Day: November 23, 2024

Café Medrano Medium Roast

lpaulriddle
  • Beans:
    • Café Medrano Medium Roast Organic (Kensington, MD)
    • Origin: Honduras (Copán)
    • Roast Date: 11/14/2024
    • Purchase date: 11/16/2024 at Chestertown, MD farmer’s market
  • V60:
    • 19g to 19.5g coffee / 300g water
    • Ode: 2+1
    • Water at 99°C
    • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with 40g bloom water – finishes 02:45-03:00

I believe I had read about Café Medrano a few months back when I was looking for smaller local(ish) roasters. They seem to be unique in that a single family owns both the coffee farms in Honduras, and the roastery/café in the D.C. suburbs. Kensington is (unfortunately) not all that convenient for me to get to regularly, but I wonder if they are at any other local farmer’s markets. I will have to keep an eye out.

First and second cups (today) were very good at grind setting 3 and 95°C water. We’ll see if it will need tweaking as the beans start to age a bit. I bought a 1-pound bag, so I’ll have them for at least a couple of weeks.

11/28: After a couple of ever-so-slightly underextracted cups, I made a couple of adjustments, and ended up at grind setting 2+1 and 99°C water. I’ve been happy with the past couple of cups at these settings. It’s not that the previous cups were bad — I just felt that there was room for improvement. This is (coincidentally) the same as how I brewed the bag I finished just before these. The difference is that those were light-roasted beans, and these are medium-roasted beans. However, over time, I’ve learned that those terms are rather subjective.

An autumn to remember

lpaulriddle

The title says it all here — it has been an eventful fall, for many reasons, some good and some bad.

Good: My nephew’s wedding. He’s the first in the next generation of the family to marry. It was a great weekend in D.C.

Bad: Losing my cousin. It wasn’t unexpected, but it was too soon, and it was rough.

Good: Visiting college friends who recently moved to Florida. I see more of this kind of thing in our future.

Bad: My annual October/November respiratory illness. For future reference: It started with a sore throat on 10/23, while we were still in FL. The viral part was mild. It never totally knocked me off my feet, and I’m not sure I ever even ran a temperature. The bad part was the aftermath: 3 weeks of laryngitis and middle ear/Eustachian tube congestion (flying a couple of times during the initial onset didn’t help). 4 weeks later, it’s almost out of my system, and I can finally talk normally again, but still have occasional ETD issues. The ETD has mainly affected the right ear, but I did have it in my left ear for a couple of days earlier on.

Bad: Losing one of our cats.

Good: Spending 2 days in Chestertown, MD, for our 24th anniversary. Great town.

Good: Running my first half marathon at age 54 (this morning). This was one of the goals I had set for myself earlier this year, but the outcome was in doubt after a rather tough summer for running and various other obstacles that life threw in the way (some of which are listed above). The run went well, and I averaged 11-minute miles on a windy morning over hilly terrain, which isn’t too shabby for me. I’ve been slower this year than last year, for many of the same reasons it took me so long to go 13.1 miles. However, I did run 6.8 miles at 10:10/mile this past Thursday, so I don’t think I’ve lost a step — It’s more likely that I was just out of practice, and need to work up to faster speeds the same way I worked on increasing my mileage this fall. Not sure where I’ll go from here, goal-wise, but for now, I’m just going to try to run this distance about once per month through spring.