They say you don’t grow up, you just get old.
I suppose in many ways I think that’s true. When I was a kid I used to fill my time with experiments that were always just for fun.
There was one that a friend and I used to conduct over and over again. We’d aim to cook the best bacon we could in the microwave in one of those plastic trays that collect all the fat. We started to track the temperature we cooked at, then the length of time, and finally whether we’d cover it with kitchen roll or not - I suppose this was a last ditch attempt to absorb some of the oily mess that had begun to eminate inside our parents kitchen. Needless to say, I ate a lot of the stuff as a kid.
It struck me recently that this was probably my first foray into learning the skillsets that I’d need to roast coffee. The attention to detail, the data tracking, the quality assessing and thinking about how I could make it that bit better. The understanding that the slightest change in heat, time or airflow could have a huge impact on the resulting flavour.
Sure I’m older now, but I get the same satisfaction out of searching for the sweet spot in the product I work with today as I did back then.
So yeah, I suppose people don’t really grow up. The microwaves get a bit bigger though.
Robi
