Hi all...
Just had to share this encounter...

It's been too cold to roast in our garage with my iRoast2s, and my Behmor is not yet in-the-shipping-lanes, so I needed to acquire some espresso beans for the next week or two.

There is a roaster in a city close to us who has a Diedrich roaster (been roasting profitably in our area since 1993) and none of his roasts are more than a week old before he tosses them. So I decided to put together an improvised blend from some of his Guatemalan, Sumatran & Ethiopian beans.

All of them were roasted to perfection, all 3-6 days old and all of them maybe a few snaps into 2nd crack (no strong surface sheen or oils). Amazing aromas as the containers were opened, and in the bags by the time I got home...

While I was there, I had thought I might pick up some of his house espresso blend too, so I asked to see the house espresso beans...what a shock...

It was a 2 bean blend with some Indonesian beans (the girl was not sure which) just barely out of 1st crack blended with an inexpensive Mexican bean which was pushed to Spanish roast levels. At 2 days beans were clinging to the sides of the storage container, and the scoop, and everything they got close to....and it looked like a checker board (dark-light-dark-light). The aroma was ''Kingsford''...at three feet from the container. I don't think I looked as surprised as I actually was...hope not!!

I sure didn't ask for any of them to take with me...I can only assume it's for their milk based drinks the smallest of which is 12 oz - and it is built with a single shot. They don't pull doubles, or build traditional ''things''. Being based in a mall they compete with half dozen Starbucks in the vicinity...so you know what their menu looks like.

But they supply beans to a lot of area coffee-holics, and they compete with three other local commercial roasters - they really do know their coffees...the owner and his wife do. The girls on the line didn't know much...

I brought the Guatemalan, Sumatran, and Ethiopian home and blended two ratios of beans, and pulled a few shots to sample them. Blended half, and double bagged and froze the other half.

My improvised blend came out fine, but I didn't take any of the house espresso blend with me...

I don't plan to do this often (the Behmor is my latest in a long line of roaster adventures), but I'd not be afraid to improvise again based on what I experienced today. But, I'm glad I asked to look before leaping on the Espresso house blend...

The aroma was ''Kingsford''...

nice.

i think i can smell that all the way over here.

thanks for sharing.

An extreme melange can work well in milk, and it could be the only thing that works at all in a big milk drink. Of course, as a home barista, you have to smell the dry grounds, so Kingsford is a deal breaker.

ljguitar wrote:... While I was there, I had thought I might pick up some of his house espresso blend too, so I asked to see the house espresso beans...what a shock... It was a 2 bean blend with some Indonesian beans just barely out of 1st crack blended with an inexpensive Mexican bean which was pushed to Spanish roast levels. ... The aroma was ''Kingsford''...at three feet from the container.

Man speaking to Dog: You have been licking your taint for fifteen minutes. Are you OK? What are you doing?
Dog: I'm fine. It's just that I drank some espresso at that coffee shop and I'm trying to get the bad taste out of my mouth.

another_jim wrote:An extreme melange can work well in milk, and it could be the only thing that works at all in a big milk drink. Of course, as a home barista, you have to smell the dry grounds, so Kingsford is a deal breaker.

Good morning Jim...
I suspect with the size of the beverages and the fact that they are pulling a pair of singles and using each in a separate 12 oz (and larger) beverage, a powerful amount of ''taste'' is required. Once I backed up and looked at the actual shop layout, it is in reality two different shops - a fairly decent local roaster providing a service to the local coffee community, and a coffee shop serving mall-surfers.

Given how meticulous they are about the roasts, and roast dating and carefully handling their coffee, that house blend container was what shocked me. It's where the two worlds meet for a moment...and I just had to wrap my head around it. Like I said, their single origin coffees are roasted to perfection...

Happy New Year Jim...

Randy G. wrote:Man speaking to Dog: You have been licking your taint for fifteen minutes. Are you OK? What are you doing?
Dog: I'm fine. It's just that I drank some espresso at that coffee shop and I'm trying to get the bad taste out of my mouth.

Hi Randy...
I see your site is still growing, and you are to be envied for your collection of espresso forming equipment!

I notice you have both HotTop and GeneCafe roasters listed...I'd love to hear more about that part of the journey (which I may have overlooked on your site). Are there any particular posts there or elsewhere which would give me insight into your roasting practices?

Here in Atlanta, Octane on the east side is right next door to a Starbucks. I asked one of the baristas how the competition between them was going. His response: "There isn't one... it's just such a different product." People get what they are used to, it seems.