FROM THE EDITOR

by Shanna Germain

I‘VE ALWAYS BEEN fascinated by the connection between the foods we eat and where those foods come from. As a child, I was lucky enough to grow up on a farm, where I learned early on that everything we put in our mouths comes from somewhere else (and I don’t mean the grocery store). Butter and milk came from our brown-eyed Jersey cows, eggs came from the chickens that gobbled up the bugs in our yard, peas and onions and corn came from the garden my mother watered and weeded every summer.
     Even after I left home for college, I always thought about the origins of my food. Whose hands were behind this apple? How much work had gone into growing this grape? How had this wheat been turned into bread?
     Yet, there was one item that I put in my mouth all the time that I never thought about. I’m a little ashamed to admit it, but I’m sure you’ve guessed it already. It was coffee. In fact, I had been drinking coffee for years before I even realized that it was an agricultural product. And it wasn’t until I began working in the coffee industry that I understood that the agricultural product was not a brown bean, but a green bean.
     After that, it didn’t take long to convert me from bean-ignorant to bean worshipper. Once you get a taste of the power of the green bean, you never go back.
     In this issue, we take a closer look at the beautiful bean, both from a growing perspective and a roasting one. In Cultivating Taste, Phil Beattie gives us the dirt on coffee gardening, while Jim Cleaves offers tips on the perfect marriage between bean density and consistency in his article, Don’t be Dense.
     I also have the pleasure of introducing Roast’s newest bean-centered column: The Coffee Lab Report. In each issue of Roast, The Coffee Lab Report will present three coffees that have been carefully chosen and cupped by long-time coffee connoisseur, Mané Alves. Mané will complete a physical and sensorial cupping analysis for each coffee in order to provide you with detailed information on bean characteristics, area and farm of origin, physical appearance and cupping profile. Presented in an easy-to-read format and with a numerical rating system similar to those used in wine magazines, this new feature is designed to make it even easier to discover the best green beans from around the world.
     As always, we’d love to hear what you think of this new column and of all the things we’re doing here at Roast. And anytime you want to talk about beans, you know where to find me: shanna@roastmagazine.com.

Keep the flame burning,

Shanna