Seeking MicroRoaster Mail Order Recommendations

[Mark_G]

We're pretty serious about achieving a perfect cup of drip coffee -- now use a new Ditting grinder and an Aquabrew commercial pourover (brews consistently at 200-205°) into gold mesh flat bottom filter to 65oz Zojirushi thermal carafe. We are equally fastidious with the brewing details: weigh between 2.7-3.2 oz coffee prior to grind, 67 oz fresh cold (municipal, moderately hard) tapwater, often preheat carafe. I hope we have achieved control of those variables.

Present goal is to achieve a smooth, moderately mild brew -- we drink a lot of coffee all morning (adulterated with a small amount of 2% milk, no sugar). We are not coffee snobs, in that we don't delve into the finest nuances of taste -- what we seek is a great tasting, drinkable cup of coffee that doesn't overpower our tastebuds for the rest of the day.

We have been making the rounds of the microroasters -- most have been responsive and informative; yet we find that at the end of the morning, their roasts are just too dark for our preference. So far Terroir and Intelligentsia seem to get closest with lighter offerings; Counter Culture and Stump Town darker. Call us hypersensitive: we'll save full city roasts and oily beans for espresso.

Suggestions of mail order roasters who like to roast light (±"Cinnamon Roast") would be appreciated. We are cupping blends (reg and decaf) and select single varietals.

We're on the east coast if that matters.
Thanks for feedback! Mark


[cross-posted on CoffeeGeek; pardon the overlap]

[PeterG]

Hey Mark!

Thank you for taking your brewing so seriously and also for advocating light roasts! Historically, the really top-tier specialty roasters have had to endure folks claiming their roasts were too light!

I think you might have a tough time finding high-quality roasters who will consistently go much lighter than Terroir. Many of those who deliver cinnamon roast are those who are trading in low-quality coffees and want to roast light so they don't have as much roasting loss.

Also, you might try exploring different coffees. Disclosure: I am the director of coffee for Counter Culture, and we execute broadly different roast profiles for different coffees, over the course of the year. I know that other quality-oriented companies do the same thing. Consistently, we tend toward lightness on the coffees that are delicately floral and beautifully fruity: especially East Africans and extraordinary Centrals. Many roasters (like us) tend towards slightly darker profiles on coffees that emphasize body and sweetness, like Indonesians for example. Frequently, we do lots of coffee at City/Full City, because that's when the coffee is at maximum sweetness.

If you would have left specifics out of your post, I would have recommended Terroir, they are well known for exploring the "light side".

Keep fighting the good fight!

Peter G

[Mark_G]

I feel like the shnook who finally bought the car of his dreams, a 12 cyl Ferrari Testarosa.
The next week, newspapers announce oil reserves have run dry. No more gas.

Peter, yours is sobering news, made more poignant by the silence from fellow geeks (er, Baristas).

What's perhaps most disconcerting is trying to understand the impetus behind the full city and dark roasts; has SB truly influenced this generation and what is acceptable to the palate?

A friend and former roaster reminded me that the largest Euro roaster, illy, roasts to a lighter standard and sells tonnage around the world. I suppose that is just not the trend here and now.

You're quite right. We'll continue to fight the good fight.
Cordially, Mark

P.S. Anyone want a good grinder? (kidding)

[PeterG]

I must disagree with you a touch here, Mark.

I think that I can safely speak for the four roasters you mentioned that each are really committed to delivering the roast that the coffee "wants": i.e. the "sweet spot" where the coffee tastes best, independent of presumptions about roast level. I think you're a bit off base by suggesting that this is evidence of Starbucks influencing taste acceptability. I can tell you for certain, the roasters at Intelly, Stumptown, Terroir, and CCC spend a TON of time tweaking roasts in order to deliver the one that makes the coffee sing to them.

As a roaster, I don't believe that most coffees show all that well at cinnamon: the body is underdeveloped and the sweetness is overwhelmed by acidity. Most roasters have their own definition of "full city"; ours is in the neighborhood of 55 agtron, which Ken Davids calls "Medium American". Our lightest roast this year, a 65 agtron Kenya, is what I call "city". 65 is also the cupping standard for purchasing. Cinnamon is an order of magnitude lighter than that, and is really sour and grassy to most palates. You seem to be operating under the assumption that lighter=better, which is definitely not any more true than the old darker=better paradigm. Instead, I would suggest you look towards offerings from countries who tend to produce balanced, sweet coffees with few overpowering characteristics: of the top of my head I would suggest El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, and Panama. Great roasters with great green would tend towards moderate roasts on these coffees, to underscore the inherent balance and sweetness of the origin.

Finally, don't be discouraged! There are lots of great coffees out there for you to discover! Keep that grinder! I get the feeling that you just haven't found "your" coffee yet.

Peter G

[kbuzbee]

I agree with you 100% Peter. Each coffee does have a "sweet spot" and finding it is a wonderful trial . At Daybreak, we have tried very hard to find exactly where each of our coffees shine and continue to fine tune that process. We don't have the resources of the big boys (Intelly, Vivace and such) but we do what we can. We want our customers to like our coffee more today than they did yesterday. So far, we seem to be meeting that goal. To your point, we have several blends (and a couple SOs) that tend toward the darker end. Not *$ dark by any means, but hardly something you'd call cinnamon. For espresso, these are by far my favorite blends showing not only greater range but enhanced depth and sweetness in the pull. One interesting one we tried was taking our Indian Monsooned Malibar several shades darker than it's normal City roast.... What a terrific espresso it made! We have tried a few SOs very light and were put off by exactly the character you describe, sour, grassy, thin. It really was bad as an espresso (90% of what I make is espresso).

Ken