I find that my food and drink snobbishness has declined over the years. I don't turn up my nose at anything, more or less, and drink and eat what is available without getting all uppity. I hear lots of people say things along the lines of "I won't touch restaurant coffee now that I know what the good stuff tastes like", or similar, but I am not that way. As they say, you gotta do what you gotta do.
To that end, I have decided to keep a chronicle of some of the cups of coffee I have had from outside my own house. After all, it is important to keep comparing yourself to others if you want to improve. So, starting today, we have the Coffee Rogues Gallery (cue ominous music). I'll update this thread as I encounter new specimens.
McDonalds "Premium Roast", from store drive through in East Fishkill, New York, about 9AM
Aroma: none whatsoever
Taste: Brown water. Seriously. I am not sure if any coffee grounds stayed in contact with the water for more than a nanosecond. I can't even do a serious review because this tasted like nothing.
Other: This coffee was hotter than a small thermonuclear explosion. Alas, cooling it down provided no additional redeeming values.
Recommendation: Avoid. Licking stagnant water from a puddle in the middle of August would have more coffee flavor.
Decaf Coffee from Mind-Numbing meeting in work, 6/26/08, 8:30AM
Aroma: Burning tires
Taste: Matches the aroma. Brutally sour, with a paint-thinner aftertaste (no I haven't drunk paint thinner, but give me some artistic license, please)
Other: This was fresh - I can only imagine what it might have been like after it was sitting in the urn for a few more hours.
Recommendation: Might be useful for removal of stomach polyps, but not as an enjoyable beverage. Avoid.
touch restaurant coffee now that I know what the good stuff tastes like", or similar, but I am not that way. As they say, you gotta do what you gotta do.
To that end, I have decided to keep a chronicle of some of the cups of coffee I have had from outside my own house. After all, it is important to keep comparing yourself to others if you want to improve. So, starting today, we have the Coffee Rogues Gallery (cue ominous music). I'll update this thread as I encounter new specimens.
McDonalds "Premium Roast", from store drive through in East Fishkill, New York, about 9AM
Aroma: none whatsoever
Taste: Brown water. Seriously. I am not sure if any coffee grounds stayed in contact with the water for more than a nanosecond. I can't even do a serious review because this tasted like nothing.
Other: This coffee was hotter than a small thermonuclear explosion. Alas, cooling it down provided no additional redeeming values.
Recommendation: Avoid. Licking stagnant water from a puddle in the middle of August would have more coffee flavor.
"Coffee" at in-laws house in NJ, early AM consumption
Aroma: Rubber, stale hazelnut
Taste: Brown water
Other: I love my in-laws, but to call this coffee strains the definition. Imagine that you took a few granules of Dunkin' Doughnuts coffee and diluted it 100:1 in lukewarm water and you'll have a good idea of the taste. Add to that a brewer that hasn't been cleaned since the Carter administration and you have one foul brew.
Recommendation: Sometimes you get what you get; pour in enough milk and pray that enough caffeine comes through and smile
Stay tuned for more additions
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Ethiopia Harar Horse, Lot 17406, Roast #2
No horses were harmed during the making of this coffee.... Just kidding - it is just the mark of the importer.
This coffee really annoys me. I love dry processed Ethiopian coffee, and this lot got a lot of praise. However, I find it boring at best. I originally tried it last week, and found it flat. Interestingly, the aroma of the beans themselves was more interesting than the brewed coffee.
Thinking another roast profile might be in order, I used this one:
As expected, this quick ramp robbed the coffee of some body, but accentuated the fruity notes and acidity. Overall it is better than last time, but still uninspiring. The ground coffee aromas are intense - fermented mango, tamarind, some coconut. Very intense. What winds up in the cup, however, is quite light. It kind of reminds me of one of those frou-frou summer fruit soups you might come across at a fancy restaurant. The flavors are mild, and integrated with some syrupy malt notes. Not bad, but not worth purchasing more of this coffee. We'll see if it gets any better during the week, and perhaps some espresso extraction is in order also.
This coffee really annoys me. I love dry processed Ethiopian coffee, and this lot got a lot of praise. However, I find it boring at best. I originally tried it last week, and found it flat. Interestingly, the aroma of the beans themselves was more interesting than the brewed coffee.
Thinking another roast profile might be in order, I used this one:
As expected, this quick ramp robbed the coffee of some body, but accentuated the fruity notes and acidity. Overall it is better than last time, but still uninspiring. The ground coffee aromas are intense - fermented mango, tamarind, some coconut. Very intense. What winds up in the cup, however, is quite light. It kind of reminds me of one of those frou-frou summer fruit soups you might come across at a fancy restaurant. The flavors are mild, and integrated with some syrupy malt notes. Not bad, but not worth purchasing more of this coffee. We'll see if it gets any better during the week, and perhaps some espresso extraction is in order also.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Ethiopia Idido Misty Valley
In the last part of the Ethiopia No Holds Barred Cage Match, I told you that the winner would go up against a perennial favorite, Idido Misty Valley (IMV). Well, let me tell you, it was no contest whatsoever. The Sidamo took a brutal beating by IMV, leaving it bruised and bloody on the mat.
IMV is my favorite coffee, bar none. It has somewhat legendary status among coffee geeks. It comes from an area around Yrgacheffe that has a tradition of wet processed coffee, but the IMV is dry processed. It roasts like a dream - incredibly uniform for a coffee of this type. From the green seeds through the roast, through the cup, it is a powerhouse of fruity goodness. There is an interesting article here as well.
The 2006 crop I found to have strong notes of dried strawberries. The 2007 I am roasting now is blueberries all the way. At the same time, with the wild blueberry and over the top honeysuckle aromas, it is such a balanced cup. I smile whenever I drink it.
The roast profile was very similar to the Cage Match coffees, but I started at a lower temperature to make sure I didn't burn off any of the fruity goodness:
I extended the middle time by a minute since it had just barely reached the temperature set point by the time 10 minutes had passed. This is quite a light roast - just out of first crack and a little more. Even after 12 hours it is phenomenal. Intense floral aromas and berries, berries, berries. It is well integrated with some chocolate notes, and changes as the cup cools. It is a sweet, medium bodied cup. There is really nothing like it.
Just for chuckles, I roasted the last of the Harar from last time with a different profile to compare it to the disappointing performance of last week. I'll try it tomorrow and see what's what.
IMV is my favorite coffee, bar none. It has somewhat legendary status among coffee geeks. It comes from an area around Yrgacheffe that has a tradition of wet processed coffee, but the IMV is dry processed. It roasts like a dream - incredibly uniform for a coffee of this type. From the green seeds through the roast, through the cup, it is a powerhouse of fruity goodness. There is an interesting article here as well.
The 2006 crop I found to have strong notes of dried strawberries. The 2007 I am roasting now is blueberries all the way. At the same time, with the wild blueberry and over the top honeysuckle aromas, it is such a balanced cup. I smile whenever I drink it.
The roast profile was very similar to the Cage Match coffees, but I started at a lower temperature to make sure I didn't burn off any of the fruity goodness:
I extended the middle time by a minute since it had just barely reached the temperature set point by the time 10 minutes had passed. This is quite a light roast - just out of first crack and a little more. Even after 12 hours it is phenomenal. Intense floral aromas and berries, berries, berries. It is well integrated with some chocolate notes, and changes as the cup cools. It is a sweet, medium bodied cup. There is really nothing like it.
Just for chuckles, I roasted the last of the Harar from last time with a different profile to compare it to the disappointing performance of last week. I'll try it tomorrow and see what's what.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Roast Profiles, II
Yesterday I wrote down some largely incomprehensible thoughts about roast profiles I have been using. Let's see if today I can make things a bit clearer.
There is another popular option for roast profiles, which more or less says "crank the heat as high as it can go (482 degrees) until first crack, and then lower it until the end of roast". This is not a profile to use until you are fairly familiar with the Gene Cafe, since you can easily make charcoal (or a fire) if you are not tuned in to the sounds and smells of the roast, and it can be tricky to get things to slow down such that there is enough time between first and second crack for sufficient flavor development. This fast ramp can also reduce the amount of perceived body in the coffee.
However, this can be an effective method for high-altitude/dense seeds. Using this method tends to preserve a lot of acidity in the coffee, which can be good or bad depending on the coffee itself and what you are looking to accomplish. You can further combine this with my observations from yesterday on starting temperature to come up with some sophisticated profiles that can really dial a coffee in.
Let's look at some examples, and I'll refer back to previous blog postings.
#1 High-altitude, bright, Central American coffee. Here I'll refer back to the Guatemala Yellow Bourbon posting. Here I was looking for a light roast, and to ensure that the acidity wasn't too overpowering. Therefore I started at a somewhat higher temperature (350 degrees), and crept up on first through some intermediate temperature ramping.
#2 Low-altitude, low-acidity coffee. An example might be an Indian coffee. Since this is lower grown, I try and keep the temperatures more moderate, and again use some intermediate temperatures in the ramp to slowly develop the flavors.
#3 High-Altitude, medium acidity coffee. An example might be a Yemeni coffee.
Here I was looking to add some sparkle to the coffee, since Yemen can be a bit brooding, so I used a fast ramp up to first crack and then settled things down. I would use similar profiles for a Kenya coffee, where you can be aggressive with the heat due to the extreme seed density.
So there you have it. Depending on what you are looking for out of the coffee, you can choose how fast you move it along to change the amount of acidity in the coffee, and trade that off against body, etc. There are a lot of variables to play around with, and I'll try to highlight my thinking as I roast, taste, and post about these coffees.
There is another popular option for roast profiles, which more or less says "crank the heat as high as it can go (482 degrees) until first crack, and then lower it until the end of roast". This is not a profile to use until you are fairly familiar with the Gene Cafe, since you can easily make charcoal (or a fire) if you are not tuned in to the sounds and smells of the roast, and it can be tricky to get things to slow down such that there is enough time between first and second crack for sufficient flavor development. This fast ramp can also reduce the amount of perceived body in the coffee.
However, this can be an effective method for high-altitude/dense seeds. Using this method tends to preserve a lot of acidity in the coffee, which can be good or bad depending on the coffee itself and what you are looking to accomplish. You can further combine this with my observations from yesterday on starting temperature to come up with some sophisticated profiles that can really dial a coffee in.
Let's look at some examples, and I'll refer back to previous blog postings.
#1 High-altitude, bright, Central American coffee. Here I'll refer back to the Guatemala Yellow Bourbon posting. Here I was looking for a light roast, and to ensure that the acidity wasn't too overpowering. Therefore I started at a somewhat higher temperature (350 degrees), and crept up on first through some intermediate temperature ramping.
#2 Low-altitude, low-acidity coffee. An example might be an Indian coffee. Since this is lower grown, I try and keep the temperatures more moderate, and again use some intermediate temperatures in the ramp to slowly develop the flavors.
#3 High-Altitude, medium acidity coffee. An example might be a Yemeni coffee.
Here I was looking to add some sparkle to the coffee, since Yemen can be a bit brooding, so I used a fast ramp up to first crack and then settled things down. I would use similar profiles for a Kenya coffee, where you can be aggressive with the heat due to the extreme seed density.
So there you have it. Depending on what you are looking for out of the coffee, you can choose how fast you move it along to change the amount of acidity in the coffee, and trade that off against body, etc. There are a lot of variables to play around with, and I'll try to highlight my thinking as I roast, taste, and post about these coffees.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Roast Profiles, I
I suppose that if you are a professional roaster or an apprentice to one, there is lots of wisdom and experience to impart. As I have said before, the taste of roasted coffee is very much a function of how you get to the final temperature of the beans. In principle you want to keep the coffee moving up in temperature steadily, but there is some artistry in how fast or slow during various times in the roasting process.
From an equipment perspective, the amateur roaster is often at a disadvantage for a couple of reasons. First, it is often impossible to know what the actual temperature of the beans is during a roast. This is one reason I miss using my iRoast 2; I had a jury-rigged thermocouple in there that I was able to keep a close eye on, plot out temperature versus time, etc. With the Gene Cafe there is really no way to do this. You can tell the air temperature, but of course that is not at all the same as what the beans are doing.
The other disadvantage is temperature ramp rate. With the Gene Cafe, you have in principle infinite control over temperature settings, but in the end the heater is either on or off, and the ramp is a function of the bean amount and density, etc.
Over the past year or two I have played around a lot with roast profiles. I have learned a lot (I think), and I still am mystified by other things. I thought I would sketch out some broad thoughts here as a jumping off point for some other experiments.
First, a word on pre-heating. There is a lot of thermal mass in the drum itself and the various components, and I am a firm believer in pre-heating the machine a bit before adding any coffee. You really want all the thermal energy going into the beans, not the machine, so you can get the roast moving and have consistent results. I typically run the roaster empty at 350 degrees or so while I am getting other things ready. I am not too particular about time, but even a few minutes makes a difference. This pre-heating can also affect how loud first crack can be, but that is a story for another day.
At the beginning of my journey with the Gene Cafe, I generally started with a simple profile of 360 degrees for 5 minutes and then 460 degrees until the end of the roast. I got this profile off the internet somewhere, and I stuck with this for quite a while. I made some good coffee that way. At some point during some discussion via the Sweet Marias Home Roasting List (Archives here), there were folks using a slightly different profile; one that starts with a lower temperature to start (about 300 degrees), then an intermediate temperature (somewhere between 400 and 450 degrees), and then to the final temperature.
I tested this out by roasting a Costa Rica La Minita coffee in two different batches to compare. My wife drank both coffees over a period of several days and noted the differences. The first batch was roasted as:
360 degrees/5 minutes, 460 degrees to end
and the second as:
300 degrees/5 minutes, 445 degrees/5 minutes, 460 degrees to end
Both were roasted to City+, and not surprisingly the second roast took 2 minutes longer to complete. My wife and I decided that the second roast was considerably better than the first. It was bright, sweet and alive compared to the duller tasting first batch. An interesting result.
From there I started using this type of profile a lot, varying mostly the middle temperature depending on what type of bean I was roasting (higher for denser beans, etc). In retrospect, however, I think the starting temperature may be more important....
In watching lots of roasts, I noticed that the first five minutes at 300 degrees basically produced no color change in the coffee whatsoever. It was just drying out the beans without any sort of caramelization happening. I am not saying this is bad necessarily, but it is a data point. Furthermore, as I told you the Gene's heater is either on or off, so is sort of "does what it wants" from a ramp rate perspective. Despite tweaking the intermediate temperatures around, I don't think the actual temperatures of the beans were very different at all.
This is getting confusing, even to me. Let me cut to the chase for today, and tomorrow I'll post some other thoughts on another profile entirely.
For coffees that are very dense and have a lot of natural acidic notes (Kenya, Yrgacheffe, some Centrals), it is better to start at a higher initial temperature, greater than 300 degrees for the first part of the roast. If you don't, you risk grassy and sour notes.
On the flip side, where you are trying to preserve delicate, fruity, or acidic notes, if you start too high, it tends to dull those flavors out. I think this is what happened to the Ethiopia roasts I just talked about. They started at 350 degrees and just seemed lifeless to me, especially the Harar. I think they would have done better started at 300 degrees and then ramped quickly to first crack. I intend on trying this with one of them next week.
More tomorrow, and I'll try to summarize all this into something people can make meaningful use of.
From an equipment perspective, the amateur roaster is often at a disadvantage for a couple of reasons. First, it is often impossible to know what the actual temperature of the beans is during a roast. This is one reason I miss using my iRoast 2; I had a jury-rigged thermocouple in there that I was able to keep a close eye on, plot out temperature versus time, etc. With the Gene Cafe there is really no way to do this. You can tell the air temperature, but of course that is not at all the same as what the beans are doing.
The other disadvantage is temperature ramp rate. With the Gene Cafe, you have in principle infinite control over temperature settings, but in the end the heater is either on or off, and the ramp is a function of the bean amount and density, etc.
Over the past year or two I have played around a lot with roast profiles. I have learned a lot (I think), and I still am mystified by other things. I thought I would sketch out some broad thoughts here as a jumping off point for some other experiments.
First, a word on pre-heating. There is a lot of thermal mass in the drum itself and the various components, and I am a firm believer in pre-heating the machine a bit before adding any coffee. You really want all the thermal energy going into the beans, not the machine, so you can get the roast moving and have consistent results. I typically run the roaster empty at 350 degrees or so while I am getting other things ready. I am not too particular about time, but even a few minutes makes a difference. This pre-heating can also affect how loud first crack can be, but that is a story for another day.
At the beginning of my journey with the Gene Cafe, I generally started with a simple profile of 360 degrees for 5 minutes and then 460 degrees until the end of the roast. I got this profile off the internet somewhere, and I stuck with this for quite a while. I made some good coffee that way. At some point during some discussion via the Sweet Marias Home Roasting List (Archives here), there were folks using a slightly different profile; one that starts with a lower temperature to start (about 300 degrees), then an intermediate temperature (somewhere between 400 and 450 degrees), and then to the final temperature.
I tested this out by roasting a Costa Rica La Minita coffee in two different batches to compare. My wife drank both coffees over a period of several days and noted the differences. The first batch was roasted as:
360 degrees/5 minutes, 460 degrees to end
and the second as:
300 degrees/5 minutes, 445 degrees/5 minutes, 460 degrees to end
Both were roasted to City+, and not surprisingly the second roast took 2 minutes longer to complete. My wife and I decided that the second roast was considerably better than the first. It was bright, sweet and alive compared to the duller tasting first batch. An interesting result.
From there I started using this type of profile a lot, varying mostly the middle temperature depending on what type of bean I was roasting (higher for denser beans, etc). In retrospect, however, I think the starting temperature may be more important....
In watching lots of roasts, I noticed that the first five minutes at 300 degrees basically produced no color change in the coffee whatsoever. It was just drying out the beans without any sort of caramelization happening. I am not saying this is bad necessarily, but it is a data point. Furthermore, as I told you the Gene's heater is either on or off, so is sort of "does what it wants" from a ramp rate perspective. Despite tweaking the intermediate temperatures around, I don't think the actual temperatures of the beans were very different at all.
This is getting confusing, even to me. Let me cut to the chase for today, and tomorrow I'll post some other thoughts on another profile entirely.
For coffees that are very dense and have a lot of natural acidic notes (Kenya, Yrgacheffe, some Centrals), it is better to start at a higher initial temperature, greater than 300 degrees for the first part of the roast. If you don't, you risk grassy and sour notes.
On the flip side, where you are trying to preserve delicate, fruity, or acidic notes, if you start too high, it tends to dull those flavors out. I think this is what happened to the Ethiopia roasts I just talked about. They started at 350 degrees and just seemed lifeless to me, especially the Harar. I think they would have done better started at 300 degrees and then ramped quickly to first crack. I intend on trying this with one of them next week.
More tomorrow, and I'll try to summarize all this into something people can make meaningful use of.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Sidamo v. Harar - No Holds Barred Cage Match, II
Yesterday, Ethiopia Sidamo attacked first, perhaps leaving Harar slumped against the turnbuckle. What can happen next in this epic battle?
In the other corner we have the rather interestingly named Ethiopia Harar Horse DP -Lot 17406. What about lot 17405? We'll never know....
This coffee was roasted right after the Sidamo, with the same profile. Here are the details:
Smelling the beans, you can easily tell the difference between Harar and Sidamo. The Harar smells like over the top tropical fruits - smashed up mangoes, pineapple, etc. Very heady, almost fermented. The Sidamo is more of a stone fruit melange: apricot, peach, etc.
In the cup, I also found the Harar more muted than I might have expected. I noted something similar with the Sidamo. I think it might have something to do with the initial temperature being too high. I am going to combine some of these trends and observations on roasting profiles into a different post when I have some extra time.
The fruity notes of the dry grounds are there, but are tempered with chocolaty flavors. There is some good acidity as well, but it is not the wild cup I imagined. Certainly it is tasty enough, but at this roast treatment I am not running out to stock up.
If I had to choose a winner, it would be the Sidamo, hands down. The complexity of the cup, how the fruit integrates with the more rustic and funky notes, and the pure intensity make it a winner for me. I wouldn't pass up either, but Sidamo gets the edge this time.
Next round: our current winner goes up against one of the icons of home roasting: Ethiopia Idido Misty Valley. Stay tuned....
In the other corner we have the rather interestingly named Ethiopia Harar Horse DP -Lot 17406. What about lot 17405? We'll never know....
This coffee was roasted right after the Sidamo, with the same profile. Here are the details:
Smelling the beans, you can easily tell the difference between Harar and Sidamo. The Harar smells like over the top tropical fruits - smashed up mangoes, pineapple, etc. Very heady, almost fermented. The Sidamo is more of a stone fruit melange: apricot, peach, etc.
In the cup, I also found the Harar more muted than I might have expected. I noted something similar with the Sidamo. I think it might have something to do with the initial temperature being too high. I am going to combine some of these trends and observations on roasting profiles into a different post when I have some extra time.
The fruity notes of the dry grounds are there, but are tempered with chocolaty flavors. There is some good acidity as well, but it is not the wild cup I imagined. Certainly it is tasty enough, but at this roast treatment I am not running out to stock up.
If I had to choose a winner, it would be the Sidamo, hands down. The complexity of the cup, how the fruit integrates with the more rustic and funky notes, and the pure intensity make it a winner for me. I wouldn't pass up either, but Sidamo gets the edge this time.
Next round: our current winner goes up against one of the icons of home roasting: Ethiopia Idido Misty Valley. Stay tuned....
Monday, June 16, 2008
Sidamo v. Harar - No Holds Barred Cage Match, I
When it comes to coffee, for me, Ethiopia is where it is at. The incredible variety, origin character, and history make these coffees truly special. I have in my possession a lot of Ethiopian beans, so I thought it would be fun to compare two especially lauded ones.
Both these coffees are dry processed, and hail from Harrar and Sidamo, two of the most famous areas of Ethiopian coffee production. Dry processed coffees leave some of the fruity mucilage layer of the coffee cherry in contact with the seed for some time during processing, leading to fruity flavors in the cup. Both these coffees are for the adventurous, since they can push the envelope of what many people interpret as "traditional coffee flavor"
In today's corner is Ethiopia Sidamo Dry Processed Biloya. This coffee has the distinction of being one of the highest rated coffees at Ken David's coffeereview.com. What weight do I place behind this recommendation? None whatsoever. Still, it is a data point. If you search around the web, you will find lots of accolades about this coffee.
I first roasted this coffee back in August of 2007. My tasting notes were effusive to say the least:
"Very impressive, complex and changeable coffee. Dry grounds are overwhelmingly estery, spicy, fruity, chocolaty. Aroma in cup is intense cinnamon. First third of cup is dry spice, fleeting leather. 2nd third is cinnamon-laced apricot; last third is a deep wininess that reminds me of a Kenya coffee. Very very nice"
Wow, I must have had a lot of free time back then to write this stuff.
Anyway, I roasted a new batch on Friday with the following profile:
And the cup today? Yeah, it's good. I am not sure I have the enthusiasm I previously had for it, though. I can imagine a few reasons why. First, the coffee is a bit older now. Second, I have tried a lot more coffees since I first tried this stuff, and I am less easily impressed, and third, the roast profile was a tad different this time.
Don't get me wrong - this is a tasty cup. "Cinnamon-drenched apricot" is a good description. In a way, this coffee reminds me more of a Yemen than a Ethiopian coffee. The Harrar I'll talk about tomorrow is quite a bit different beast. As for which is better, you'll have to wait and see.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
India Mallali Estate "Tree-Dried Natural"
Coffee from India. I have had a few interesting examples over the years, but of course nothing beats the puerile pleasure of saying "Mysore Nuggets Extra Bold". Come on - say it a few times - you know you are laughing.
Anyway, today is not about that coffee, but about an unusual coffee from India that is actually dried on the tree. The coffee cherries are left to ripen on the tree and essentially turn into little raisins. If this works well, you should get some interesting character to the coffee. If it doesn't, well....
As an aside, dry-processed coffees like this one are always going to be more variable since wet processed coffees allow you to sort out unripe cherry more easily (they float), instead of having to do things by hand. I can't imagine how much work went into this coffee, and for something which ultimately sold for a few dollars a pound.
I have roasted this coffee a few times, so the notes are a compilation over those sessions. This is a somewhat low-altitude coffee, so it is easy for the roast to get away from you if you heat it up too fast. Slow and gentle wins the race. The coffee was roasted to a Full City level.
This coffee has some very nice dry-roasted peanut notes, low acidity, but coupled with an interesting fruitiness. In the aroma, I swear I smell ripe melon. Interesting! I am not sure I have tasted anything quite like it. It is sort or a cross between something like a low-acid Sumatra coffee mixed with the fruitiness of an Ethiopian. The combination is somewhat unexpected, but very pleasant nonetheless.
Anyway, today is not about that coffee, but about an unusual coffee from India that is actually dried on the tree. The coffee cherries are left to ripen on the tree and essentially turn into little raisins. If this works well, you should get some interesting character to the coffee. If it doesn't, well....
As an aside, dry-processed coffees like this one are always going to be more variable since wet processed coffees allow you to sort out unripe cherry more easily (they float), instead of having to do things by hand. I can't imagine how much work went into this coffee, and for something which ultimately sold for a few dollars a pound.
I have roasted this coffee a few times, so the notes are a compilation over those sessions. This is a somewhat low-altitude coffee, so it is easy for the roast to get away from you if you heat it up too fast. Slow and gentle wins the race. The coffee was roasted to a Full City level.
This coffee has some very nice dry-roasted peanut notes, low acidity, but coupled with an interesting fruitiness. In the aroma, I swear I smell ripe melon. Interesting! I am not sure I have tasted anything quite like it. It is sort or a cross between something like a low-acid Sumatra coffee mixed with the fruitiness of an Ethiopian. The combination is somewhat unexpected, but very pleasant nonetheless.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Kenya Thika - Gethumbwini Peaberry
This is the last of my beans from the 2007 main crop. I thought this coffee was one of the best of 2007. My notes from last October read, "Intense stuff. In-your-face sweet grape and blackberry aroma. Powerful, crisp, sweet, and acidy. Medium body. A powerhouse of a coffee that keeps getting better and better every day I drink it". Hardly faint praise.
Since the new crop had come in, I wanted to finish off all of the last stuff I had laying around, so I roasted it up the other day. The profile was slightly different than the first time:
This was a faster roast then back in October, and I think the body suffered a bit. However, the intense fruit character that I love is still there. Think ripe cherries, blackberries, grapes overlaid with fresh sage and other herbs. It is definitely a unique taste profile for coffee, and quite unexpected. Personally I love the stuff, but I could see people who favor a more "classic" coffee taste might be put off.
________________________________________________
Addendum 6/11/08
As is often the case, this coffee gets better with more rest. Besides the great fruitiness, I get a strong sense of Ricola candies in the aroma. Interesting! The herbal qualities of this coffee are something I hadn't fully appreciated before with previous roasts.
Since the new crop had come in, I wanted to finish off all of the last stuff I had laying around, so I roasted it up the other day. The profile was slightly different than the first time:
This was a faster roast then back in October, and I think the body suffered a bit. However, the intense fruit character that I love is still there. Think ripe cherries, blackberries, grapes overlaid with fresh sage and other herbs. It is definitely a unique taste profile for coffee, and quite unexpected. Personally I love the stuff, but I could see people who favor a more "classic" coffee taste might be put off.
________________________________________________
Addendum 6/11/08
As is often the case, this coffee gets better with more rest. Besides the great fruitiness, I get a strong sense of Ricola candies in the aroma. Interesting! The herbal qualities of this coffee are something I hadn't fully appreciated before with previous roasts.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Yemen Mokha Mattari Redux
Bear with me here - I am highly caffeinated at the moment. I consumed a lot of espresso this morning to write this piece. Such are the sacrifices we make....
I described last month a roast of Yemen Mokha Mattari from Sweet Marias. Despite some mishaps during roasting, it turned out particularly well as brewed coffee. Last Friday I decided to roast up some more of these beans, but take them darker for use as espresso. The claim is that Yemen's like a lot of rest to really come together flavor-wise, so this is a good test. I also added the picture above to show the "before and after" of the coffee.
Here is the profile:
As you can see, another minute and a half of roast compared to the previous gets you into second crack. This is what I was looking for in this roast. The espresso extraction process can really exacerbate acidic flavors, and light roasts in general don't do well. I roasted this one dark (for me) to get better balance.
As an interesting aside, you can take a look at the variation in color post-roast (common in dry-processed beans) in this picture:
If you compare this to something like the picture in the blog's title (which is a Guatemalan coffee), you should see the differerce.
So, what about the espresso? I tried this coffee three ways (shots pulled from my Rancilio Silvia machine):
Double espresso
Cappucino (double shot in ~6oz of milk)
Double ristretto
Now you are starting to understand the caffeine jag I am on....
Anyway, this stuff was darn good. The espresso was very intensely woody, with a packed house of "spice bazaar" tastes. Chewy and very long lasting. Great stuff, but a bit on the rough side. In milk, it really shined. The spice notes were still there, and solid chocolate notes cut well through the milk. The ristretto was probably the best of the bunch. A lot of the roughness was gone, and it was smooth, sweet, spicy, and exotic. I didn't get any real fruitiness in this one; it was more in the woody camp. Perhaps another roast treatment would pull out more fruit.
I described last month a roast of Yemen Mokha Mattari from Sweet Marias. Despite some mishaps during roasting, it turned out particularly well as brewed coffee. Last Friday I decided to roast up some more of these beans, but take them darker for use as espresso. The claim is that Yemen's like a lot of rest to really come together flavor-wise, so this is a good test. I also added the picture above to show the "before and after" of the coffee.
Here is the profile:
As you can see, another minute and a half of roast compared to the previous gets you into second crack. This is what I was looking for in this roast. The espresso extraction process can really exacerbate acidic flavors, and light roasts in general don't do well. I roasted this one dark (for me) to get better balance.
As an interesting aside, you can take a look at the variation in color post-roast (common in dry-processed beans) in this picture:
If you compare this to something like the picture in the blog's title (which is a Guatemalan coffee), you should see the differerce.
So, what about the espresso? I tried this coffee three ways (shots pulled from my Rancilio Silvia machine):
Double espresso
Cappucino (double shot in ~6oz of milk)
Double ristretto
Now you are starting to understand the caffeine jag I am on....
Anyway, this stuff was darn good. The espresso was very intensely woody, with a packed house of "spice bazaar" tastes. Chewy and very long lasting. Great stuff, but a bit on the rough side. In milk, it really shined. The spice notes were still there, and solid chocolate notes cut well through the milk. The ristretto was probably the best of the bunch. A lot of the roughness was gone, and it was smooth, sweet, spicy, and exotic. I didn't get any real fruitiness in this one; it was more in the woody camp. Perhaps another roast treatment would pull out more fruit.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Kenya AA Giakanja Coop Coffee Mill
It look me some time to get to like Kenya coffees. The altitude and climate these coffees are grown at can produce some ferocious acidity in coffee. Some people like this, and some people don't. Originally, I didn't.
The issue is the difference between acidity and sourness. When the term "acidity" is used when referring to coffee, it is the slight puckering sensation and crispness to the cup that actually makes the coffee very refreshing and drinkable. However, when not done correctly (or under-roasted), this can turn into a grassy, sour flavor that can make your whole body shudder. Back in the day I roasted a lot of coffee that tasted like that and it really turned me off.
Now that I am pretty devoted to light roasted coffee. I find that when done correctly, the brightness of Kenya coffees comes with a sweetness and complexity that you will find in few other places. Now I can't get enough of the stuff.
This particular coffee was roasted quite lightly the first time around, back in March of this year:
My notes were as follows:
3/23/08: "Intense stuff. Very powerful flowery aroma - roses! Interesting bitterness to go with it. Perhaps could have ended the roast a tad sooner"
3/24/08: "This aroma is so weird - I have never smelled anything like it in a coffee. In your face rose bush aroma. Unique, but I don't care for it"
I tell you, I have had weird fruity aromas, intense florals, nuts, you name it. But this rose aroma was so strong it turned my stomach.
With a half pound left, I decided to pawn this coffee off on my co-workers. I decided to roast it much darker to see if I could drive off the weird aroma. The profile this time is as follows (yellow marks the differences from the previous):
This time the coffee was roasted into second crack. With this treatment, the odd rose aroma was gone, and I was left with a very nice, pungent, and rustic cup. Not a coffee I would rush to buy again, but certainly very drinkable. It never ceases to amaze me how the same coffee roasted different ways can be so different in the cup.
The issue is the difference between acidity and sourness. When the term "acidity" is used when referring to coffee, it is the slight puckering sensation and crispness to the cup that actually makes the coffee very refreshing and drinkable. However, when not done correctly (or under-roasted), this can turn into a grassy, sour flavor that can make your whole body shudder. Back in the day I roasted a lot of coffee that tasted like that and it really turned me off.
Now that I am pretty devoted to light roasted coffee. I find that when done correctly, the brightness of Kenya coffees comes with a sweetness and complexity that you will find in few other places. Now I can't get enough of the stuff.
This particular coffee was roasted quite lightly the first time around, back in March of this year:
My notes were as follows:
3/23/08: "Intense stuff. Very powerful flowery aroma - roses! Interesting bitterness to go with it. Perhaps could have ended the roast a tad sooner"
3/24/08: "This aroma is so weird - I have never smelled anything like it in a coffee. In your face rose bush aroma. Unique, but I don't care for it"
I tell you, I have had weird fruity aromas, intense florals, nuts, you name it. But this rose aroma was so strong it turned my stomach.
With a half pound left, I decided to pawn this coffee off on my co-workers. I decided to roast it much darker to see if I could drive off the weird aroma. The profile this time is as follows (yellow marks the differences from the previous):
This time the coffee was roasted into second crack. With this treatment, the odd rose aroma was gone, and I was left with a very nice, pungent, and rustic cup. Not a coffee I would rush to buy again, but certainly very drinkable. It never ceases to amaze me how the same coffee roasted different ways can be so different in the cup.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Roasting Apparatus
I just realized that I haven't mentioned what I am roasting with. All these roast profiles aren't that useful unless you have some idea what I am doing.
Anyhoo, I originally started out roasting using an iRoast2. This is a decent starter machine, but I had some quality issues with it (the power base kept dying), and the amount of beans you can roast at one time is rather limited. Still, the coffee was decent, and had the typical air-roaster quality of "brightness" in the cup.
At this point, a hoard of people are going to come out of the woodwork (or maybe not, since not too many people read these entries...) and tell me that you can produce great roasted coffee with a wok, a roasting pan, a heat gun and a dog bowl, a popcorn popper, a blowtorch, or perhaps a small thermonuclear explosion. In a sense they are correct, and you can read for hours and hours on the web about these things.
However, roasting coffee is more than "turning beans brown". The profiles of time and temperature make a huge difference to the final product. Even two roasts with exactly the same final roast time, with different ways of getting there can be completely different. It is useful to have some control over time and temperature (and ramp rate if you can get it). This can be done manually with some effort, but there are some machines out there that make it much simpler. I am a gadget guy, so I went the route of buying a GeneCafe.
I won't review the machine here; you can read about it in the link above, or search around on Coffee Geek or other web sites. Suffice to say that you have very good control over the key variables.
My typical batch size is 8oz. The way I drink coffee at home, that gets me through about a week. For espresso, I'll often drop it down to 6oz or so, since I drink less espresso than drip coffee. I also like to preheat the machine a bit before adding the beans. There is a lot of glass and metal that should get hot first, such that the thermal energy goes into the coffee beans instead of heating up the machine. Pre-heating can also have a pronounced effect on the ability to hear first crack, which I can talk about another time.
For cooling, I typically use the "Emergency stop" procedure which cools the coffee in the drum down to about 212 degrees. Then I move the coffee to a sheet pan on my granite countertop, which quickly cools things to room temperature. I then let the machine complete the rest of its cooling cycle down to 140 degrees, which hopefully will help out the lifetime of the roaster.
There are other options out there as well, ranging from the now very popular Behmor roaster, the Hottop, and others. However, my GeneCafe is going strong, and makes great coffee.
As for brewing the coffee, I have an article I need to parse through before posting here, but there is a lot to say on that topic as well.
Anyhoo, I originally started out roasting using an iRoast2. This is a decent starter machine, but I had some quality issues with it (the power base kept dying), and the amount of beans you can roast at one time is rather limited. Still, the coffee was decent, and had the typical air-roaster quality of "brightness" in the cup.
At this point, a hoard of people are going to come out of the woodwork (or maybe not, since not too many people read these entries...) and tell me that you can produce great roasted coffee with a wok, a roasting pan, a heat gun and a dog bowl, a popcorn popper, a blowtorch, or perhaps a small thermonuclear explosion. In a sense they are correct, and you can read for hours and hours on the web about these things.
However, roasting coffee is more than "turning beans brown". The profiles of time and temperature make a huge difference to the final product. Even two roasts with exactly the same final roast time, with different ways of getting there can be completely different. It is useful to have some control over time and temperature (and ramp rate if you can get it). This can be done manually with some effort, but there are some machines out there that make it much simpler. I am a gadget guy, so I went the route of buying a GeneCafe.
I won't review the machine here; you can read about it in the link above, or search around on Coffee Geek or other web sites. Suffice to say that you have very good control over the key variables.
My typical batch size is 8oz. The way I drink coffee at home, that gets me through about a week. For espresso, I'll often drop it down to 6oz or so, since I drink less espresso than drip coffee. I also like to preheat the machine a bit before adding the beans. There is a lot of glass and metal that should get hot first, such that the thermal energy goes into the coffee beans instead of heating up the machine. Pre-heating can also have a pronounced effect on the ability to hear first crack, which I can talk about another time.
For cooling, I typically use the "Emergency stop" procedure which cools the coffee in the drum down to about 212 degrees. Then I move the coffee to a sheet pan on my granite countertop, which quickly cools things to room temperature. I then let the machine complete the rest of its cooling cycle down to 140 degrees, which hopefully will help out the lifetime of the roaster.
There are other options out there as well, ranging from the now very popular Behmor roaster, the Hottop, and others. However, my GeneCafe is going strong, and makes great coffee.
As for brewing the coffee, I have an article I need to parse through before posting here, but there is a lot to say on that topic as well.
In Defense of Light Roasting
How many times have you heard something like "I love French Roast coffee". Or, "I like coffee that 'bites back' ". Well, you might as well say "I love some tasteless charcoal drowned in milk and sugar". Sadly, what passes for coffee in many establishments is horribly over-roasted and well past its prime. Also, there seems to be some macho thing going on, with the strongest and darkest possible coffee correlating to testosterone levels or something similar.
As an aside, in a Starbucks last week (I was there for a Green Tea Frappucino - yum - not coffee), I saw a sign advertising their new "Pike Place Blend". They proudly wrote on the blackboard, "Roasted in our York, PA roasting facility on April 10". April 10, my friend. That coffee is more than a month old and is more than likely truly putrid. (Actually, to put my money where my mouth is, I will plan on picking up a cup of Pike Place blend and do a review here in the near future. Should be interesting....)
Anyway, back to my point about dark roasting. Coffee, much like wine, has thousands of aroma/flavor compounds, and a very unique sense of terroir - the essence of the area the coffee is grown in; soil, weather, preparation, etc. However, it takes a lot of skill to bring out those notes without overwhelming them with roast character. For commercial roasters, this is exactly why very dark roasted coffee is the norm. It is easy to gain consistency of product when all you are tasting is carbon. Sure, a venti half-caf vanilla macchiato with soy milk tastes the same from Timbuktu to Tijuana, but it sure doesn't taste anything like good coffee.
On the flip side, very lightly roasted coffee, if not roasted carefully can be as sour as lemons and as nasty as chewing on lawn clippings. Think truck-stop coffee or some of the stuff that is served in work cafeterias. The roaster has to carefully allow the coffee to develop during the roasting process without imparting too much energy such that things go either too quickly or too dark, both of which are bad.
In other words, light roasting coffee takes skill, but you are rewarded with much more complexity in the cup. You can more easily appreciate the tropical fruit notes in an Ethiopian dry-processed coffee, for example, or the soaring acidity of a Kenya. Roast them dark and a lot of those delicate notes are gone, replaced by roast flavors. You'll notice that a lot of the stuff I roast is roasted without ever approaching second crack. It can be a pain to get it right, but when you nail the roast, you truly get something special that links you fundamentally to the area where the coffee was grown.
There are a few commercial roasters out there who get it right. One of the first I tried before getting into homeroasting was the excellent coffee from Din Johnson at Ristretto Roasters. There are others out there as well which can be very good (Intelligentsia, Stumptown, Paradise, etc.), but of course roasting your own provides a different level of satisfaction.
Oh, and one more thing. Roasting for espresso is a different proposition. I think most places still way over-roast their blends for espresso, but in general you need to go a bit darker for use in espresso due to the way the extraction process can blow certain flavor characteristics out of proportion.
So there you have it. Try expanding your horizons and enjoy some lightly roasted coffee. Do me a favor and leave out the milk and sugar as well.
As an aside, in a Starbucks last week (I was there for a Green Tea Frappucino - yum - not coffee), I saw a sign advertising their new "Pike Place Blend". They proudly wrote on the blackboard, "Roasted in our York, PA roasting facility on April 10". April 10, my friend. That coffee is more than a month old and is more than likely truly putrid. (Actually, to put my money where my mouth is, I will plan on picking up a cup of Pike Place blend and do a review here in the near future. Should be interesting....)
Anyway, back to my point about dark roasting. Coffee, much like wine, has thousands of aroma/flavor compounds, and a very unique sense of terroir - the essence of the area the coffee is grown in; soil, weather, preparation, etc. However, it takes a lot of skill to bring out those notes without overwhelming them with roast character. For commercial roasters, this is exactly why very dark roasted coffee is the norm. It is easy to gain consistency of product when all you are tasting is carbon. Sure, a venti half-caf vanilla macchiato with soy milk tastes the same from Timbuktu to Tijuana, but it sure doesn't taste anything like good coffee.
On the flip side, very lightly roasted coffee, if not roasted carefully can be as sour as lemons and as nasty as chewing on lawn clippings. Think truck-stop coffee or some of the stuff that is served in work cafeterias. The roaster has to carefully allow the coffee to develop during the roasting process without imparting too much energy such that things go either too quickly or too dark, both of which are bad.
In other words, light roasting coffee takes skill, but you are rewarded with much more complexity in the cup. You can more easily appreciate the tropical fruit notes in an Ethiopian dry-processed coffee, for example, or the soaring acidity of a Kenya. Roast them dark and a lot of those delicate notes are gone, replaced by roast flavors. You'll notice that a lot of the stuff I roast is roasted without ever approaching second crack. It can be a pain to get it right, but when you nail the roast, you truly get something special that links you fundamentally to the area where the coffee was grown.
There are a few commercial roasters out there who get it right. One of the first I tried before getting into homeroasting was the excellent coffee from Din Johnson at Ristretto Roasters. There are others out there as well which can be very good (Intelligentsia, Stumptown, Paradise, etc.), but of course roasting your own provides a different level of satisfaction.
Oh, and one more thing. Roasting for espresso is a different proposition. I think most places still way over-roast their blends for espresso, but in general you need to go a bit darker for use in espresso due to the way the extraction process can blow certain flavor characteristics out of proportion.
So there you have it. Try expanding your horizons and enjoy some lightly roasted coffee. Do me a favor and leave out the milk and sugar as well.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Guatemala Antigua Finca Retana Yellow Bourbon (and an experiment)
There is much to say about this coffee, and the roast. First of all, for all you alcoholics out there, "bourbon" is the particular coffee cultivar that is grown on this estate. It traces back to the island of Reunion (also known as Bourbon at various parts of its history), and is pronounced "bore-BONE". For an interesting discussion of the geography and history of this place, you can check out this Wikipedia article. See? A history lesson together with your coffee.
Getting progressively more interesting, there is the color of the coffee cherry. Most of the coffee grown around the world has red fruit, such as:
You won't be surprised that Yellow Bourbon coffee has..... you guessed it - yellow fruit!
Anyway, on to the roasting. I admit that I am not normally a huge fan of the bourbon variety of coffee (reasons for that another time), but I was intrigued by this particular lot and the usual flowery descriptions of ripe, juicy fruit, peaches, etc.
I roasted half of this lot back on April 4, and the rest of it last Friday. Here is Friday's roast profile:
Comparing this roast to the one I did in April, you will see that this one had a higher initial temperature - 350 degrees versus 300 degrees:
First roast was shorter, both first crack and final roast time were faster. In general with these profiles, I try to "sneak up" on first crack when I am targeting a light roast, such that there is ample time for flavor development.
Let's compare my tasting notes from the two roasts:
4/4/08: "Sweet white grape juice & fruit in aroma. Taste is classic bourbon varietal. Acidy but not sour."
6/2/08: "GREAT. Better than last roast, despite being a shorter roast. Fruity notes are more muted, but sweetness and acidity are merged beautifully. Very juicy coffee"
This coffee is for people who like bright and sweet brews. Intense stuff that of course you will drink black (is there another way?).
This experiment also highlights how important the temperature is during the first part of the roast. Early in my roasting career, I had fairly low temperatures there just to get moisture out of the bean. Now I know that if you want to avoid grassy notes and overpowering acidity, it is better to have the temperature a bit higher. Depending on what I am trying to get out of the coffee, I will play around with this.
Oh, one other note about this coffee. It roasts up just beautifully. The bourbon stock, along with the serious altitude this coffee is grown at, makes for some incredibly dense seeds. The prep is beautiful as well. Take a look at how even the roast is:
For an upcoming post, I took some pictures of some Yemen coffee, and you'll see the difference in roast evenness.
_______________________________________________
Addendum 6/4/08
I brought this coffee into work today, and was even happier with it. I got the strong white grape juice aromas this time, and boy was this stuff smooth. Great coffee, and sure would be a crowd pleaser.
Getting progressively more interesting, there is the color of the coffee cherry. Most of the coffee grown around the world has red fruit, such as:
You won't be surprised that Yellow Bourbon coffee has..... you guessed it - yellow fruit!
Anyway, on to the roasting. I admit that I am not normally a huge fan of the bourbon variety of coffee (reasons for that another time), but I was intrigued by this particular lot and the usual flowery descriptions of ripe, juicy fruit, peaches, etc.
I roasted half of this lot back on April 4, and the rest of it last Friday. Here is Friday's roast profile:
Comparing this roast to the one I did in April, you will see that this one had a higher initial temperature - 350 degrees versus 300 degrees:
First roast was shorter, both first crack and final roast time were faster. In general with these profiles, I try to "sneak up" on first crack when I am targeting a light roast, such that there is ample time for flavor development.
Let's compare my tasting notes from the two roasts:
4/4/08: "Sweet white grape juice & fruit in aroma. Taste is classic bourbon varietal. Acidy but not sour."
6/2/08: "GREAT. Better than last roast, despite being a shorter roast. Fruity notes are more muted, but sweetness and acidity are merged beautifully. Very juicy coffee"
This coffee is for people who like bright and sweet brews. Intense stuff that of course you will drink black (is there another way?).
This experiment also highlights how important the temperature is during the first part of the roast. Early in my roasting career, I had fairly low temperatures there just to get moisture out of the bean. Now I know that if you want to avoid grassy notes and overpowering acidity, it is better to have the temperature a bit higher. Depending on what I am trying to get out of the coffee, I will play around with this.
Oh, one other note about this coffee. It roasts up just beautifully. The bourbon stock, along with the serious altitude this coffee is grown at, makes for some incredibly dense seeds. The prep is beautiful as well. Take a look at how even the roast is:
(Click to Enlarge)
For an upcoming post, I took some pictures of some Yemen coffee, and you'll see the difference in roast evenness.
_______________________________________________
Addendum 6/4/08
I brought this coffee into work today, and was even happier with it. I got the strong white grape juice aromas this time, and boy was this stuff smooth. Great coffee, and sure would be a crowd pleaser.
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