers who stopped in for coffee.  You would think I was feeding them caviar, the way some them raved.  And a few people asked for the recipe, so here it is:

Preface:  There’s not really any right or wrong way to do this.  It’s grains, nuts and seeds, with some fat and sweetener.  Roughly 8:0.6:1, grains:fat:sweet, or thereabouts.  The only “trick” to it is that your “dough” should be sticky enough to make into a doughball without crumbling.  Also, big chunks tend not to bind as well, so chop big things into smaller pieces.  Improvise your own recipe based on this one.

Preheat oven to 350F

2 cups rolled oats
1 cup flax meal (so if you don’t have this, I would pulverize nuts into a powder instead and substitute)
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup finely chopped cashews (I like the salted ones, then I don’t use any more salt.  If you use unsalted nuts you may want to add a teaspoon or so of salt)
1 cup shelled sunflower seeds
1 cup raisins
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 stick butter, melted
I also added about a 1/4 cup of apple syrup we got as a gift from somebody who went to Canada.  Completely optional.  But dried apples (chopped) would probably be nice in these bars.

Mix the dry ingredients, then the wet into the dry.  Mix thoroughly.  Grease a large baking pan (I use an 11 x 13 b/c it’s the largest I have – a little bigger would be better).  Spread the dougn evenly and pack it down as hard as possible (use something big and flat to press on it).  Should be 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick.

Bake for 20-30 minutes till brown (it will be really soft while hot – just make sure the edges are browned, and don’t mess with it while it’s hot).  Remove from oven, lower temp to 200F, and allow to cool for 20 minutes or longer.  Cut into desired serving sizes.  Break up portions and place on a flat baking sheet (parchment paper aids cleanup).  Pop back into the 200F oven.  For a moderate crunchiness (“al dente”) bake another three hours.  For really crunchy, bake longer (5 hours).  I time things such that I put the oven on timer and put them in when I go to bed.  So they bake for a few hours, then stay in a cooling oven for a few more.  Consume within a week or two, or freeze (I don’t bake them dry enough to store at room temp indefinitely)

Incidentally, you can make dog treats much the same way – equal parts grain and flour, a few eggs and a cup of melted peanut butter.  Follow the same procedure for baking, but dry the hell out of them so they store at room temperature – 8 to 10 hours in a 200F oven.   Then you can gross out your kids by eating dog treats.

http://www.muddydogcoffee.com

WWJD (What Would Jim Drink today?): I’ve had a craving for Mexico Oaxaca Pluma don Eduardo for several days now.  So I whipped up a pump pot this morning before the customers started arriving.  Hopefully by next week I’ll be trying it on my new Fetco ECO brewer (yay!) – better coffee, and better for the planet (although I felt the teeth nip my butt with the bite it took out of my wallet – it ain’t easy being green!).

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On Roasting, Shipping and Carbon Footprints… Does Local Trump Food Miles?

Photo Source: http://www.freshandeasy.com/blog/2007_05_01_archive.html
I can’t wait to have one of these stores near me

I’ve been so busy roasting, cupping and adding new coffees that I haven’t had time to pontificate on deep and meaningful things in the space lately.  So here’s a little something to chew on…

I’ve been thinking about carbon footprints lately.  We’ve spent a lot of money to help design, debug and install the ultra-efficient Revelation roaster (note that the photos on Dan’s website are of our roaster).  I would like to promote the environmental advantages of our roasting system, and locally that’s really a no-brainer.  Our machine utilizes catalytic oxidation to eliminate smoke, then we recirculate the hot air back to the roaster.  The net effect is a MUCH more efficient system, as I will describe.  So if you lived here and required no shipping for your coffee, and you had a choice between buying coffee from us, and from somebody with a conventional roasting system, you would have less carbon impact if you bought it from us.  This much is certainly true, as I will describe.  The question I would like to answer is, what if you lived far enough away that it required shipping?  Does efficient roast + ship equal less carbon impact than local roast on conventional system?  What is the shipping distance where efficient roast loses out to shipping?

I was inspired by a paper from Tyler Coleman and Pablo Paster, entitled “Red, White and Green: The Cost of Carbon in the Global Wine Trade”, published by the American Association of Wine Economists.  I exchanged email with Pablo, and was able to adapt his work to my coffee question above.

The first question to answer is the difference in carbon output between my roasting system and a conventional system of the same size.  For sake of comparison, I went to the specifications for a conventional system that I was considering before I went with the Revelation; I made sure to use the specs for a system that also utilized catalytic oxidation to eliminate the smoke contribution, hence the differences I’m comparing are carbon due to energy consumption.  I’ll skip the calculations here and jump to the results: our Revelation produces 0.00004 ton CO2e per pound roasted.  A comparable, new conventional system produces 0.00181 ton CO2e per pound roasted.  Ours is favorable by 0.00177 ton CO2e per pound, or a whopping 97.7%.  That’s how much emitted CO2 you eliminate by buying your coffee from us instead of another local alternative, assuming you require no shipping.

So the question is then whether shipping generates more than 0.00177 ton CO2 per pound.  That’s 1607 grams CO2e per pound of coffee.  At some point it’s bound to happen, so how far can I ship it to you and still have favorable carbon differential?  Turns out the answer is pretty darn far.  Anywhere in the country, in fact.  Pablo’s research enabled me to answer the question; here’s the summary.

Let’s assume air freight for a minute.  At the end of a long string of math, it turns out that air freight generates 0.459 grams CO2e per mile shipped.  So I can air freight coffee up to 3500 miles and still produce less CO2 than roasting the same coffee locally in a conventional system.  Truck shipping is 2.26 times MORE favorable, i.e., lass carbon production, than air shipping (0.203 grams CO2e per mile).

So let’s say you live in Charlottesville, Virginia, 231 miles from my shop in Morrisville NC.  Buying a pound of coffee from me generates 36.3 grams CO2e.  Shipping it generates another 46.9 grams CO2e, for a total of 83.2 grams CO2e.  If you bought the same coffee locally and required no shipping, a conventional system would generate 1643.5 grams CO2e.  You achieve a 94.9% reduction in emitted CO2 by buying the coffee from me and shipping it.

What if you lived in Providence, Rhode Island, 683 miles away, and required air freight?  Your local alternative is still 1643.5 grams CO2e.  My roasting is still 36.3 grams.  Shipping adds another 313.5 grams CO2e, for a grand total of 349.8 grams CO2e.  You achieve a 78.7% reduction in emitted CO2 by buying from me and having it shipped by air.  California?  You still achieve a 14% reduction via air freight, and even more if shipped by truck.  Pretty cool, huh?

So if you buy local to keep your food dollars in your local economy and maintain relationships, you should keep doing that.  If you buy locally because you think food miles are adding to your carbon footprint, you would be right if you bought some coffee roasted on a conventional system.  But if you are trying to reduce your carbon footprint while still getting great coffee, you should buy it from us.

http://www.greenroasting.com

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Happy Earth Day

Today is an opportunity to think about your impact on the planet.  I thought I would jump on the bandwagon with maybe some “less obvious” suggestions to minimize your own impact on the planet.  Those who know me know that I like to think beyond the obvious, and this topic is no exception.  So here are a few of my suggestions.

1.  I need to start with a coffee-related topic or two.  Consumers are now very knowledgable about organic and other certified coffees.  What many don’t realize is that roasting itself is a contributor to enviornmental issues, with smoke emitted and energy consumed.  We partnered with US Roaster Corp to develop a cool new “green” roasting system, the first of its kind.  The up-front costs are substantially higher, but it’s a long term positive investment.  And there are better coffee packaging alternatives (we use biodegradable, compostable bags) – ask your roaster if they have gone green! 

2.  A lot of places tell you to use unbleached paper filters for your coffee.  How about ditching the paper all together?  Use a gold filter in your drip maker, or go to a French press (you’ll probably be happier with the coffee, too).

3.  If you usually discard your excess coffee, use it to water plants instead.  You do need to be aware of acid sensitive plants, but many plants will tolerate and thrive on coffee.

4.  Compost your coffee grinds (OK, that one was obvious).  Make sure you add some lime (the stone, not the fruit) to your compost.

Now on to some non-coffee suggestions:

5.  Feed your pets your scraps.  Believe it or not, pet food, like baby food, is a relatively recent invention.  You do need to apply some intelligence to this, of course.  Read up on the foods that are good for your pets and feed them your cast offs.  Our guinea pigs eat better than many people on pea pods, carrot peels and tops, strawberry tops, wilted parsley, outer lettuce and cabbage leaves, and many other veggie trimmings.  Our dogs get fish skins, sweet potato skins, excess rice, chicken giblets, spent grain treats made from home beer brewing byproducts and more.

6.  Think about more things you can compost – napkins, tea bags, natural paper, paper lawn bags, many egg cartons, cotton string, pet litter (usually), and more!

7.  Think before you flush.  Maybe disgusting to some, but truly not necessary to flush every time as we learned during our recent drought.

8.  Wear your clothes multiple times between launderings.  As much as you can until they are really dirty.  Saves water, soap and energy, and your clothes last longer.

9.  Re-use your paper goods.  Brown bags are especially good to re-use.  Carry your lunch in them.  Use them to make roasted peppers (put the peppers in the bag are grilling to allow the skins to steam loose).  Give your egg cartons to an egg farmer.

10.  Tear paper goods in half.  Frequently half a napkin or paper towel is sufficient.

11.  Take your used hotel soap with you – you showered once and you’re going to leave it?  Wrap it in your dirty clothes to get it home.

12.  If you use disposable plastic water bottles, refill them.

Happy Earth Day!

http://www.greenroasting.com

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The Rumors of my Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

I know, it’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog! But we’ve been busy!

In honor of Earth Day coming up this week, we had a team at my other Alma Mater, Duke University. They have quite a farmer’s market on Fridays and had an Earth Day theme for this market week; since we have such a sweet, earth-friendly roaster, we all thought it would be appropriate for us to make our market debut on Earth Day. So in between Tommy the strawberry guy (thanks for the asparagus, Tommy, it was awesome!) and Jason’s Deli, we sold quite a lot of coffee to the physicians and staff at the Duke medical center. To all you fellow Dukies, we say Thank You for such a great market welcome. We plan on being at your market every market day.

We debuted a couple new products this week. The first is our new Half Caf Blend. I must confess to not being a huge decaf fan, so when our recent customer survey said we needed a half caf, I swung for the fences. This blend utilizes some of my “comfort zone” coffees, beans I know are always exquisite. The downside is their availability is spotty (isn’t that true of all really great foods?), so if you want to try this blend order it now. Given the huge popularity of the blend, however, I will always have a great half caf on the menu.

The other new product was a spin on the classic Mocha Java blend that I call Mocha Java “Wild Type”. I’m not saying what it is that makes it so wild, but I will say this is a great coffee, one that qualifies as a Roastmaster Reserve. More importantly, I have gotten some preliminary customer feedback that indicates I’m not the only one that feels this way. So we will add this one to the menu later this week.

On Saturday we were at the Cary Farmers’ Market, where we had our first repeat customers. THANK YOU for your patronage, we are thrilled that you are enjoying the coffee. We also had some people take advantage of our order-ahead feature. Simply place your order on our web site, select the local pickup option at checkout, and add a comment to tell us you’ll pick up at the market. This is the only way we can guarantee you will get what you want – we try to anticipate the desired product mix, as well as the number of pre-ground we need to bring (no electricity to grind on site), but inevitably we turn away a few people who arrive after we’ve sold out of something.

It’s interesting to see the differences between markets. At Duke we had many requests for dark roasts and espressos. I guess residents still don’t get any sleep! We also saw almost no demand for pre-ground coffee. In Cary people are looking for milder coffees, and more pre-ground. Go figure.

So on Sunday we finally took a day off. Well, not completely off, of course, that would be crazy. But I did get in a long run with the Muddy Dog herself. Bailey is funny to run with; it reminds me of the opening scene in Talledega Nights – The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. It opens with a young Ricky Bobby who says only “I want to go fast”. That’s Bailey. I got over to Lionel’s bakery for a La Farm loaf, had a leisurely press pot of Mocha Java Wild Type with some of my fancy Swaziland sugar, and I got a haircut (thanks, Nick), then went to the Raleigh farmers’ market as a customer. I did swap out some of our inventory there for some fresh stuff (say Hey! to Charlene when you stop into The Berry Patch in the upper building to buy our coffee). I bought some glorious peas, the first of the season. God, I love this time of year. They were so good the kids ate about half of what I bought for a snack, raw, when I got home. And the guinea pigs love the pods, which are chock full of vitamin C. My gardening plans were spoiled by rain, but we have learned to cherish the rain.

I have a bunch of blog topics coming up… I’ve been reading Marion Nestle’s new book, What to Eat, and have some comments on that. I’ve been getting a little more involved in our local Slow Food convivium and there are some upcoming events to mention. A few new beans to put on the website, and a couple new ideas we’re going to try as a result of our customer survey (take the survey here and help us serve you better). Stay tuned!

http://www.muddydogcoffee.com

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Great and eco-friendly

So admittedly this post is at BEST tangentially related to our coffee business, in that the name of said business was inspired by our dogs. But we do like to do our part to minimize conspicuous consumption, so I’ve been meaning to mention the dog leashes Debbie found recently. From Krebs Recycle, these leashes are made from recycled climbing rope. It makes sense that climbing rope has some pretty stringent life-cycle constraints, and that it’s pretty much like new when they are done using it for its intended purpose. And strong as all get out, of course. The folks at Krebs whack it up in leash lengths, and hand sew a nice clip on one end, and a loop handle on the other. Simple, durable, inexpensive and sensible!  And you support a family business when you buy one at a very reasonable price (our dogs are rough on leashes – we have gone through too many $50 leashes to count.  At $15 this leash is the deal of the year, and I think it will last darn near forever.)

http://www.muddydogcoffee.com

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The King is dead. Long live the King!

And in this case, corn is the new King. What in the world, you may ask, does that title have to do with coffee, or more importantly, you? We’ll get to that, I promise.

We spent the day today at CoffeeFest. If this sounds like fun, then I should explain that while it does brings to mind Festivus, it’s not a Fest, per se, but rather a trade show for the coffee industry with 209 exhibitors. It’s smaller than the big show of the year, SCAA, but it is more specifically aimed at those involved in the cafe and restaurant segment. Which really isn’t us, exactly, but we wanted to look at some new stuff (that will be the topic of a future post in a few weeks!), so we made the trip. On the ride home, I realized that most readers of this blog probably couldn’t care less about the trade, which is at it should be. So let’s talk about something you do care about. You. I figured I would write about my impressions of the show from the perspective of what you, the cafe consumer, might start to see in the upcoming year… new technologies, new products, and clever upgrades to existing products that impact your daily coffee.

Which brings me to the title of this post. Far and away, the trend that leaped out at me was the transition to more environmentally friendly packaging. Biodegradable cups lead the charge, followed by biodegradable, compostable food containers, eating utensils and other goods that were previously made from plastic. And this stuff is nice. The technology underlying most of this innovation is polylactic acid, or PLA. In its finished form, it looks kind of like the love child of styrofoam and paper. I find it kind of ironic that the discovery of PLA dates to at least the 1930′s and possibly to the 1890′s, despite the title of the linked paper (an exciting NEW packaging material) which actually contradicts itself on the “newness” of PLA. In any case, look for an onslaught of eco-friendly packaging materials; time to go long in Cargill and short Dixie.

The other things likely to impact the consumer are improvements to the status quo. One cool thing I saw was a new version of the Java Jacket, but by a different company (whose name I cannot recall or decipher from the exhibitors list – but I do remember they are out of Red Bank, NJ). This new cup sleeve has a built in cardboard strap, like a lanyard, that allows you to carry your coffee like it’s on a string, which is really useful when your hands are full. Very simple, very useful, very cool.

To go along with the cup sling is a simple spill-proof lid that essentially places a baffle between the coffee and the existing lid to prevent it from sloshing out the hole. Again, simple but innovative. Last on my list of top 3 is a real Back to the Future kind of thing, the Coffee Coin. Looking like something from the town of Bedrock, it is a pottery disc that is reusable version of the old fashioned punch card. It can also be a gift card, or any other kind of card. More source reduction, nice.

On a trade related note, I must complement the guys at Bunn. I stopped by their booth to complain about my pourover airpot brewer (see this post for the full story). After patiently explaining to me that I really bought the wrong brewer for my expectations, and that I really should have gone for the model that cost four times what mine did, they realized I was still in their booth. So after providing me all the disclaimers, the tech guy told me how to get under the hood and make it behave the way I want it to; this will require some new parts, which they agreed to send me for free. Way to go, Bunn.

Continuing my tradition of closing a post with tangentially related, nearly senseless ramblings, I feel compelled to comment on a few other highlights. First, we got to meet the Coffee In Action girls. We’re looking forward to their visit to our shop in a week, I’m sure we’ll all blog about that. The other is a little Mexican joint we stopped at in Richmond on the way home, La Casita. My fundamental principle on restaurants is never go to one that there are more than two of (it used to be one, but I have recently, and reluctantly, adjusted to allow for some entrepreneurial success), and La Casita meets that criterion, just (we went to the Brook Road location). If you find yourself in Richmond with a hankerin’ for chile rellenos, you must stop in.

Keep a lookout on these pages for an announcement about the result of our trip for our business – we think you’ll like it.

http://www.muddydogcoffee.com

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Say Hello to My Little Friend

Do you think about the planet when you buy things?  Probably.  It’s almost impossible these days to be unaware, or not care, about issues related to global warming.  It seems natural to think about the planet when you buy a car, or a big kitchen appliance.  Some of us even think of the planet when we buy our coffee – is it Organic?  Shade Grown?  But do you think about the machine that roasted your coffee, and its impact on the planet?  Does it pollute the air?  Does is suck down power derived from fossil fuels?  Joel Starr, in the September 2007 Tea & Coffee Trade Journal http://www.allbusiness.com/environment-natural-resources/pollution-environmental/5523090-1.html observes that “In fact, it’s a safe assumption that coffee roasters and retailers at home, not producers at origin, are responsible for most of the pollution that coffee consumption produces (namely CO2 emissions from the roasting of the coffee and billions of one-time-use, disposable paper cups lids, stir-sticks, etc.). This has to do with many factors, not the least of which is the artisanal roasters preference for “drum” and “fluid-bed” type roasting machines, which have essentially not changed in decades. That is not to say that these machines haven’t improved, they just haven’t “gone green.” “  I’d venture to say not many coffee drinkers think about this particular issue.

In setting up our new roasting business, however, we did think about it.  Our new roaster, or ”Rosie” as she’s been affectionately named here, is one of a kind in the world (right now), and probably about the most eco-friendly roaster on the planet.  Our friend Dan Joliff of U.S. Roaster Corp http://www.usroastercorp.com built the Revelation roaster using advanced technology that virtually eliminates emissions and reduces power consumption to a fraction of a traditional roaster.  We were happy to partner with Dan to input to the design and be the first guinea pig, er, customer, for this exciting new machine that we think will take the roasting community by storm.  We hope he sells a lot of them! 

So when you sip a cup of our coffee, you can do so knowing that you’ve done just a little bit more for the planet than was possible a month ago.

http://www.muddydogcoffee.com/

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