Javesca Coffee: A Passion for Stories, with a caffeine buzz

It’s been a good long while since I posted last, but I recently experienced a story that was so perfect for the blog that I thought I’d hop back on here to let you all know about an amazing coffee company. My disclaimer is that my first batch of Javesca coffee was free, but I am putting an order in today for more which I’ll pay full price for – you’ll see from their story that they are both a source of great coffee and a great influence on the world.

Husband’s roommate in college got married a few weeks ago. It was neat to see him again – I met him before Husband and I were even dating, at a pool party – and to see how happy he’s become with his new family and life. In the process, I met more of the guys who went to school with them, including the founder of Javesca coffee. His story was both inspiring and exciting to me as a coffee fiend; the founder and his wife were passionate about helping to feed the world, and created a business model where they could sell wonderful coffee that has been grown and roasted responsibly, and also donate meals to the hungry around the world.

What resulted were the amazing coffees I tried – my favorite of which is pictured above! The Tanzania Tweega – Peaberry had the depth of flavor that I love so much from artisanal coffee; it tastes like coffee but also like so much else! The buzz was good but the temptation was to sip small amounts at a time because there were so many other notes in there – I didn’t get the ginger as much, but the lime and the cherry were definitely forward for me!

I love finding ways to have a positive influence on the world, and Javesca does such a good job of packaging a good cause with a wonderful cup of joe; it’s so easy to let giving to charity fall by the wayside when life gets busy, so I’m so glad that having companies with this kind of commitment allows me to do normal things, like buying coffee, while they take care of passing on some benefit to other people. I am grateful to have met the founder through a friend, and to have gotten to become part of the story of his coffee career as he becomes part of the many stories shared on this blog.

You can enjoy Javesca coffee at their store or through ordering online, which I’m about to go do right now. 🙂

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Food Memory: Sweet Potatoes and Cincinnati Chili

Even though many people don’t think it is a delicious food at all, the best comfort food for Husband is Cincinnati chili, a meat sauce with twinges of cinnamon and chocolate that is somewhat unremarkable but is quite elevated when layered on a bun with a huge quantity of sharp cheddar cheese on top. We made it even better by frying sweet potatoes in butter, pouring on the chili, and adding the cheese garnish, and it’s now become out go-to dish for friends with a Cincinnati connection or just for ourselves, eaten in a bowl while watching a movie. For such a savory dish, it also satisfies the little sweet tooth quite well.

Biscuits again, with new additions!

I’ve been trying to make biscuits for a while, guys. The first recipe on here was a biscuit recipe, and I’ve made a couple versions since. Still, while fresh-out-of-the-oven biscuits often mask a multitude of sins, the fact has remained: my biscuits don’t rise, and they don’t have flakey layers.

No more! No more am I cursed with hockey pucks that I must slather in butter to make tasty! Instead, I‘ve got this recipe for biscuits, from the brilliant Girl Meets Dough, which lays it out for you, and let me tell you: the results are fantastic.

The things I was doing wrong: I didn’t keep the butter cold. She suggests taking super-cold butter, grating it into a bowl, and putting the butter in the freezer until right when you need it. Then, once the biscuits are all set out on the pan, you put the pan of biscuits into the freezer for 10 more minutes to get the butter firm again – it helps with flakiness to go straight from freezer to 450 degree oven!

I also was trying to substitute yogurt whole-sale for buttermilk. This time, I mixed milk, buttermilk, and just a few bits of vinegar because I now know that buttermilk activates the baking powder/soda and creates the leavening. Science! Basically, invest in buttermilk or use a real substitute, not just something that makes your dough look consistent.

The final change is her method of kneading. she flattens out her dough, cuts it in half, and stacks it on top, then does it again. It effectively makes strata in the dough, which I completely saw when I removed the biscuits after cooking. Even though kneading probably melted some of the butter, it hardened back up when it was in the freezer. It didn’t even waste any time because these biscuits work up so fast that my oven hadn’t had time to get to 450 – they froze while the oven heated up.

My houseguests this weekend said that the biscuits were delicious without anything at all on them, but they also loaded them up with grape jelly or bacon. 🙂 I mean it: if you too are under the biscuit curse, try this recipe!!!