Hello World

After a lot of thinking and reflection, I realized that I am the resource I've been looking for. It's a peculiar thing, the way that we search for knowledge in external places. A blog post from an expert tucked away in a remote corner of the internet, a little snippet from a YouTube video that elucidates that exact problem you've been vexed by, or a "masterclass" from an authority hidden behind a paywall. How does anyone come by real knowledge? Is it a meta-analysis of existing data? Is it abstract theory? Or is it hard-earned experience, tested against the extant body of data, and applied to your particular situation? Everyone knows it's the last option. Nothing comes for free; nothing is above the price of trial-and-error. How does someone become an expert in anything? It's hours, weeks, years, decades. . . an eternity of practice, doing it, living it, making mistakes; a million ways not to build a lightbulb. I am a writer. It's in my blood, or in my brain's makeup—it's one and the same, my predilection. I'm coming up on a year as the sole owner of a small business, a bootstrap operation, and I've realized that I'm a lifer here, too. I have the personality that makes me the one who spends an eternity doing something; the person who leaves no stone unturned, who is singleminded, who is happy to make the mistakes as long as they're pointing towards the final goal. I realized that I can be the mentor that I've been searching for to others, because I can communicate the intricacies of my process. Really, I love it. On this blog, I want to offer a bunch of different thoughts pertaining to coffee—the roasting of coffee, the brewing of coffee, thoughts on the place that the consumption & distribution of coffee holds in our modern world, and a bunch of other creative coffee-related stuff besides that. I figure if it's helpful, if it's enjoyable for others to read, and if it's useful—particularly for people who are searching for knowledge, like me—then this is something worthwhile I can offer. I believe that knowledge is free. It's not something to be held behind closed doors, misered, monetized. Anyone who does this is holding themselves back, ultimately. Their real goal is not finding the truth. I roast coffee on a sample roaster, the Roest L100 Plus. It's awesome, but not without flaws. I brew espresso on a QuickMill Vetrano 2B Evo, with a Weber Workshops basket and portafilter, and a bunch of puck prep accessories. I use a Timemore 078 Sculptor grinder with SSP Multipurpose burrs for everything, and brew pourovers on the Hario V60 and Alpha brewers, mainly using Cafec T90 filters. By sharing these details, I hope that someone else can find utility in their specificity. Maybe they will solve a small piece of their own puzzle. I cup my coffees all the time, religiously, and my favorite thing ever is inviting over friends and others from my little community of burgeoning coffee nerds in Bishop to experience & share with me the thing that I love most in the world. That's all for now. Hello world.