I just submitted my guesses. Being out of town over the weekend could hurt my chances...of course, so could being wrong...

I will say, all the greens are VERY nice. Even origins I don't traditionally like were very tasty. Of course, I could say "That's the best Kenyan I've ever tasted" and the response might be "yeah, well it's from Mexico!"

I have very strong reasons for my submissions...I will be curious as to the accuracy of those reasons. Hampered a bit by never roasting 4 of the origins. But fun to pursue, nonetheless!

Anybody else find 1 and 2 were really hard to control leading into 1c? 3-5 were pretty easy to roast for me. But it kept wanting to spike before 1c on 1 and 2 regardless of cutting gas more than has generally been enough. (I only have like 40 roast on it now, and 30 were one bean, so I am still a total amateur with the huky)

Anybody else find 1 and 2 were really hard to control leading into 1c? 3-5 were pretty easy to roast for me. But it kept wanting to spike before 1c on 1 and 2 regardless of cutting gas more than has generally been enough.

No problem with one as I started at a lower charge temp. Five definitely wanted to race to the finish. I would charge it lower next time.
Cheers
Ian

I also had lowest moisture loss on #5. And a strong flash during the crack.

I'm dead sure of one of them. Pretty sure of another. Have a good guess at two more. And only "throw a dart at that part of the world" for the last.

My favorites were #1 and #2. They are both some of the better coffees I've had in a while. #5 also great. Strongly dislike #4, which is why I think I know what it is.

Chert wrote:Right, through the discussion one could garner a clue that would allow a correct round 1 entry, or conversely give one away. Or engage in "psychological warfare" as my son use to say during board games.

In that light, I will bring up guessing strategy: Is it better (A) to roast/cup early and enter a best guess quickly for fear that correct entries are likely and to advance the early-bird option is key. OR (B)is it best to roast - cup - extract and roast-cup-extract a second set in order to try to be more certain, if possible.

With choice of Burundi, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Kenya, and Mexico I think similarities are significant among the origins so I would opt for choice B. If the choices were say Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Kenya, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Sumatra, Tanzania, and Vietnam then option A would certainly be the way to go.

Quoting myself here - I wonder if I will be notified by the board - with retrospectoscope in hand, I think option B would be the way to go.

One or two days trying these coffees and going with my first strong hunch, not re-considering after that first impression, did not serve for getting beyond round 1, rather I tanked. Now that I know the origins it will be interesting to roast the 2 batches I have left of the 4 lots I got wrong and explore my wrong impressions a bit more. The other problem with option A is that one doesn't let the coffees rest enough.

It would be interesting to know among the top 5 - or was it 4 (?) -Ace origin identifiers, were they all experienced beyond we hobbyist roasters and did they cup with other experienced palates to bounce impressions off? If they have this format again - coming from a coffee afficionados desert - maybe the on-line-group cupping could be more productive as well, without giving anything away.

Chert wrote:... If they have this format again - coming from a coffee afficionados desert - maybe the on-line-group cupping could be more productive as well, without giving anything away.

You lost me here Flint. What'cho say?

That ramble was just me considering how to do better next time. One way would be to use on-line communities perhaps the way others used actual, in person, shared knowledge to confirm or refute a guess. Maybe the observations offered and shared by hobbyists - some like me who rarely interact directly with other coffee hobbyists - could be legitimately used to make a winning entry.

Does that make sense?

Chert wrote:...Does that make sense?

Perfect, though nothing replaces 5 people sitting around a table. Run an ad in Walla Walla Craigslist. "Need 4 folks who want to get serious about coffee. Experience not necessary but willingness to learn is imperative."

You will get them.

that's a really good idea Dave

That's what I did in Oakland, except I only sent the email to my wife and her dad. It worked!

Also I learned a ton from this competition:

- The #4 Guatemala tastes just like a Burundi we roasted for a Huky competition. And now I have two examples to prove that I detest the spicy, clove-heavy, somewhat bittered flavors of both of those coffees. In the aforementioned Huky competition, I actually tried to roast those flavors out of the coffee, and scored low on the "flavor" portion of the grading!

- #5 must be doing the most dead-on Earl Gray impression I've ever seen. I had a cup of Earl Gray yesterday just for comparison sake, and wow. What a prototypical tea-like Ethiopia.

- I had no idea Costa Rica was capable of producing coffees with such a WOW factor as #1.

- It turns out I really like El Salvador Pacamara. Everyone at my cupping table was giving #2 huge oohs and aahs. We'd never seen or tasted that coffee before.

Thanks Dave, this format was super fun (and also hopefully a sustainable amount of work for you, as opposed to last year)!