Just picked up a bag of Ecco Joe Sspresso at Joe on 84th, it's nov 1st today and the roast date was 28th so I'm very pleased

As a follow up, I'm pleased to report some progress. Went to the Grand Central location today (11/2), and the bagged coffees available were roasted 10/27. According to Jonathan ("Joe"), this is only going to improve: "We are getting retail bags in 3 days per week, and though thus far delivery has been a bit rocky from CA, it should be Mon, Wed and Fri. Just one espresso for now, and then our seasonal house, and 4 other single origin offerings."

i went to Joe's today (11/3/09) during my lunch hour. It was excellent. I looked at the bags, there was no espresso blends, but the other ones had a roast date of 10/27.

I stopped by Joe's in Grand Central Station yesterday when I went into Manhattan for a meeting.

The Joe's Espresso Blend was 6 days old on the shelves but the good news is that they were very happy to sell smaller quantities in 1/4 lb. increments. I looked at the bags and I was surprised that only two beans were listed as ingredients in the blend, a Brazil Cachoeira (I don't recall which variety) and Guatemala Finca Maravilla. The barista, a very friendly young lady, suggested 18.5 gm doses at 203* and pull a regular volume shot.

I must say that this blend had a very different flavor profile from the one listed on the Ecco or Joes site. They say "Gorgeous notes of bittersweet chocolate begin the cup. Vanilla and sugarcane transition seamlessly into a lingering caramel finish. This coffee exhibits a rounded acidity and silken mouth feel creating a classically balanced espresso." I dosed at 17.5 gm because I don't like to stuff more then that into my synesso ridgeless basket and I altered temperature from 200 up to about 202-203. Temperature makes a significant difference but I never found any caramel but instead differing cherry and spice components to go with the cocoa. The significant factor I noticed is the very small amounts of solids extracted from this coffee and the thin body of the drink that may account for the "silken mouth feel. It is a "satisfactory" straight espresso but not one I would really want very often. Where it did shine was in milk drinks where I made exceptional cappuccinos.

Update - Joes Espresso Blend - day 7 post-roast - This stuff is really really good.

The changes- I started yesterday trying to use the advice given to me by the young lady barista at Joes who said that this blend should be pulled as a normale and I worked with that yesterday using doses of about 17.45362 gm rather then stuffing 18.5 gm into my basket as they do using the three group LM at Joes.

Given that I see less solids extracted from the coffees in this blend I decided to pull a shorter ~ 0.75- 1oz drink using the same dose and a bit tighter grind. WOW what a difference. The flavors were stratified and layered rather then muddied together and consisted of sweet cherry and chocolate. The spice tasted yesterday was gone. If I could continue to pull shots like this it will be a winner that I will go back to purchasing. My guess is that my Anita reacts differently then the LM at Joe's especially to dose and the conditions I finally settled on, slightly less coffee and a shorter pull, mimicked the LM as best possible.

I will also be buying more Guatemala Finca Maravilla green beans for my own blends and SO's.

GC7 wrote:I stopped by Joe's in Grand Central Station yesterday when I went into Manhattan for a meeting.

The Joe's Espresso Blend was 6 days old on the shelves but the good news is that they were very happy to sell smaller quantities in 1/4 lb. increments. I looked at the bags and I was surprised that only two beans were listed as ingredients in the blend, a Brazil Cachoeira (I don't recall which variety) and Guatemala Finca Maravilla. The barista, a very friendly young lady, suggested 18.5 gm doses at 203* and pull a regular volume shot.

I must say that this blend had a very different flavor profile from the one listed on the Ecco or Joes site. They say "Gorgeous notes of bittersweet chocolate begin the cup. Vanilla and sugarcane transition seamlessly into a lingering caramel finish. This coffee exhibits a rounded acidity and silken mouth feel creating a classically balanced espresso." I dosed at 17.5 gm because I don't like to stuff more then that into my synesso ridgeless basket and I altered temperature from 200 up to about 202-203. Temperature makes a significant difference but I never found any caramel but instead differing cherry and spice components to go with the cocoa. The significant factor I noticed is the very small amounts of solids extracted from this coffee and the thin body of the drink that may account for the "silken mouth feel. It is a "satisfactory" straight espresso but not one I would really want very often. Where it did shine was in milk drinks where I made exceptional cappuccinos.

1 - It's Fazenda Cachoeira Yellow Bourbon.

2 - Flavour profile will, of course, be difficult if your prep is different. So if you dose 17.5g instead of 18.5g and pull same volume of course you're going to get a different result in the cup. You can either shorten extraction (as you did) or increase dose. Shortening extraction is going to give you the improved results as you noted but this ristretto extraction will still likely be less "optimal" than simply increasing dose.

3 - Cherry and spice notes are from the Guat.

Thanks Chris-

I've roasted and reported on my results with the Guatemala Maravilla from Sweet Marias and the cherry is unmistakable in that SO.

Question for my next batch of Joes. - I don't like the results I get with a synesso 14 gm ridgeless double basket in my QM Anita when I stuff 18.5 gm of coffee into it. That's why I used 17.5 and I certainly would be happy to get today's drinks over and over. But- would you suggest taking out the 18 gm synesso triple basket using 18.5 gm as suggested by the barista and pull a longer shot? I'll try it anyway of course but I would appreciate your input.

Thanks for the help and comment.

I'd absolutely try it.
I mean... why not?
You might like it, you might not, but you'll never know until you try.