Catholics , Coffee and the Communion of Saints

(The french press alongside my favorite coffee mug)
( un-roasted coffee is green and smells yuccky)

What does coffee have to do with Catholics? Nothing really, just wanted to post pics of my latest little project. (I know, I know I should be working on the new CD instead of playing with coffee...)
About a year and a half ago I got into using a french press to make coffee. Basically it's a method of making/brewing the coffee by pouring near-boiling water over the freshly ground coffee, then pressing a screen down through the mixture of grounds and water. This separates the grounds from the liquid without filtering out the volatile oils which contribute to the taste of the coffee. They say that paper filters often trap these oils, and drip filter coffee doesn't compare to the french press-made coffee. (So the theory goes)

So after researching the french press, I found websites that claim that fresh-roasted coffee tastes better than anything and that you haven't lived until you have tasted coffee freshly-roasted then ground, then pressed through your french press! But where to get freshly-roasted coffee? Forget Starbucks, besides the fact that they support planned parenthood, their coffee is not freshly roasted.

But it turns out you can buy green un-roasted coffee on-line and roast it yourself. So I found a company, CoffeeBeanDirect in Stockton NJ and had 5 lbs of decaf and caffeinated beans sent to my doorstep in a few days. So tonight, I roasted a pan of green coffee beans on our grill outside, cooled the beans, ground them and made my first carafe of fresh dark-roasted, ground and french-pressed coffee. The taste was surprisingly good for a first-timer with almost a hint of sweetness to it. The only problem, is that after I had made it, I realized I accidentally opened the caffeinated stuff from Guatemala vs the decaf beans from Costa Rica! So now I will be up till 4 AM thinking about the way things might have been. If I can't sleep, I have my trusty rosary stashed under my pillow and have more than enough issues to ask Mary to intercede for me about.

I wonder if there is a Saint Caffeine? I have written about him in my song "One-Eyed Grandma"
Actually, I did get to thinking and wondered if there was a patron saint of caffeine. (After all, we believe in the Communion of Saints, Right?) I did some googlin' and turns out there is! St. Drogo, the patron of coffee shop owners. This fact alone may have made me convert a lot sooner had I known about him. Gotta' love this Church.

• Click Here For some more Klassic Tiber Jumper "Katholic Koffee" Posts.
  
• Finally, if you don't want to roast your own, try Mystic Monk Coffee and you'll be supporting a great cause. We had their coffee for Christmas as a special treat. Truly out of this world.