Iteration 5
For the fifth and final iteration, I decided to experiment and see what would happen if I treated this coffee like a dense African coffee. I loved the third Iteration and wanted to repeat it with a different heat transfer approach involving higher inlet temperatures and pushing a 2-kilo batch to the same profile. I wanted to know whether or not I would see tipping and whether I would experience any flavor differences. So I did my best to match Iteration 3 with a larger batch size by manipulating airflow during the early stages of the roast. The results were super interesting!
To evaluate the physical coffee ahead of time, I did a defect count on tipping as I did with the previous Galapagos boxed set. I did this by counting out 50 beans and then sorting them into three categories.
1.) Normal coffee beans with no defects,
2.) Coffee beans with a bulging endosperm cap, and
3.) Coffees with blackened or blowout endosperm cap (aka Tipped Coffee).
In comparing Iteration 3 with Iteration 5, there was a shift in the beans amongst these categories.
Iteration #3: 22 normal, 19 bulging, 8 tipped
Iteration #5: 27 normal, 11 bulging, 11 tipped, 1 tipped and faced
There was a slight shift in the number of bulged beans to tipped, but nothing remarkable, and indeed the taste of the coffee didn’t indicate to me that there were severe enough roasting defects to cause a roasty flavor or smokey notes in the coffee. However, it tasted much different than the third one despite the proximity in roast timings, weight loss, and finish whole bean and ground color. It reiterates to me that it isn’t just the place you end up with a coffee; the way you get there is also important.
The tasting notes for me were: mild, somewhat muted, and floral with clean citrus notes. As it cooled, I got white-peach tea, citrus, and some subtle baking spices. It was good, but it wasn’t magnificent.
