May 12, 2016
VISITING ROTARIANS AND GUEST
Phil Knutson Local Coffee Maker =-Guest speaker
CLUB ANNOUNCEMENTS
District Assembly May 21st in Liberty, Texas. The main purpose is training for Audrey’s new Board-President/President Elect/Imaging- meeting 9am-2pm.
June 23rd Farwell no morning meeting install the new President and the Board.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Chuck Moore-Service-No Update May 19th Non-Rotarian of the year awarded!
Daniela Mead-Membership-No Update
David Anderson-Administration/Programs-No Update
Deanna Voitle-Public Image-No Update
Chef Rick -New Generations-Award banquet tonight!
Mike Berger-Polio Chair-One new case reported this week. Year to date 13 cases, but better than last year at this time 23.
GOOD NEWS
Mike announced he is referred to as the wine snob and now Phil Knutson has taught him to be a coffee snob! Second dollar his neighbor is going to the gym and working out with him. He has been working out for the past four months with a personal trainer and received a compliment at a showing last week! So the hard work is paying off! Going to visit his son and wife in Sothern California leaving at 7am in the morning. They just purchased their first home a 1910 1480 sq. ft. craftsman style home for $750,000.
Chuck announced that he is proud to say that the college in Rochester, ML has raised enough funds to pay for a new gym in cash!
Janet announced her first granddaughter is graduating and was going to be attending Liberty College, but over the weekend she was accepted and is enrolling in Southwestern in Georgetown!
Roz announced that after 37 years of marriage she pretty much does everything her spouse wants to do, pretty much. Rick has been retired two years now lot of hobbies and man toys. Been in Roz space for two years! They decided to purchase a bigger home, because he needs more space for his woodworking projects. He then decided he would make the sign rather than pay for one. He has spent a total of 12 hours working on the sign and still not finished. The cost to purchase the sign would have been $25.
Jack announced that three homes have been painted in Montgomery as Benevolence to shape up the North loop.
Pam announced that her family has recently expanded with the adoption of a new three month old red head blind calf named Lola. She is getting healthy and staying feed.
Mike announced his eye sight has improved to 20/70 and getting better. A month ago he went to the doctor and his vision was 2400. Thank you to all for your prayers.
Chuck announced he felt obligated to defend Roz’s husband he is a perfectionist we all are! His wife says they have a 4 car garage with a house attached!
GUEST SPEAKER
Phil Knutson local coffee maker and owner of Montgomery Coffee Companyshared with us some fun facts about coffee. Montgomery Coffee is located in the Brookshire Brother Strip center and was voted best coffee in the Montgomery County. There is a large variety of specialty coffees and even teas for the non-coffee drinkers. Each selection in the store is first brewed for his family to taste and make notes on before it is in the shop for the public to try.
Coffee originated in Ethiopia and discovered by a sheep herder named Kaldi who saw his goats acting strange after consuming beans from the coffee plant. People then started eating then boiling, then heating, thus the discovery of coffee. The coffee plant has two major shrub genus Arabica and Robust. Arabica is considered to be the more favorable. The flavors are unique to each Country the plant is grown in. For example Africa and South America have a nutty coco flavor while the Asian coffee will have ore spice. Robust coffee tends to be bitter and have less flavors but has a better body then the Arabica. Over 40 countries produce Arabica, with 70% of the world’s coffee coming in his shop coffee 40 from Brazil. The second highest producing country is Columbia with all of the coco fields being replaced with coffee. It will take on average five years to grow a crop that will last 50 years and can grow up to 40-50 ft. in height.
The specialty coffee comes from the smaller growers in various countries. Coffee has several process before it is ready to be roasted. Most of the areas will have handpicked the coffee beansand utilize one of two drying methods the dry process and the wet process. The wash method utilizes the fermentation process and results is a mellow more uniformed flavor. Phil works with three specialty coffee importers in Houston. And picks up the beans from the Port of Houston. Each bag that is imported and put in the shop has a bio written so you know where your coffee is coming from. Phil then takes the beans from the port to roast them. When the beans arrive they are green and bust be roasted before it can be brewed. The roasting process is important because it influences the taste (hence what you are paying for). Phil explained the roasting process is similar to cooking sugar i.e. the bean is caramelized the more you cook heat them becoming brown or light to medium roast. As the roast and heat a flavor level builds the sugar level decrease and the origin level of the bean (flavor) decrease and again that is what you are paying for in a specialty shop. This is why in a medium roast you can taste the difference (flavors and origin) more so than in a dark roast. Some additional facts Phil left was to remember coffee doesn’t spoil it just loses its flavor over time. Store your whole bean in a resealed bag and try to use within two weeks from opening. Also grind your beans right before you use it. Most important never store your coffee in the refrigerator put coffee in the freezer. Be on the lookout for the second location at the Ransom’s Depot in the fall, but in the meantime go try some coffee.