Catherine posted about her $15 cup of Hacienda La Esmeralda. Fifteen bucks must be a Toronto thing. (Though I understand it is also the price being charged in Vancouver.) Maybe the price has to do with an inflated sense of status in larger Canadian cities.

Here in Edmonton, we can get a 12 ounce cup of that same Hacienda La Esmeralda for $5, from Transcend Coffee. Not only that, Transcend is a roaster. They buy the Hacienda La Esmeralda green, roast it and make it available in small half-pound lots. I have been able to enjoy several cups at considerably less than even the five bucks per cup.

Catherine’s post also mentions the only Clover machine in Toronto. Edmonton didn’t make her list of other Canadian cities with a Clover. However, Transcend has one of those: though only for about 10 days now. As Catherine notes, it brews fantastic coffee.

Food for Thought - a Foodtv.ca blog : The World’s Best and Priciest Coffee.

written and directed by Robert Vaughn

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• Curry pastes – A necessary ingredient in a Perfect Pantry.
• Honey Glazed Lemon Roast Chicken Recipe – A simple and delicious recipe for roast chicken.
• What Do 300 Calorie Meals Look Like? – Pictures to give a visual sense of what a 300 calorie meal looks like.
• The Top 5 Brain Health Foods – Good quality dark chocolate and coffee. How can you go wrong?
• Best of Panama 2007 – the best of the 2007 brain food (coffee) from Panama.
• Roasting coffee with a popcorn popper – How most of us get started roasting.
• Chicken with Apples and Raisin Couscous – a Moroccan style dish.

The boys at Transcend coffee have laid their hands on 20 pounds of Hacienda La Esmeralda, which will be arriving soon. Forbes magazine listed this as the second most expensive coffee in the world:

“Hacienda La Esmeralda’s Geisha coffee set an online auction record when it sold for over $50 dollars per pound, unroasted, on May 30, 2006. The coffee, which is grown in the shade of old guava trees, has been widely and enthusiastically praised for its flavour and aroma. In April, it placed first in the SCAA “Best of Panama” competition, with a score of 94.6 out of 100.”

If you want to try some of this coffee, Transcend is offering it in 1/2–pound quantities for $35 Canadian. It’s first-come, first served, so you better hurry. It will also be available by the cup at the shop. Check the Transcend blog for notice of when that will be available.

You can read more about the coffee at the Hacienda La Esmeralda website.

transcend coffee: Hacienda La Esmeralda

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“If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.” —Abraham Lincoln

• You don’t need a hammer to pound nails.
• Your only source of nutrition comes from “sweet and low.”
• You don’t sweat, you percolate.
• You’ve worn out the handles on your favourite mug.
• You’ve built a miniature city out of plastic stirrers.
• People get dizzy just watching you.
• People can test their batteries in your ears.
• When someone asks you,” how are you?”, you say,” good to the last drop.”
• Your birthday is a national holiday in Brazil.
• You’d be willing to spend time in a Turkish prison.
• You go to sleep just so you can wake up and smell the coffee.
• You speak perfect Arabic without even taking a lesson.
• Your thermos is on wheels.
• You can outlast the Energizer Bunny.
• You don’t even wait for the water to boil anymore.
• You think being called a drip is a compliment.
• You don’t tan, you roast.
• You don’t get mad, you get steamed.
• You soak your dentures in coffee overnight.
• Your coffee mug is insured by Lloyds of London.
• You think CPR stands for “Coffee Provides Resuscitation.”
• Juan Valdez named his donkey after you.
• You ski uphill.
• You speed walk in your sleep.
• You answer the door before people knock.
• You sleep with your eyes open.
• You just completed another sweater and you don’t know how to knit.
• You grind your coffee beans in your mouth.
• You have to watch videos in fast-forward.
• The only time you’re standing still is in an earthquake.
• You lick your coffeepot clean.
• Your eyes stay open when you sneeze.
• The nurse needs a scientific calculator to take your pulse.
• Your t-shirt says, “Decaf is the devil’s coffee.”
• You can type sixty words a minute with your feet.
• All your kids are named “Joe.”

INeedCoffee.com has a nice overview of the Economic Benefits of Home Roasting. I’ve been home-roasting coffee for several years and the benefit that most surprising starting out was the cost savings.

I began my home roasting using a two-dollar hot-air popper bought at a thrift shop. Somehow, I had assumed that the retail cost of green beans would be in the same range as buying roasted beans. It didn’t take long to figure out that the money saved buying and roasting green could be applied to the purchase of a dedicated roasting machine.

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• Love is a big rare roast – Lynette creates one of her great sounding meals for Valentine’s Day. Lucky Cakes!
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If you really want to taste a fresh brew, you’ll want to roast your own coffee beans at home, and then use them as soon as they have cooled.

Home Coffee Roasting Tips