19 December 2011
16 December 2011
15 December 2011
What is the best distance for watching a 1080P HDTV set?
The devil in the details
Consumer electronics: Changes in technology mean that choosing a big-screen television has become more complicated than ever. Should you pay extra for 1080p resolution, LED backlighting or 3D? We crunch the numbers
Dec 3rd 2011 | from the print edition of the Economist
Start with the viewing angles available in the room that will be used. THX, a technical standards-setter for the video and audio industries, requires the back row of seats in a home theatre to have at least a 26° viewing angle from one edge of the screen to the other. Seats nearest the screen should have a viewing angle of no more than 36°. These subtended angles correspond to a viewing distance of roughly 2.2 times the screen width at the back row of the seating, down to 1.5 times the screen width at the front. Within these limits, viewers should be able to enjoy the most immersive experience.
The question, then, is how to relate viewing distance to a person’s visual acuity. In other words, what is the maximum distance beyond which some picture detail is lost because of the eye’s limitations? Visual acuity indicates the angular size of the smallest detail a person’s visual system can resolve. Saying that someone has 20/20 vision (6/6 in metric terms) means that they can resolve a spatial pattern (a letter of the alphabet, say) in which each element subtends an angle of one minute of arc when viewed from a distance of 20 feet (six metres).
In other words, a person with 20/20 sight should, in normal lighting conditions, be able to identify two points that are 0.07 of an inch (1.77mm) apart from a distance of 20 feet. Twenty feet is taken because, as far as the eye is concerned, it is in effect infinity. Beyond this distance, some of the detail in the picture can no longer be resolved by the conical receptor cells in the retina of the eye. It will simply blend into the background instead of being seen as a distinct feature. Thus, it is a waste to make individual pixels—the tiniest elements in a display—smaller than 1.77mm across when viewed from 20 feet.
The problem with viewing images on a television screen—especially the “progressively scanned” 1080p HDTV sets in use today—is that most people sit too far back. At the typical distance of nine feet, a 1080p HDTV set (with a screen 1,920 pixels wide and 1,080 pixels high) needs to be at least 69 inches across (measured diagonally) if viewers are to see all the detail it offers. To see all the detail on a 32-inch set with 1080p resolution means sitting a little over four feet from the screen—great for video-gaming on your own, but hardly conducive to communal viewing.
In other words, viewers are not enjoying the full benefits of the higher pixel count of 1080p televisions if they sit any further back than 1.8 times the screen width. At a distance of 2.7 times the screen width, they might as well buy a cheaper 720p set, as the eye cannot resolve the finer detail of a 1080p screen at that distance.
The next choice that must be made is between plasma display, liquid-crystal display (LCD) or the latest light-emitting diode (LED) variety. Plasmas, with their rapid switching and deep blacks, have long been the favourite for sports fans and movie buffs. Apart from their lack of blur and judder when tracking fast-moving objects and their freedom from wishy-washy greys, they can be viewed from wider angles than LCDs without the picture changing colour. But plasmas have lately fallen out of favour because they are bulkier and more power-hungry.
To lick the LCD’s motion problems, manufacturers have developed special circuitry to predict and compensate for any rapid movement within a scene. This increases the screen’s frame rate from the 60 hertz (Hz) of conventional television to 120Hz and even 240Hz. A few manufacturers have begun offering sets with refresh rates of up to 480Hz, with 960Hz on the horizon. Unfortunately, the motion-compensating circuitry can make filmed content look like a cheap video—a glitch known in the trade as the “soap-opera effect”. The source of the problem is the way film shot at 24 frames a second has to adjust to the television’s much higher refresh rate of 60, 120 or even 240 frames a second.
One way of doing this is to analyse first one frame of film and then the next, and calculate an average of the two. This interpolated frame is inserted between the first and second frames, and the process repeated for each successive frame of the film. The interpolation process is good at removing blur and judder, but it can make the motion appear unnaturally smooth and disconcerting. Be warned: 240Hz sets are the worst offenders. For sports fans in particular, this gives plasma the edge.
Lastly, there are the LED sets. These are simply LCD televisions that use LEDs for backlighting instead of the usual fluorescent tubes. The LEDs can be either along the edges of the screen or spread as an array behind the whole of the display. Edge-lit displays have problems with uniformity of brightness, as well as a limited viewing angle. Apart from giving more uniform brightness, a full array of LED backlights allows the screen to be dimmed selectively in places where a scene needs to be dark. The effect is to make the LCD’s blacks appear almost as dense as a plasma’s. Only top-of-the-range LCD sets from Sharp and Sony currently have this feature. Expect to pay dearly for it.
2D or not 2D, that is the question
So, what to choose? All things being equal, plasma televisions are about two-thirds the price of their LCD equivalents, which are themselves up to a third cheaper than LED sets. Meanwhile, the premium that 3D sets once commanded has all but vanished. They are now worth buying, not so much for their ability to show 3D content, but because they display 2D even better than conventional plasma or LCD sets. 3D sets have special features to reduce “ghosting” in the image and maximise the 3D effect—and this ensures sharper 2D images, too. Happy viewing.
14 December 2011
Why a water bath is important when cooking custards and flans
From Harold McGee's 
Most cooks know that oven heat can be moderated with a water bath. Though the oven may be at 350°F, the liquid water can't exceed 212 °F/100°C, the temperature at which it boils and turns from liquid into vapor. Less well known is the fact that the water temperature can vary over a range of 40°F depending on the pan containing the water and whether it's covered. A pan of water is heated by the oven, but it's simultaneously cooled as water molecules evaporate from the surface. The actual water temperature is determined by the balance between heating of the water mass through the pan, and evaporative cooling at the water surface. More heat accumulates in a thick cast iron pan or passes through infrared-transparent glass than is transmitted by thin stainless steel. So in a moderate oven, a cast-iron water bath may reach 195°F/87°C, a glass bath 185°F/83°C, and a stainless one180°F/80°C. If the pans are covered with foil, then evaporative cooling is prevented, and all of them will come to a full boil.
Custards are tenderest when heated gently, and so are best cooked in an open water bath---one, however, that is sure to reach at least 185°F; otherwise the mix may never completely set. Many cooks take the precaution of folding a kitchen towel in the bottom of a water bath so that the custard cups or dish won't be in direct contact with the hot pan, but this can backfire: the towel prevents the water from circulating under the cups, so the water trapped there reaches the boil and rocks the cups around. A wire rack works better.
The Surprising Science of Water Baths
Most cooks know that oven heat can be moderated with a water bath. Though the oven may be at 350°F, the liquid water can't exceed 212 °F/100°C, the temperature at which it boils and turns from liquid into vapor. Less well known is the fact that the water temperature can vary over a range of 40°F depending on the pan containing the water and whether it's covered. A pan of water is heated by the oven, but it's simultaneously cooled as water molecules evaporate from the surface. The actual water temperature is determined by the balance between heating of the water mass through the pan, and evaporative cooling at the water surface. More heat accumulates in a thick cast iron pan or passes through infrared-transparent glass than is transmitted by thin stainless steel. So in a moderate oven, a cast-iron water bath may reach 195°F/87°C, a glass bath 185°F/83°C, and a stainless one180°F/80°C. If the pans are covered with foil, then evaporative cooling is prevented, and all of them will come to a full boil.
Custards are tenderest when heated gently, and so are best cooked in an open water bath---one, however, that is sure to reach at least 185°F; otherwise the mix may never completely set. Many cooks take the precaution of folding a kitchen towel in the bottom of a water bath so that the custard cups or dish won't be in direct contact with the hot pan, but this can backfire: the towel prevents the water from circulating under the cups, so the water trapped there reaches the boil and rocks the cups around. A wire rack works better.
13 December 2011
How to make Pineapple Flan, by Rozanne Gold
Adapted from Rozanne Gold's
Pineapple Flan
This quivering custard of tropical intensity is made like a traditional crème caramel.1 cup sugar
5 large eggs
5 large egg yolks
2 cups unsweetened pineapple juice
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Put 1/2 cup sugar in a small nonstick skillet. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until sugar melts completely into a dark liquid caramel, about 3 minutes. Immediately divide caramel among cups (pouring to coat bottom of each.) Caramel will harden.
In bowl of an electric mixer put 5 whole eggs, 5 egg yolks, and remaining cup 1/2 cup sugar. Beat for 1 minute, until eggs and sugar are well blended.
Slowly add pineapple juice, little by little, and continue to mix until juice is incorporated. Do not let mixture become too frothy. (Use a strainer if the mixture becomes too frothy.) With a ladle, divide mixture evenly among custard cups.
Place custard cups in a large, deep pan. Create a water bath by adding boiling water to pan so that water level comes two-thirds up the sides of the cups. (To prevent accidental burning of the top of the custards, cover the whole pan LOOSELY with foil that has been pierced in lots of places to let steam escape.) Carefully place in oven. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until firm. Remove cups from water bath. Let cool, then refrigerate until very cold, preferably overnight. When ready to serve, carefully unmold custard onto dessert plates, loosening the sides with a small sharp knife if necessary. Caramel will coat the top and sides of the flan. Serve immediately.
Serves 5
© Rozanne Gold
06 December 2011
How to Make Broiled Bass with Garlic-Parsley Bread Crumb Sauce
From Great Fish, Quick by Leslie Revsin
This sauce is vibrant with garlic and a touch of vinegar, and we have Spain to thank for it! When first made, it's a lovely pale green liquid, thick with bread crumbs. When you gently warm the sauce for serving, it thickens to a wonderfully soft texture that is as good with sauteed monkfish, red snapper, or halibut fillets (Jimmy: salmon also works) (and as a dip for grilled shrimp hors d'oeuvre), as it is with bass. If you have even a tablespoon left, make yourself a soft-scrambled egg lunch the next day with a little dollop on top. Yum.
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 large garlic clove, roughly chopped
1/4 cup packed fresh flat-leaf or curly parsley leaves, rinsed and dried
1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 cup chicken broth (cool or room temperature)
Salt and freshly ground black or white pepper to taste
Four 7-ounce bass fillets, each 1/2"-3/4" thick
TO PREPARE: Preheat the broiler with the rack at the top rung.
Put the bread crumbs in a small mixing bowl, stir in the vinegar, and set aside. Put the garlic and parsley in the bowl of a food processor and process the ingredients until they're fairly well chopped, scraping the bowl down once or twice. Add the vinegared crumbs and process until the parsley is in very small pieces, scraping the bowl down once or twice. Add the tablespoon of olive oil and, with the motor still running, gradually add the chicken broth. The sauce should be a lovely pale green and slightly liquid. If it seems very thick, add a few more drops of chicken broth. Season it with salt and pepper, to taste, and set aside. Or cover and refrigerate it for up to 3 days.
Season the bass fillets with salt and pepper. Rub them with the 2 teaspoons of olive oil, put them in a pan skin-side-down, and set under the broiler. Broil them, without turning, until lightly browned and just cooked through, about 5 minutes. (Jimmy: if you have a thick or heavy gauge pan, the time may be longer. In any case, check so you don't overcook the fish.) To check, make a slit in the thickest part of one fillet to see if it's opaque throughout. If necessary, broil for another minute or so.
TO SERVE: Put the garlic-parsley bread crumb sauce in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally. Heat until just warm. While it's warming, place the fillets on warm dinner plates. Place a spoonful of thickened sauce next to each fillet and serve right away.
05 December 2011
How to roast your own coffee
By Betty Hallock
SOURCES FOR ROASTERS
If you're gearing up to roast coffee at home, here are some of the growing number of websites that sell home roasting equipment and green coffee beans:
Seven Bridges, a Santa Cruz cooperative, sells home beer brewing equipment but also offers a selection of organic green coffee beans from Central America, South America, Africa and Asia, as well as roasting equipment. www.breworganic.com
Burman Coffee Traders sells green coffee beans in 1-, 2-, 5- and some in 50-pound quantities, along with a variety of home roasting equipment. www.burmancoffee.com
Roastmasters.com offers a few dozen varieties of green beans, with background information, cupping characteristics and roasting notes (including occasional notations for specific roasters). www.roastmasters.com
Sweet Maria's website, based in Oakland, is considered a home coffee roasting resource, selling roasting equipment and green beans and offering a coffee roasting forum. www.sweetmarias.com
The Coffee Project lists green beans by country of origin, along with descriptions that include growing conditions, bean size, flavor notes and roasting recommendations. www.thecoffeeproject.com
Also, check for more coffee roasting classes at www.instituteofdomestictechnology.com.
**************
Four students are standing over a hot stove in the creamery of the Institute of Domestic Technology on a late-October Sunday at the Zane Grey Estate in Altadena, Calif. Each one is manning a hand-cranked Whirley-Pop popcorn popper filled not with popcorn but green coffee beans from Costa Rica. The raw coffee beans turn golden, then brown, then start to expand and crackle.
A moment or two later, as the beans sizzle: "You hear that? That's second crack!" says instructor Ian Riley, explaining the point at which the coffee's woody cell walls fracture and its sugars continue to caramelize. "The smoke is fine," he adds, as a fan next to a window over the stove pulls toasty exhaust into the yard where several Nubian goats are roaming. "Second crack sounds more like Rice Krispies."
Riley's a professional roaster at coffee company LA Mill in Alhambra, Cailf., but is enthusiastic about home roasting. "I hope you all go home and become amateur roasters and then professional roasters."
A new generation of home coffee roasters already is energized by taking raw beans and transforming them into fodder for their Mazzer grinders and Clever drippers. As the DIY movement that has propelled kitchen crafts such as pickling meets "third wave" coffee (or the vanguard of the specialty coffee industry), roasting beans at home is the next frontier.
"This is one more step in my do-it-yourself quest," says Ryan Gillespie, a 35-year-old production planner for Herbalife who signed up for the two-hour class. He's wearing a T-shirt that reads "Haikus are easy/But sometimes they don't make sense/Refrigerator" and has a manual coffee grinder tucked in his tote bag. The Koreatown resident also brews beer, bakes bread and lately has been canning dilled carrots and sweet pumpkin pickles.
Gillespie bought a Whirley-Pop and a sampler of green coffee beans from a website four months ago and now roasts coffee every few weeks. "When I started, I read a book and followed the instructions and came out with coffee that was pretty good, but I want to keep improving."
The class, says Joseph Shuldiner, founder of the new Institute of Domestic Technology, was inspired by a roaster at the erstwhile Altadena Urban Farmers Market who was making small batches in a popcorn popper. "I'm a coffee snob, and it was really good. I was excited by the craft of it," Shuldiner says, "and blown away by how simple it is and how much control you could get from it."
The institute "is about food crafting, about making your own food, making your own ingredients and learning how ingredients are made. We're so used to buying coffee beans, one rarely thinks about where they come from and how are they roasted," Shuldiner says.
You can roast coffee in a pot or pan, certain hot-air popcorn poppers or a dedicated machine. Green beans are heated to draw out moisture, caramelize sugars and bring out aromatics. (You can't grind green coffee beans and make coffee as we know it.)
Basically, roasting occurs between the time the beans start to color and two significant stages: first crack (a cracking sound), which indicates the bean structure is breaking down as water escapes, sugars caramelize and oils are released, and second crack, when it's said the roasted character starts to eclipse the beans' original character.
The "sweet spot" depends on your technique and taste, whether you prefer a light or dark roast.
Bad coffee or limited access to great beans might have compelled previous home roasters to take matters into their own hands. But the latest wave comes at a time when consumers have access to better-than-ever commercial coffee. Indeed, here in Southern California there's a local roaster boom, with the coming of Handsome Coffee downtown and True Beans in Long Beach, for example.
Yet DIYers, who know their Finca La Fany coffee from Finca La Maravilla and the nuances of "city roast" from "full city-plus roast," have embraced the thrill of cooking their own beans, whether with an electric hot-air popcorn popper or even small commercial machines that turn out pounds at a time. Green coffee beans generally cost about half the price of roasted beans.
Sweet Maria's, the Oakland, Calif., company that sells green beans and roasting equipment online, started in 1997 as a source for those who "we thought would be in tiny towns and didn't have access to local roasters," says co-owner Maria Troy. "I guess it's funny - but a lot of our customers are in the Bay Area and other urban areas. They just like it, being involved in the roast and determining the process."
She estimates that the company, which includes a wholesale business, sold 850,000 pounds of beans (most of them green) last year, up 10% from the year before. "It's steadily grown despite the fact that we don't advertise."
Christopher Schooley, chairman of the Roasters Guild (a trade guild of the Specialty Coffee Assn. of America), says roasting has become much more accessible "because there's a lot more information about coffee in general out there." He also notes that home roasters can get the same quality of beans as professional roasters and admits that you can get good coffee out of an air popper sold for popcorn.
But he doesn't downplay the experience it requires. "It takes skill. Knowing what to draw out of that coffee is important. You can't just walk up to a machine and do it."
He also notes that more professionals are coming from a home roasting background.
"I started with a cast iron pot and a wooden spoon" two years ago, says Greg Thomas, who works in information technology at KNBC and KVEA and now roasts coffee at his Atwater Village home on a Diedrich IR-1 commercial roaster, making enough to sell a small amount to anyone interested in bags he labels Trystero (it's a Thomas Pynchon reference).
"My personal grail is to have my own cafe," Thomas says. "I'm as serious (about coffee) as the big names but want something just old-school and funky."
He's been roasting a caramel-y Rwandan (a few bags recently were sold at Demitasse cafe downtown), which is also part of his Lot 49 blend and "a Guatemalan bean that's actually on the brighter side for pour-overs and French press," he says. "We've got an Ethiopian bean on the way, and we have our Sumatran. I don't push the Sumatran on people a lot - it's got some forest-y flavors that a lot of people don't get."
One day Thomas' friend Nicholas Rucka, a 36-year-old commercial editor, stops by to show off his Behmor, a home drum roaster he bought in March that looks like a toaster oven. He's got it plugged in outside in the frontyard as Husker Du and the Fall play over the speakers. A couple of hangers-on joke about his setup: "You guys could have a roast-off. You know, like a latte throwdown or a chili cook-off."
Rucka checks the timer on his Behmor while listening for first crack. "You really can just get a roaster, have half a clue and be interested, and get a good cup of coffee," he says. "I roast 1 pound once a week. It's an hour of my time, and I have a really fantastic cup of coffee all week. It's really fun....
"This solves what I'm going to give for holiday gifts. I'll just roast a ... load of coffee. Everybody loves a good cup of coffee."
SOURCES FOR ROASTERS
If you're gearing up to roast coffee at home, here are some of the growing number of websites that sell home roasting equipment and green coffee beans:
Seven Bridges, a Santa Cruz cooperative, sells home beer brewing equipment but also offers a selection of organic green coffee beans from Central America, South America, Africa and Asia, as well as roasting equipment. www.breworganic.com
Burman Coffee Traders sells green coffee beans in 1-, 2-, 5- and some in 50-pound quantities, along with a variety of home roasting equipment. www.burmancoffee.com
Roastmasters.com offers a few dozen varieties of green beans, with background information, cupping characteristics and roasting notes (including occasional notations for specific roasters). www.roastmasters.com
Sweet Maria's website, based in Oakland, is considered a home coffee roasting resource, selling roasting equipment and green beans and offering a coffee roasting forum. www.sweetmarias.com
The Coffee Project lists green beans by country of origin, along with descriptions that include growing conditions, bean size, flavor notes and roasting recommendations. www.thecoffeeproject.com
Also, check for more coffee roasting classes at www.instituteofdomestictechnology.com.
**************
Roasting coffee beans at home
Posted: 3:00am on Dec 5, 2011; Modified: 8:08am on Dec 5, 2011
A moment or two later, as the beans sizzle: "You hear that? That's second crack!" says instructor Ian Riley, explaining the point at which the coffee's woody cell walls fracture and its sugars continue to caramelize. "The smoke is fine," he adds, as a fan next to a window over the stove pulls toasty exhaust into the yard where several Nubian goats are roaming. "Second crack sounds more like Rice Krispies."
Riley's a professional roaster at coffee company LA Mill in Alhambra, Cailf., but is enthusiastic about home roasting. "I hope you all go home and become amateur roasters and then professional roasters."
A new generation of home coffee roasters already is energized by taking raw beans and transforming them into fodder for their Mazzer grinders and Clever drippers. As the DIY movement that has propelled kitchen crafts such as pickling meets "third wave" coffee (or the vanguard of the specialty coffee industry), roasting beans at home is the next frontier.
"This is one more step in my do-it-yourself quest," says Ryan Gillespie, a 35-year-old production planner for Herbalife who signed up for the two-hour class. He's wearing a T-shirt that reads "Haikus are easy/But sometimes they don't make sense/Refrigerator" and has a manual coffee grinder tucked in his tote bag. The Koreatown resident also brews beer, bakes bread and lately has been canning dilled carrots and sweet pumpkin pickles.
Gillespie bought a Whirley-Pop and a sampler of green coffee beans from a website four months ago and now roasts coffee every few weeks. "When I started, I read a book and followed the instructions and came out with coffee that was pretty good, but I want to keep improving."
The class, says Joseph Shuldiner, founder of the new Institute of Domestic Technology, was inspired by a roaster at the erstwhile Altadena Urban Farmers Market who was making small batches in a popcorn popper. "I'm a coffee snob, and it was really good. I was excited by the craft of it," Shuldiner says, "and blown away by how simple it is and how much control you could get from it."
The institute "is about food crafting, about making your own food, making your own ingredients and learning how ingredients are made. We're so used to buying coffee beans, one rarely thinks about where they come from and how are they roasted," Shuldiner says.
You can roast coffee in a pot or pan, certain hot-air popcorn poppers or a dedicated machine. Green beans are heated to draw out moisture, caramelize sugars and bring out aromatics. (You can't grind green coffee beans and make coffee as we know it.)
Basically, roasting occurs between the time the beans start to color and two significant stages: first crack (a cracking sound), which indicates the bean structure is breaking down as water escapes, sugars caramelize and oils are released, and second crack, when it's said the roasted character starts to eclipse the beans' original character.
The "sweet spot" depends on your technique and taste, whether you prefer a light or dark roast.
Bad coffee or limited access to great beans might have compelled previous home roasters to take matters into their own hands. But the latest wave comes at a time when consumers have access to better-than-ever commercial coffee. Indeed, here in Southern California there's a local roaster boom, with the coming of Handsome Coffee downtown and True Beans in Long Beach, for example.
Yet DIYers, who know their Finca La Fany coffee from Finca La Maravilla and the nuances of "city roast" from "full city-plus roast," have embraced the thrill of cooking their own beans, whether with an electric hot-air popcorn popper or even small commercial machines that turn out pounds at a time. Green coffee beans generally cost about half the price of roasted beans.
Sweet Maria's, the Oakland, Calif., company that sells green beans and roasting equipment online, started in 1997 as a source for those who "we thought would be in tiny towns and didn't have access to local roasters," says co-owner Maria Troy. "I guess it's funny - but a lot of our customers are in the Bay Area and other urban areas. They just like it, being involved in the roast and determining the process."
She estimates that the company, which includes a wholesale business, sold 850,000 pounds of beans (most of them green) last year, up 10% from the year before. "It's steadily grown despite the fact that we don't advertise."
Christopher Schooley, chairman of the Roasters Guild (a trade guild of the Specialty Coffee Assn. of America), says roasting has become much more accessible "because there's a lot more information about coffee in general out there." He also notes that home roasters can get the same quality of beans as professional roasters and admits that you can get good coffee out of an air popper sold for popcorn.
But he doesn't downplay the experience it requires. "It takes skill. Knowing what to draw out of that coffee is important. You can't just walk up to a machine and do it."
He also notes that more professionals are coming from a home roasting background.
"I started with a cast iron pot and a wooden spoon" two years ago, says Greg Thomas, who works in information technology at KNBC and KVEA and now roasts coffee at his Atwater Village home on a Diedrich IR-1 commercial roaster, making enough to sell a small amount to anyone interested in bags he labels Trystero (it's a Thomas Pynchon reference).
"My personal grail is to have my own cafe," Thomas says. "I'm as serious (about coffee) as the big names but want something just old-school and funky."
He's been roasting a caramel-y Rwandan (a few bags recently were sold at Demitasse cafe downtown), which is also part of his Lot 49 blend and "a Guatemalan bean that's actually on the brighter side for pour-overs and French press," he says. "We've got an Ethiopian bean on the way, and we have our Sumatran. I don't push the Sumatran on people a lot - it's got some forest-y flavors that a lot of people don't get."
One day Thomas' friend Nicholas Rucka, a 36-year-old commercial editor, stops by to show off his Behmor, a home drum roaster he bought in March that looks like a toaster oven. He's got it plugged in outside in the frontyard as Husker Du and the Fall play over the speakers. A couple of hangers-on joke about his setup: "You guys could have a roast-off. You know, like a latte throwdown or a chili cook-off."
Rucka checks the timer on his Behmor while listening for first crack. "You really can just get a roaster, have half a clue and be interested, and get a good cup of coffee," he says. "I roast 1 pound once a week. It's an hour of my time, and I have a really fantastic cup of coffee all week. It's really fun....
"This solves what I'm going to give for holiday gifts. I'll just roast a ... load of coffee. Everybody loves a good cup of coffee."
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