I am in LOVE!

We visited a coffee place while we were at the market. This is a classic family operation since the 1930s who do their bookkeeping by hand, roast the beans slowly over rubber-tree wood, and age their beans EIGHT years before they do anything.

This is the roaster. He said it takes two hours to roast over fire, 10 minutes over gas but they don't compromise!


The store room. "First in, first out," he said. That means these bags get ROTATED. The right side of the room had bags full of year old beans, I am leaning on eight year old beans.


Some beans in various stages of the aging process.


A turn-of-the-century bean grinder from Ohio (I think).


Some random jars of beans. I put in an application for a part-time job! But haven't heard yet. I think they fear me drinking up the profits. Angie and I were both startled at the effects he promised from drinking robusta coffee. It was a typically Chinese thing to be worried about (hint: it doesn't make you rich; wink-wink, nudge-nudge, know-what I mean, know-what-I-mean?).