Greetings everyone,

I'm a huge fan of Sumatrans, but admittedly I can't always bring out the character that I love so much.

A favorite roaster of mine from my hometown of Tulsa once gave me some of his fresh Sumatran, and I still remember the aroma like it's right in front of me: Bread, molasses, caramel sweetness. It was like a fresh bread dipped in molasses. I wanted to eat the beans right there.

That might not be the best description, but I have been able to coax the same qualities in my homeroast. I just went through a batch of a 3 year old Harar that was delicious.

Anyone have any ideas on how to best express this character? I've found that it needs at least a city+ to really get that character, but at full city+ it gives way to more of a toasted bread, roast character. My standard now is just to hit it to about 425F bean mass from my TC, but is there anything else to really get the character? Shorter roasts? Longer roasts? Quicker ramp after first crack?

This will be a good start. here

A "Sumatra" H-B word search narrowed by "Home Roasting" will also help.