The Happy Goat Blog

  • Home Coffee Roasting, Fun and Easy

    Posted On Thursday April, 2012

    Home Roasting can be fun and its easy to do as well. There are different ways to roast and the method you end up choosing should be influenced by how much coffee you consume. To get started I would recommend using one of these methods;  The Popcorn Popper,(Fluid Bed Roasting) if you don’t have one in your cupboard you can purchase one second hand at a thrift store or buy it brand new at a hardware store for really cheap.  Stovetop Popper, Cookie sheet in the oven. These methods are can create a less even roast and do require some technique to get good results, So lets stick with the air popper method. What You Need:  A hot air popcorn popper (Not all air poppers are recommended for roasting coffee.)  Optional thermometer.  A big bowl to catch the chaff, a big spoon, a metal collander (or 2, aluminum is best)...

    Read More

  • How To Brew with the Pour Over Cloth Pot

    Posted On Wednesday February, 2012

    First Time Use: Wash the cloth filter with hot water and strain the water out of it. Wash and rinse the coffee pot before using NOTE: The more accurate and preferred method is to use a scale. Weights are preferred because the same amount of coffee is provided regardless of roast color. Darker roasting enlarges the bean, taking up more volume, so a scoop of dark roasted coffee is lighter in weight, and thus requires more volume (scoops). You Will Need Fresh-roasted coffee (24grams) or Approx. 3 scoops. (195 – 205º F) Pour-over Sock Pot Grinder (grind = fine) Drip Grind Measuring spoon or scale Cup(s) and/or thermal carafe Directions: 1-Boil filtered water. 
2-Rinse the cotton filter in hot water over the carafe, so the glass is preheated, and throw out this water afterward. 
3-Measure drip grind coffee - Grind 24grams, approximately  2.5 to 3 tablespoons or to your liking...

    Read More

  • Iced Coffee Cake

    Posted On Friday September, 2011

    By ANNIE BELL MAKES 1 x 20cm CAKE  CAKE 100ml good olive oil plus extra for the tin 125ml cooled espresso or strong black coffee 150g light muscovado sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 large eggs 225g plain flour ½ tsp baking powder a pinch of sea salt  ICING 230g icing sugar sifted 2-3 tbsp espresso or strong black coffee Have ready a 20cm nonstick loose-bottom cake tin at least 4cm deep. Preheat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Brush the inside of the tin with a little oil.  For the cake: whisk the olive oil, coffee, sugar, vanilla and eggs together in a large bowl. Sift the flour and baking powder into another bowl, then whisk these into the wet ingredients with the salt. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, give it a couple of sharp taps on the worktop to bring up any air bubbles, then bake...

    Read More

  • Ugandan Bugisu Coffee

    Posted On Tuesday August, 2011

    Ugandan Bugisu Coffee If you ask a Ugandan, “What is the countries best coffee?” They will most certainly give you the name of the Bugisu Cooperative in Mbale. The Bugisu Cooperative Union Ltd. represents about 250 small family coffee growers from the Mt. Elgon area on the border between Uganda and Kenya. The Bugisu Arabica AA coffee if grown between 5,000 and 8,000 feet in altitude. People who know good coffee know this is where it is found. It is a wonderfully smooth earthy coffee Life To Life Global Building Group (LTLGBG) has decided to use this coffee as a fund raising product to pay for project materials. It is often asked if this is a “Fair Trade Coffee”? Coffee growers must, at their expense, jump through many bureaucratic hoops. The Bugisu Cooperative is currently not capable of meeting these requirements. In an effort to build a strong lasting relationship...

    Read More

  • Which Grinder Is Right For You

    Posted On Sunday July, 2011

    Grinding An old-fashioned manual burr-mill coffee grinder.   The whole coffee beans are ground, also known as milling, to facilitate the brewing process. The fineness of grind strongly affects brewing, and must be matched to the brewing method for best results. Brewing methods which expose coffee grounds to heated water for longer require a coarser grind than faster brewing methods. Beans which are too finely ground for the brewing method in which they are used will expose too much surface area to the heated water and produce a bitter, harsh, "over-extracted" taste. At the other extreme, an overly coarse grind will produce weak coffee unless more is used. Due to the importance of fineness, uniformly ground coffee is better than a mixture of sizes. If a brewing method is used in which the time of exposure of the ground coffee to the heated water is adjustable, then a short brewing...

    Read More