Coffee roast May 2009

4 new beans to try.

Rwanda : Horizon Nyamyumba
"Soft and delicious coffee with a good acidity. Lots of fruit - citrus & blackberry aswell as caramel"

Roast #1: A very small bean. Gave the roast 11 minutes at 220. It seemed to go very fast, but it turned out pretty light still. Alot of shells still attached to the beans. Roast#2 will be darker. Interesting to note that no crust formed on the surface. Tastes as advertised, altho the caramel is the most pungent flavor. Maybe a slight darker roast will bring out the rest.

Roast #2: This roast was 15 minutes. There's nothing to be nervous about. The bean can take it. Apparently, this is the reason why there was no crust on roast #1. A light roast is too heavy. Around 14 minutes, the bean started expulsing it's oils and a nice crust has been formed. The coffee is ALOT softer and the flavors are more apparent. A darker roast definately suits this bean. Delicious!

Roast #3+ : ^

Bolivia Primera : Asipai biolatina
"Good sweetness, creamy, pure citrussy with lots of chocolate"

Roast #1:
Roast #2:

Guatemala: Huehuetenango SHB
"Good body with lang, soft aftertaste of flowers and chocolate"

Roasted same day as the Kenya. I took it to the max, got the oils after second crack. Whole thing took about 14 minutes. I thought i'd made it too dark. Day 1 taste was... relatively tasteless, same as Kenya. Maybe dark roasts need to be cultivated longer.


Kenya: Gethubwini AA+
"Large, rich body with classic and wellbalanced acidity. Wonderful sweetness and the classic taste of blackberry anf flowery essence (roses)"

Roast #1: A bit inconsistent. Roasting took longer than expected. Ended up around 15 minutes
Roast #2: Very consistent. Upped the heat some to 230 degrees. First crack at 5-6, second at 10-11.

Taste: After day 1, i wasn't quite sure about this bean. I thought i'd roasted the fuck out of it, but after 3 days, the flavors have come out nicely!

Coffee Roasting - Batch #2 - Indian Monsooned Malabar

Subject : Indian Monsooned Malabar
Taste: Tobacco, Walnut, Peanuts
Roasting mechanism: Oven

After a moderately failed attempt at batch #1 - where i tried to slow roast initially and blast it with heat towards the end to draw out the oils (as suggested by third parties) , i ended up with a very dark, french roast that tasted mostly like tobacco. It wasn't half bad, but it was very... special. It had, afterall, been roasted to fuck.

I set up another roast today, adhering to more subtle roasting guidelines. Preheated oven @ 225 degrees celcius. I sat in front of the oven, observing the roast from start to finish, as not to miss anything.

1st bean of 1st crack started at 7 minutes, and the whole 1st crack lasted maybe 3 minutes from start to finish. 2nd crack initiated, more violently, around 13 minutes, after which i immediately took the beans out of the oven. At this point, some of the beans had drawn oil, while some hadn't, some were simply dark, and some not so dark. This is the woe of roasting in an oven, where you'll most likely have an uneven roast. It looks good, and it's now sealed to rest for atleast 24 hours before serving.