Ethiopia Korate Wet Process

I was so excited to get this coffee, for a couple of reasons. First of all, I love wet processed coffees from Ethiopia. They are a great change of pace from the rustic dry processed coffees. Coffees from the Yrgacheffe area, etc. have a prickly acidity about them, as well as piercing citrus notes and floral aromas that make them almost tea-like at times. Second, this is the exact same coffee as the dry processed version I spoke about last month. Being able to do a comparison where only the coffee's processing has changes is fascinating.

High off my roasting success of the superstar Panama Esmerelda coffee, I used the same exact profile:


Alas, sometimes such high expectations get dashed. I was somewhat disappointed with the way this came out. Despite the same profile and the exact same time between first crack and end of roast, I think I brought this coffee a few degrees too high. The silverskin/chaff on these beans really holds on, and it made looking at the roast color difficult. The aroma was promising, but I found the taste somewhat muted. There was peaches-in-syrup tastes, some Jolly Rancher candy notes, but the acidity I expected wasn't there to back it up. Some bittersweet roast character crept in to spoil the fun. I'll have to roast more of this to see if I can hit the sweet spot a bit better.

Panama Esmerelda Gesha, Lot 5

THE. MOST. EXPENSIVE. COFFEE. IN. THE. WORLD.

That got your attention, didn't it? Sorry to let you down, but I am not willing to spend over a $100 on a pound of green coffee beans. Also, don't forget that you lose about 20% of the mass of the beans after roasting....

Panama's Esmerelda gesha coffee is the most acclaimed and pricey coffee on the planet. The last two years have seen the prices skyrocket to stratospheric heights. Is it worth it? That depends. Is it great coffee? Yes, indeed it is.

Luckily, the folks that produce the coffee separate lots out from different areas of their farm, and there are "bargains" to be found beside the auction lots that go for serious cash. Last year I had some of the non-auction Esmerelda coffee, and this year I picked up two of the less expensive lots. These are still not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, being two or three times as expensive as other high quality microlots of coffee.

This coffee cultivar, gesha, is originally of Ethiopian origin. Those familiar with this blog and those coffees, know that these beans can produce some very exotic fruit and flower tastes. Combine that with the terroir of Central America, and you have an unusual coffee. It has great acidity, and incredibly powerful aromas of wildflowers and tropical fruits.

This time around I started with the "cheaper" lot, a mere $10 or so a pound. This is a coffee you definitely want nowhere near second crack, so I decided to ramp up slowly to first crack. Here is the profile:

The result was a rare "wow" reaction after trying this 12 hours post-roast in a vacuum pot. From the moment you grind this stuff, it just fills the room with intense jasmine and exotic flower aromas. In the cup, it is juicy, juicy, juicy. Great acidity, tons of clean tropical fruit, and caramel. The finish is unique; there is a menthol/cooling sensation going on, perhaps citrus zest or something similar. Awesome stuff.

If there is any drawback at all, I feel this coffee fades faster than others. On subsequent days, the flowery notes fade and the caramel tones come more front and center. Still enjoyable, but not as legendary as the first day.

I was really happy with this roast; it will be a good starting point when I eventually get around to roasting the more expensive sister lot I have.

Some Miscellany

Things have been sort of hectic around these parts lately, and it seems to have had a negative impact on my coffee roasting. A couple of notes:

I generally roast coffee to bring in to work once a week. It is a good opportunity to help reduce the stash, as well as bring a tiny amount of happiness to an otherwise brutally boring meeting. This week, I had originally planned to serve some Mexico Oaxaca Don Eduardo that I had laying about. You see, I admit to sometimes dumping off my older or less favorite coffees on my co-workers (sorry guys!). I figure they will be way better than anything else they are going to buy locally. Anyway, I grabbed a bag of what I thought was 8 oz of green coffee, my usual roasting amount, and dumped it in the roaster. A few minutes later when I looked in, I noticed that something was odd. It looked like there was more coffee than usual tumbling about. My confusion turned to horror as the beans started to expand (they swell to 2X or more their green volume while roasting), and completely clog the chamber. Luckily I was able to abort, smoke billowing, without burning my house down. You actually need to be very careful, since coffee is extremely combustible if you over-roast it. It turns out there was at least 12 ounces of coffee in the bag. Figures the one time I didn't weigh it out.....

That went in the trash and I was looking for another coffee when my son, all of two years old, opened a cabinet and insisted that I roast "this one", pointing to a five pound bag of Ethiopian coffee. I decided that it was as good a choice as any and roasted it up. This was the Ethiopia Korate from a couple of weeks ago, and it was fabulous then. Pure berries, simple and sweet. This time around I decided to use a different roast profile, one that had been very successful for the Kenya Gachatha. In the end, it wasn't particularly successful, being a bit thinner and less fruity than before. My co-workers felt it was bitter and overall not very good. It goes to show you how a different roast profile can have drastically different results.

Another Misty Valley in Ethiopia

First of all, a picture of some recent stash additions. I was doing well on stash reduction, but things are out of control lately. Such is life, I guess. There was a shipping special going on, so I had to take advantage. After all, I was saving money, right?

It is no secret that Ethiopia's Idido Misty Valley is one of my all-time favorite coffees. The complexity and fruitiness of it, combined with the exacting preparation of the seeds really provides a clarity of flavor that I think is spectacular.

This year, there was another coffee playing off the "Misty Valley" moniker, namely a coffee from the same region exported by someone else. This one was deemed "Menno's Misty Valley" in honor of a certain Menno Simon who produced the coffee.

Apparently this was quite a small lot, and it disappeared from the Sweet Maria's offering list in a short time, too quickly for me to grab some. In an act of generosity, a fellow internet roaster sent me a pound to try out. My thanks go out to Eddie for his kindness. I have been playing around with slow roasts for a while, and I thought that would perhaps bring out the qualities of this coffee well, especially since I was aiming for quite a light roast. Here it is:


I need to collect my thoughts a bit, but some of these Gene Cafe roasts with what look like long roast times are turning out really well. In this case, the coffee was dynamite. This has a character that I haven't encountered before in Ethiopian dry processed coffees. There is an intense orange note, of all things. Berries are common enough flavors in these coffees, but never have I had such an intense orange note. The coffee is thick and liquory (is that a word?), with intense chocolate and orange notes. As espresso, even at such a light roast, the results are delicious. This is a heady brew, no doubt, and one that I am glad I had a chance to try.

Kenya AA Nyeri Gachatha

I lurve me some Kenya coffee. It is sort of funny since in the beginning of my roasting career, I really disliked the stuff. Too many examples of teeth-peeling acidic samples I guess. This particular coffee is sort of unusual. It lacks the strong berry-like flavors that are common among high-end Kenyas, but boy oh boy is this stuff good. This was a small lot that arrived late in the season last year, and unfortunately is all gone now from Sweet Marias.

The roast:


I tried to give this coffee a lot of heat to build flavor since Kenyas are so dense. It took everything I could give it and laughed - my roaster never got to 482 degrees before first crack started and I had to lower it. The smells from the roaster were intense - just like candy.

In the cup, this is a somewhat simple coffee (for a Kenya). It has a deep malty sweetness, mild acidity, and a long sugary aftertaste. Seriously, this coffee is like drinking molten sugar. It is that sweet. As the cup cools a bit, there are some interesting notes that emerge, almost like an aged coffee. There is some spice, maybe tobacco, but it is a subtle thing.

All around, one of the most enjoyable coffees I have had lately.

Brazil FTO Poco Fundo x2

The coffees from the Poco Fundo cooperative in Brazil have a unique distinction: they are the only Brazilian coffees I like. I have tried many, and they always disappoint me in terms of overall flavor, intensity, and interest. They serve as a nice backdrop in an espresso blend occasionally, but on their own I just don't like them.

Then there is Poco Fundo. This is a dry processed coffee with some great character. In the darker roasts I do with this bean, it is one of the best single origin espressos out there. Nutty, fruity (plums, raisins, etc.), chocolately - Poco Fundo has it all. As drip, it is also a very nice cup, but it really shines as espresso.

Anyway, I had a pound lying around and I thought it would be interesting to roast this coffee to a very light level, something I hadn't done before. Maybe I have been missing something all this time while roasting it past second crack?

Here we go with the light roast:


Brazilian beans are typically not that dense, so I tried to take it easy with this roast. I eagerly anticipated the first pot of coffee. And the result?.... Lousy. This was thin and boring. There was some nuttiness, but the characteristic fruitiness that I love so much in this bean wasn't there. It wasn't a terrible cup, but it wasn't very good either.

Just to prove that I wasn't going crazy, I took the other half pound of coffee and roasted it darker:



Here you'll see that the final temperature was up a but to make sure the coffee entered second crack, and the total roast time was longer. This time the coffee was phenomenal. Low acidity, intense nuttiness, chocolate, and plums. The mouthfeel is unique - creamy and crunchy if that makes any sense. The espressos were just perfect. With this coffee, I will be avoiding the light roasts like the plague.

Still Around

Sorry for the lack of updates - work and vacation have gotten the better of me. I'll be back in business next week with a bunch of stuff including a tasting of two roasts of Brazil Poco Fundo, and many others.