Brewing a Cup of Finca Momoto Natural Geisha from Proud Mary Coffee

Added on by C. Maoxian.

This week’s coffee is a natural-processed Geisha from Finca Momoto in Panama.

I paid $35 for 100 grams, which works out to only $9.80 a cup (beans only).

I forgot to get a picture of the roast date, but it was a March 7 roast. This means that the coffee has been resting for about ten days, which could be a perfect amount of time.

Beautiful beans, almost like little jewels. Not a lot of chaff on the grind.

Do you even sift, bro? It’s extremely important that you sift out your fines when making pour over. The fines will muddy everything up and ruin your beautiful cup of coffee. Set them aside!

20 grams of perfectly consistent grind after sifting. The usual recipe, 15:1 … 200-degree Fahrenheit water, 50 ml and 30 seconds to bloom, second pour of 150 ml, final pour to 300 ml total. Of course I use a hand-blown Chemex because it costs three times as much, which means it’s three times as good. It’s also important that you pronounce Chemex, “sha-may.”

[Forgot pic of bloom pour]

Bloom pour of 50 ml.

Second pour of 100 ml to 150 ml total.

Final pour of 150 ml to 300 ml. Lovely color. Drained to drip at exactly the three minute mark.

100 Best American-Made Products

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Harrison Ford -- One Movie a Year for 25 Years

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Harrison Ford (born in 1942) was in more than one movie a year for many years, but I’ve just selected one movie for each year below:

1973 — American Graffiti

1974 — The Conversation

1977 — Star Wars

1978 — Force 10 from Navarone

1979 — Apocalypse Now

1980 — The Empire Strikes Back

1981 — Raiders of the Lost Ark

1982 — Blade Runner

1983 — Return of the Jedi

1984 — Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

1985 — Witness

1986 — The Mosquito Coast

1988 — Working Girl

1990 — Presumed Innocent

1991 — Regarding Henry

1992 — Patriot Games

1993 — The Fugitive

1994 — Clear and Present Danger

1995 — Sabrina

1997 — Air Force One

1998 — Six Days, Seven Nights

1999 — Randon Hearts

2000 — What Lies Beneath

Old Fart Trading Bloggers Revisited

Added on by C. Maoxian.

I borrowed the book One Good Trade by Mike Bellafiore from interlibrary loan. It was published in 2010. I skimmed it and found nothing of value, but this table of old trading blogs interested me. He strangely didn’t include the best trading blog of all time: mine!

Where are they now?

  1. TraderFeed (still around!)

  2. Alphatrends (still around!)

  3. Afraid to Trade (looks defunct)

  4. Trader Mike (redirects to broker lead generator)

  5. The Kirk Report (I think Charles Kirk was paralyzed in ATV accident?)

  6. Seeking Alpha (still around!)

  7. Chris Perruna (looks defunct)

  8. Quantifiable Edges (still around!)

  9. Trading Success (defunct)

  10. Wall Street Cheat Sheet (defunct)

50% still around ain’t bad after 15 years … bunch of bitter old men for sure now, lol (an inside joke).

Brewing a Cup of La Bendición CoE #1 from Bean & Bean Coffee

Added on by C. Maoxian.

This week’s coffee is a honey-processed Pacamara from La Bendición in El Salvador. I am buying almost all of my coffee from Bean & Bean now since they deal in the best of the best and the young woman who runs the place is on the ball.

I paid $70 for 4 ounces, which works out to only $17 a cup (beans only).

I forgot to get a picture of the roast date, but it was a Feb. 10 roast. This means that the coffee has been resting for about a month, which could be a perfect amount of time.

Pacamara is a big bean, fairly hard to grind, but gives off little chaff. [UPDATE: the whole beans have the aroma of cocoa for sure.]

Do you even sift, bro? It’s extremely important that you sift out your fines when making pour over. The fines will muddy everything up and ruin your beautiful cup of coffee. Set them aside!

20 grams of perfectly consistent grind after sifting. The usual recipe, 15:1 … 200-degree Fahrenheit water, 50 ml and 30 seconds to bloom, second pour of 150 ml, final pour to 300 ml total. Of course I use a hand-blown Chemex because it costs three times as much, which means it’s three times as good. It’s also important that you pronounce Chemex, “sha-may.”

Bloom pour of 50 ml.

Second pour of 100 ml to 150 ml total.

Final pour of 150 ml to 300 ml. Lovely color. Drained to drip at exactly the three and a half minute mark.

This is a #1 CoE and I can see why … not full mouth acidity, but sort of back of tongue acidity, and it diminishes quickly while leaving a strong coffee flavor. Pacamara is a great variety. I’ll drink another cup tomorrow and update the post with aroma and flavor notes. Honey-processed doesn’t mean any honey is involved … it’s just that the mucilage is sticky like honey, I guess. [Update: main impression of this coffee is it is CLEAN … not a whole mouth sour but a tongue-only sour, very nice. CoE #1 for a reason.]

Earlier:

Brewing a Cup of Hawaii Kona Extra Fancy from Bean & Bean Coffee

Brewing a Cup of Monte Llano Bonito El Kinkajou CoE #3 from Bean & Bean Coffee

Brewing a Cup of Momokiemo CoE #2 from Bean & Bean Coffee

Brewing a Cup of Sítio Santa Luzia CoE #3 from Bean & Bean Coffee

Brewing a Cup of Ponderosa CoE #4 from Proud Mary Coffee

Brewing a Cup of El Injerto La Calaca from George Howell Coffee

Brewing a Cup of Finca La Mula from Blendin Coffee Club

Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,

Look upon a little child;

Pity my simplicity,

Suffer me to come to Thee.

Hide me, from all evil hide,

Self, and stubbornness, and pride;

Let me live without offence;

Guard my helpless innocence.

Loving Jesus, gentle Lamb,

In Thy gracious hands I am;

Make me, Saviour, what Thou art;

Live Thyself within my heart.

I shall then show forth Thy praise;

Serve Thee all my happy days;

Then the world shall always see

Christ the holy Child in me.

Brewing a Cup of Hawaii Kona Extra Fancy from Bean & Bean Coffee

Added on by C. Maoxian.

This week’s coffee is a washed Kona Typica from Lions Gate Farms in Hawaii. I am buying almost all of my coffee from Bean & Bean now since they deal in the best of the best and the young woman who runs the place is smart, hard-working, and responsive.

I paid $33 for 4 ounces, which works out to only $8.25 a cup (beans only). “Extra Fancy” is the Hawaiian Department of Agriculture term for this grade of coffee, I guess.

I forgot to get a picture of the roast date, but it was a Feb. 25 roast. This means that the coffee has been resting for about two weeks, which could be a perfect amount of time.

Haven’t had Kona coffee before, the whole beans have a distinctive fragrance which I can’t describe, fruity anyway … quite a bit of chaff after the grind. Lovely aroma… again, I have no words to describe it.

Do you even sift, bro? It’s extremely important that you sift out your fines when making pour over. The fines will muddy everything up and ruin your beautiful cup of coffee. Set them aside!

20 grams of perfectly consistent grind after sifting. The usual recipe, 15:1 … 200-degree Fahrenheit water, 50 ml and 30 seconds to bloom, second pour of 150 ml, final pour to 300 ml total. Of course I use a hand-blown Chemex because it costs three times as much, which means it’s three times as good. It’s also important that you pronounce Chemex, “sha-may.”

Bloom pour of 50 ml.

Second pour of 100 ml to 150 ml total.

Final pour of 150 ml to 300 ml. Lovely color. Drained to drip at exactly the three minute mark.

Full-mouth acidity, not unpleasant, doesn’t linger overly … it’s clean, very nice. I wish I could describe the flavors and aromas better, but I’ll have to update the post later when I have a second and third and fourth cup. I think I’ll be able to identify Kona coffee on blind taste tests later since it is very distinctive. Jiyoon notes “brown sugar” which I think I can smell/taste in there.

Coffee from Hawaii is necessarily expensive because slave labor can’t be exploited to farm it. An 11 ounce bag of this costs $81 which, when you think about it, is probably the price you should pay for coffee from anywhere in the world.

Earlier:

Brewing a Cup of Monte Llano Bonito El Kinkajou CoE #3 from Bean & Bean Coffee

Brewing a Cup of Momokiemo CoE #2 from Bean & Bean Coffee

Brewing a Cup of Sítio Santa Luzia CoE #3 from Bean & Bean Coffee

Brewing a Cup of Ponderosa CoE #4 from Proud Mary Coffee

Brewing a Cup of El Injerto La Calaca from George Howell Coffee

Brewing a Cup of Finca La Mula from Blendin Coffee Club

Emily Hahn on Stilwell and Chiang

Added on by C. Maoxian.

From Chiang Kai-Shek, An Unauthorized Biography:

“In The Stilwell Papers we see not only the portrait of the Generalissimo as Stilwell saw him — pigheaded, ignorant, dishonest, preoccupied with piddling little questions of ‘face,’ caring only for power, wildly disorganized in his military strategy, and, most damning of all, hopelessly out of step with Western methods. We also see the American, at once keyed up by his responsibility and weighed down by it; full of nervous energy that went sour when it was frustrated; incapable — surely to an abnormal degree? — of appreciating that there are more points of view than one’s own, and that the world is a good deal larger than America. Putting it simply, Chinese are not Americans. Stilwell must have known this in theory, but when he ran up against the fact it always surprised and dismayed him, and set him on the boil.”

Brewing a Cup of Monte Llano Bonito El Kinkajou CoE #3 from Bean & Bean Coffee

Added on by C. Maoxian.

This week’s coffee is an experimental San Roque from Sumava de Lourdes in Costa Rica. I am buying almost all of my coffee from Bean & Bean now since they deal in the best of the best and I like Jiyoon, the young woman who runs the place.

I paid $35 for 4 ounces, which works out to only $8.75 a cup (beans only).

I forgot to get a picture of the roast date, but it was a Feb. 4 roast. This means it has been resting for about a week, which could be perfect.

Haven’t had San Roque before. Getting a lot of chaff on the grind which is unusual for these high-end beans.

Do you even sift, bro? It’s extremely important that you sift out your fines when making pour over. The fines will muddy everything up and ruin your beautiful cup of coffee. Set them aside!

20 grams of perfectly consistent grind after sifting. The usual recipe, 15:1 … 200-degree Fahrenheit water, 50 ml and 30 seconds to bloom, second pour of 150 ml, final pour to 300 ml total. Of course I use a hand-blown Chemex because it costs three times as much, which means it’s three times as good. It’s also important that you pronounce Chemex, “sha-may.”

Bloom pour to 50 ml.

Second pour to 150 ml.

Final pour to 300 ml. Lovely color.

I like this better than the Mexican one from last time. There’s some complex sour going on here, but it’s not overwhelming and the aftertaste isn’t bad. I’m going to circle back to this one in future days so I can flesh out the flavors some more. I’m drinking all the various coffees blind from now on. (Update: I guessed what this was after drinking it blind at a later date… it gave full-mouth acidity and lingered longer than I like, but not bad. Wouldn’t get it again though.)

I’ll have another cup tomorrow and then give away the rest of the bag since I’m not really into coffee.

There’s some more coffee on the way, so I’ll have a different cup next week to write about. But I’m not really looking forward to it since I don’t enjoy the taste of coffee. :-)

Earlier:

Brewing a Cup of Momokiemo CoE #2 from Bean & Bean Coffee

Brewing a Cup of Sítio Santa Luzia CoE #3 from Bean & Bean Coffee

Brewing a Cup of Ponderosa CoE #4 from Proud Mary Coffee

Brewing a Cup of El Injerto La Calaca from George Howell Coffee

Brewing a Cup of Finca La Mula from Blendin Coffee Club