I’m sipping a cup of Peru Penachi coffee that came bundled with my new Freshroast 8. Frankly, it’s not the best cup of coffee I’ve ever made, but it holds a lot of promise. The smells of the freshly roasted beans last night was stunning—almost as great as they smelled this morning when I brewed them. The taste is good, but weak. (I’m still adjusting grinds and ratios.) However, I’m starting to understand what Tonx was saying about coffee not actually being bitter.

Before you go run out and buy the Freshroast 8, though, I would point out something else that I learned by using it just a single time: my old converted air popper was way over-roasting the beans. Six minutes in the Freshroast brings a new roast between medium to full with no smoke at all. My previous roasting attempts with the popcorn popper caused a literal cloud of acrid smoke to billow up. Apparently that’s not actually necessary. Now I know! If you’ve been having problems with an air popper or pan-roasting, keep that in mind.

The does mean the only thing missing in our house now is a good burr grinder. Tonx has informed me he’s working on a piece about that very thing for a magazine, so hopefully once (and if) it’s online we can link it up for you. I also haven’t forgotten about the “Dethroner Guide to Coffee” PDF idea—I just worked on it some yesterday, in fact—ut it’s going to take a lot more work than I anticipated. Good thing I have all this coffee.