Jon,
depending as to exactly when you had both coffees there could be several things at play. When we first started doing Poco Fundo, we loved that fruitiness and thought it was great. Although there was a point after we started using it to make Michael's espresso Medici, that we experimented with taking the coffee a little darker (not dark by any means, but as you said this is a light roast), to try and maximize the sweetness for the espresso, it however took all the fruit out of the cup.
As of a couple of weeks ago, Mike had been tweaking some things to try and coax some more nuance out of some of the coffees. Some of them weren't exactly where we wanted and some took a step backwards to take two steps forward. I haven't had a chance to taste the Poco Fundo by itself recently (but I'll go get some at Medici as soon as I'm done eating lunch), but we were cupping many of the centrals at different roast degrees last week, and they were really shining. I'll let you know how the Poco Fundo is tasting when I get back later.
As to roasted on dating here is Mike's response to a similar question from Brad in Waco
Brad, I like your question and it is a really great one. Dan touched on some of the surface ideas, but it really gets much deeper than that. I can tell you that I send Medici several cases of 12 ounce bags every week. It is a true partnership to maintain the integrity at all levels. It is easy to trumpet the virtues of a date on a bag, but what does that date really mean. Let's face it, bad coffee is bad coffee no matter when it was roasted and great coffee is great coffee with or without a date. The education is much more important than any writing on a bag.
If you are interested, I could bag the same coffee every week for the next 8 -12 weeks then we can set up a blind cupping at Medici. We can talk about the big picture during the cupping. This can be fun and educational. I have done this with my coffee and with some of my other roaster friends in other parts of the country and you might find the process and results interesting.
If you are interested, get in touch with Dan and we can put some plans in place. Of course this is an open invitation and if the crowd gets to big we can find somewhere else to do the cupping so we don't drive the paying customers out of Medici.
rest assured that if you order from our online store the coffee was roasted the day that it ships. I can also tell you that at Medici, Michael is ordering 12oz bags twice a week from us, and frequently runs out of various single origins, and especially the blends.
As to how to roast the Poco Fundo, well you probably have more experience roasting than I do, but based on what I have learned this week, I am going to say that it will probably like a slower roast profile to a fast one. This is also one of the things we have been trying to tweak with the roaster, is slowing it down for some of the lighter coffees, to get full development but not lose some of those nice nuances.
If you wanted to Jon, I'm sure you could email Mike, and he would probably be happy to get you some of our Brazil Fazenda Ipanema Dulce, which we use in the Meritage for it's creamy body.
hope that helps!
) and Yellow Bourbon Fazenda Cachoeira (screen dried) from Paradise Roasters. Use a 50/50 ratio, roasted separately (different roast speeds). Once first crack hits, lower the heat but do not stall the roast. Run it another two minutes after first but keep both out of second. Mix, let it rest for 5 days and pull your heart out. Thick, 100% crema, sweet, fruity, nutty and floral. Toss in some MAO Harar and this year's aged Sumatra Lintong (roasted slow and light just out of first) and you have a hum dinger citrus/nutty/light bodied/sherry and fruited summer espresso blend of goodness. But I am somewhat biased since that is my blend.
Ask Tim (HairyCannonBall) to post pix of his stable. He's got a coupla Ducatis in there...
