I visited a local cafe who buys from a local long time roaster who I find does a nice job roasting and sources very good beans. The owner handed me a cup with some brewed coffee in it to try. It turned out to be last years Ethiopia DP Koratie. A lot I have also roasted. I asked to see an open bag of the beans and found it to be vienna roasted? In the past this roaster has had some top end Ethiopia DP lots that have been light roasted to city. I could see roasting this DP as dark as FC or even a few snaps into 2nd for those that like a little darker level but vienna just baffled me. Are there any qualities at this level in a DP Ethiopia I'm missing?

farmroast wrote: I could see roasting this DP as dark as FC or even a few snaps into 2nd for those that like a little darker level but vienna just baffled me. Are there any qualities at this level in a DP Ethiopia I'm missing?

Shelf life?

There's bag to bag variation, especially in DP beans. If his lot is fermented or faded, he may be checking if a dark roast will still work, and was getting your reaction. Sidomos and Yrgs sometimes go over the edge of cinnamon, and get very astringent at dark roasts; did this one survive.

Been awhile since I've tasted a vienna roast. And after being told to try this Sidamo natural I was quite thrown by the first taste. Thinking that faded might have been the issue. Astringency didn't seem too bad and there was nothing funky. Just not much to like and something unbalanced about it. I had a request for a bag of Ethiopia DP so used the opportunity to pull out a vacuumed lb of Koratie DP yesterday and roasted it just to beginning of c+. Did a Clever Dripper of it today after 12hours overnight rest and it still had the strawberry jam dry fragrance. And the sweet syrupy berry/peach/pineapple flavor