Iteration 1:
This first Iteration was fun because I took someone else’s description of how they approached roasting the coffee and tried to apply it to my roasting on my machine. In the end, this roast does not represent how I would want to approach this coffee, and after talking to them, it doesn’t reflect how they would like to see the event timings on the coffee. It’s fun to look at how the same approach can create different results across different roasting setups.
The recommendations I followed were:
Down-batch: recommending 1/2 to 3/4 batch sizes max. I usually do 2 kilos in a 3-kilogram roaster, so I was in the middle of the recommendations at a 2/3 batch size.
Charge hot and use a long soak.
Slowly and incrementally increase gas until the first crack and remove heat.
So, considering these recommendations and not knowing the recommended timings, I just went for it! I enjoyed that this approach is consistent with what I had seen and learned about roasting larger screen-size cultivars. Much of what I heard is that the large size and different physical structure make these beans a bit delicate to roast as they could easily scorch or tip. Because of the recommendations and this approach’s similarities to things I have heard/read, I wanted to make this our first go.
This coffee came out smelling quite nicely in the dry aroma. I noted at the end of the first attempt: “taking the benchmark recommendations and doing the best I can to match Sweet, earthy, baking spices, cherry Coca-Cola, vanilla, heavy.”
The next day, I was satisfied. Tasting notes were as follows: aromatics: cherry Coca-Cola, vanilla, rich, heavy. On the first pass: cherry, heavy, savory, and sweet. On the second pass: cherry, heavy, and savory caramel.
Two days off the roast, my notes were: heavy, savory cherry, Cola, vanilla, sweet, bright acidity, coating mouthfeel, lime, and cherry in the aftertaste.
Three days off roast: fruity and heavy, sweet caramel, toffee, and savory. Subtle juiciness, heavy mouthfeel, cherries, and caramel.
Overall this coffee was quite nice, and this expression was more on the long roast savory side for me. When I showed the profile to Kurtis of Benchmark Coffee, he remarked that it was slower than he would have approached the coffee and that my second roast looked a lot more like how he would have come at it.
