Tanzania Blackburn Estate AA

After the poor results from the last couple of coffees, it was time to rethink things a bit. I am not ready to give up on the experimentation quite yet. Remember that the "conventional wisdom" was to dry the coffee thoroughly and get to a uniform yellow color before raising the temperature to caramelize the beans. I presume this strategy is easy to execute on a commercial roaster, but it is turning out to be a challenge on a consumer machine like the Gene Cafe I am using.

This time around, I decided to spend some time at a higher initial temperature, trying to account for the unknown differential between the bean temperature and the environmental temperature, then raise the temperature slightly to turn the beans yellow, and then ramping up to roasting temperature. To wit:



I waited for the coffee to turn yellow (2 minutes into the second stage) before cranking it up. This roast turned out very well. It is a very dynamic coffee; strong acidity, but no sourness. It is sweet caramel all the way, with some interesting syrupy notes (boysenberry?). As often is the case with Tanzanian coffees, there is a subtle hint of funk at the end, perhaps leather or burlap. Nothing to detract from the cup, but something to let you know its origin. Interestingly, I also got a strong green apple taste the first day or so, which faded as time went on. I really enjoyed this coffee, and will be experimenting with similar roasting profiles going forward.