Sold out of the Ethiopia Misty Valley at This Joy+Ride, 20 bags in 3 days. Now, the work begins. Thanks to Sheri and Shari for the support!
Archive Page 2
I have been using new Verilux lights for roasting and having some good results. Coffee color and bean surface texture changes pretty quickly so having good lighting really helps. I have been struggling with this for some time since I roast during the day and night.
Comparing ground and whole bean samples
Cupping roast profiles
Back from Boot Camp, I was set to roast and select some samples for the upcoming this joy+ride’s Spring Coffee Offering. The Roast Profiling and Cupping course was invaluable and learned many new roasting and tasting techniques. We tasted 6 samples from Ethiopia, Rwanda and Kenya blind and the Ethiopia Misty Valley was amazing. It really stood out among a great crowd. The Misty Valley had intense berry aroma and lots of sweetness. Should be interesting to taste it at various stages.
This week I will be working on the roast profile and last minute details. Should be roasting and shipping early next week. A limited-edition roast of 20 bags. Order some if you are interested.
Ordered some samples to roast and cup this weekend for the upcoming This Joy+Ride. In January we did a special limited-edition of Finca Mauritania El Salvador which was a lot of fun.
I usually focus on coffees from Central America, but right now coffees from Ethiopia and Brazil are new crops. I will be tasting some Africa coffees this weekend: Ethiopias, Kenya and a Rwanda.
New Crop refer to the current year’s crop that has been harvested and shipped. As the year progress, the unroasted, green coffee slowly loses freshness and vibrancy. Many roasters are packaging green coffee in vacuum sealed bags to ensure freshness throughout the year. Past Crop coffees develop a woody, straw-like quality losing sweetness and acidity. Many coffee roasters are emphasizing freshness and seasonality in coffee. See Mr. Humprhies guide.
Updated the Roaster Maintenance page including a Quantik Sample Roaster -
tostadora portatil, portable toaster
Finally uploaded the Roaster Maintenance page for a Diedrich home roaster. Will add some notes and photos for a Quantik soon.
With my on-going focus on coffees from Latin America, this week’s tasting was focused on Brazil. On the table were 3 coffees from Coffee Bean Corral and 2 from Sweet Maria’s.
Brazil Fazenda Aurea- Dry aroma of hazelnut, chocolate, and dried fruit, Medium body with nutty, buttery quality with a dry finish. Simple and consistent with some sweetness. Pulp Natural? from Cerrado region, Minas Gerais state
Brazil Natural Cerrado- Santos- Aroma of malt, grain and woody. Thick syrupy body, low acid, bit leathery. Some sweetness. The finish reminded me of a scotch. Full Natural from Cerrado region, Minas Gerais state
Brazil Mogiana- Nutty aroma, honey and apricot. Candied fruit, plum and raisin, nice sweetness, medium body and coarse finish. Pulp Natural from San Paolo
Brazil Daterra Farms- Yellow Bourbon- Aroma of pine nuts, mild tobacco and vanilla. Clean, refined sweetness, tamarind and apricot. Creamy and silky finish. Pulp Natural from Cerrado region, Minas Gerais state.
Brazil Ipanema Tree Dry-Process- Cherry and brandy aroma. Thick full body, reminds me of cane sugar. Honey and sherry notes, low acid and creamy finish. Full Natural Process from Cerrado region, Minas Gerais state
This tasting distinguished the 2 main processing methods: Pulp Natural and Natural. In the Pulp Natural method the cherry skin is removed and the fruit mucilage is allowed to dry on the seed producing cleaner flavor and fruit notes. The Natural method is where the cherry skin and fruit dries on the coffee bean and then later hulled off producing heavy, syrupy body and some woody flavors.
Nice video of Tom ’s cupping room at Sweet Maria’s.
The last few weeks have been busy with fixing my sample roaster and finish up the last few roasts for This Joy+Ride. Have some Costa Ricas to test the sample roaster and new temperature probe. I have some green coffees that have been vacuum sealed for 6 months and will be testing them at the end of February. Hoping to get some other tasters involved in the study. Have been wanting to do a year long study of green coffee vacuum sealed and stored in various materials. Also hoping to get up a page on cleaning home roasters.
During the evening I have been studying up on the the Le Nez du Cafe, an assortment of aroma vials. 70% of flavor when tasting comes from aroma, so the nose is a pretty important tool. The set is broken up between enzymatic (flowery, fruity), sugar browning (nutty, caramel) and dry distillation (spice, tobacco). Having a Coffee Flavor Wheel helps group aromas and tastes together. Have been conducting blind tests for fun.
My little Quantik electric sample roaster died about a month after buying it used. I was so sad. It would not get hot enough to roast batches. It was nice to have because I could roast 80 grams of coffee quickly and not have to roast 1/2lb. batches to test a coffee.
After talking with the nice folks at Quantik and CoffeeTec, they mentioned it could be a dirty thermostat probe. Quantik even sent me an operating manual. I am not technically inclined, but after a little cleaning and I was roasting a few batches.
