After the Christmas rush, with almost no inventory on hand, I ordered five pounds each of four origins of beans, from a new wholesaler because SweetMarias was close to tapped out themselves, especially of the organic.

In the last 24 hours I roasted one pound of each of the four, and carefully taste-tested them.

They’re all very fine coffees, but I had crystal-clear preferences. Maybe not so strangely, those very specific and personal preferences exactly mirrored the price of the beans, from high to low.

Ethiopian Sidama, grade A
Guatemalan Huehuetenango, A-
Mexican Chiapas Tzetal-Tzotzil, B+
Peruvian Amazonian Highlands, B

The range of prices is only a little over a dollar from top to bottom. Well worth it. The only surprise to me was that I liked the Peruvian least, because my enjoyment of Peruvian coffees has really held solid for months. This just says that any individual bean from any country can be slightly outclassed by another; just a country name means next to nothing by itself.

I’m probably going to order some more Sidama just to make sure they don’t quickly run out, and just to have it around (for myself if nothing else). Other than that, I’ll wait and see what sells before stocking back up. And in the spirit of Anything selling! the next job up is some marketing. The effing social medias again, but for AnaPrim. Not fun but a necessary evil, so they say.

***

Politics. Snippets only.

I got to wondering about the Houthis and what they’re all about. Here are two interesting bits from the wiki page.

According to a February 2015 Newsweek report, Houthis are fighting “for things that all Yemenis crave: government accountability, the end to corruption, regular utilities, fair fuel prices, job opportunities for ordinary Yemenis and the end of Western influence”.

In January 2021, the United States designated the Houthis a terrorist organization, creating fears of an aid shortage in Yemen, but this stance was reversed a month later after Joe Biden became president.

And yet the Empire has now committed an act of war against these non-terrorists anyway, in clear violation of what the pricks love to call ‘the rules-based order’ …

Biden Shreds the Constitution and Goes to War in Yemen

Also, Gonzalo Lira, an American journalist held in captivity by the Ukrainians, is dead. His work was a mixed bag; he was a pontificator and a bit loopy on social issues. But he didn’t deserve to die a prisoner, or even be a prisoner, and the American government didn’t do one damn thing to save him from his fate, although his father and his friends begged them to lift a finger. That’s all it would have needed. They never did.