The experimentation process.

Roasting my own coffee beans is a relatively new adventure for me. A mother's day gift from my husband, son and our dog. Though I am new to the particularities of this process, I have been having much enjoyment out of conducting experiments again. The roasting process of experimentation makes me feel like I am preparing for science fair all over again.

Yes, that is right. Science fair. While I am mostly an outwardly artistic individual, the roots of a dork run deep in me. Second grade was my first science fair. I remember it fondly. My older sister and I did the same experiment with opposite hypothesizes, because we could never agree on anything. The force of sibling rivalry is strong with us. Second grade it was about color and the sun's heat. Do dark colors or light colors keep you cooler during the hot summer days? I predicted dark colors would be cooler under the thought process that shade is dark and cool. My sister choose the lighter side. Just like in Star Wars, or the Lord of the Rings the dark side lost and light prevailed. I was wrong and my sister didn't let me forget it.

That sibling rivalry led me to compete in this supremely nerdy and laughed at extracurricular activity all the way through high school. That could have been partly because the high school I attended didn't participate in science fairs. I had to talk my dad, who work at the school as a technology coordinator, into being my sponsor.  My goal was to eventually out do my sister in how far I could take one of my projects. We both had made it to state several times before she graduated and moved on to college. That left me one final year to make it to international science and engineering fair (ISEF). Analyzing art I had created and photography I had taken of people with a project that mathematically calculated the degrees of beauty, from hideously disproportionate to near perfection, I made it.

Then I met my husband who wasn't scared off by my inner dork. He is after all a rocket scientist, no joke, who likes the experiment process as well. Technically, he is an aerospace engineer and with a minor in astrophysics. He doesn't have the typical engineer social skills, because he is actually a people person. A rare skill in his field. Most artists and designers are extroverts and many engineers introverts, but for us it is the other way around.The thing we have in common is we both enjoy our coffee.

Now, my husband loves to home brew his own beer. He was motivated to get me into home roasting because he wants fresh coffee to brew into his stouts. So now, in our house, there are experiments and research going on all the time. Even as I write this post at my desk, I can hear my husbands latest brew fermenting behind me. The yeast are expelling bubbles of carbon dioxide into a water valve. The bubbling sound of fluids in motion always seem to make the coffee hit my bladder with a higher urgency than in any other room. We like to joke that our poor son is doomed to be embarrassed by his parents.

Being three, my son needs to "help" with everything. This works well for getting dishes and laundry done, but the highly sensitive process of beer making (things must be very sanitary, a thing which three year-olds are not known for) and the dangerous high temperatures need to roast coffee have taken the hands-on participation away from him. Using the standard parental response of "when your older" prompted the response from him a day later. of "Mom, I'm older now." and "Can I try a free sample of beer/coffee, pleeeeeeaaseeeee" (these are his words, not mine). Applauding his politeness, I had to come up with a quantifiable and eventually obtainable solution. "You can have coffee and half a beer when you know calculus". Now when he tells us "I know calcus". Then my husband will ask him a question like "What is the square root of the natural log of x" or something like that. My son will scratch his head thoughtfully,"Hmmmm. I don't know.". Then I give him a glass of chocolate milk and all is right with the world as I start up the espresso machine for an afternoon latte.