My non finalist espresso entry was 50% Selassie Sidamo, 35% Sumatra Aceh, and 15% Brazil Vista Alegre. Didn't submit any brewing entry.

This is the profile for the Sidamo 50%

Red line = MET = Thermocouple probe close to the heater element (use to control roast) outside drum
Yellow line = BT



This is the profile for the Sumatra 35%



This is the profile for the Brazil 15%




Cheers

My cupping blend was
50% Brazil
30% Guat
20% Sumatra

My non finalist Espresso blend
40% Brazil
40% Guat
20% Sumatra

Roasts were 120g batches, as follows:
Sumatra FTO Aceh Arinagata
First crack at 374F after 9:46 minutes, stopped at 428F at 13:15 minutes

Brazil Fazenda Vista Alegre Natural Dry
First crack at 370F after 8:15 mins, stopped at 428F at 12:40 minutes

Guatemala Huehuetenango Finca La Maravilla
First crack at 369F after 8:12 mins, stopped at 417F at 12 minutes

The first crack time above was the very first crack, I am now timing to rolling first (or middle of first), which would make the first crack time even later, and the time from first to stop shorter.

Based on Jim's feedback, the roasts are too long for a popper roast, I am tweaking my profiles to try to get to first in about 7 minutes, and then strech out the time from first to end to about 4 minutes.

I also found it interesting that one comment was "A lot of Sumatra here, herbal, drying in the finish, but a good roast for a Sumatra". Not sure what to make of that, I only used 20% Sumatra in that blend.

Thanks for the feedback, this has been an educational experience.

Randy

My non-finalist espresso blend was:

25% Sumatra FTO Aceh Arinagata
25% Brazil Moreninha Formosa "Raisin" Coffee
28% Eithiopia Gr 3 Dry Process Yirga Cheffe
22% Guatemala Huehuetenango Finca la Maravilla

Roast Level: FC+

Roast Length: 9 oz batch, 1C @ 11:30 elapsed, 2C @ 16:58 elapsed, end roast @ 17:03
(times include a "pre heat" stage where loaded roaster is started, turned off at 1:20, and turned back on to achieve desired profile settings)

Roaster: Behmor 1600 (P2 B 1 lb settings) w/ exhaust mod to route smoke

I "blend then roast" for practical reasons. Though I like straight espresso, I'm not a regular drinker and usually roast for cappucinos or occaisional americanos so this was a bit of a challenge to see what I could do.

I tried about 4 roasts ranging in size from 7.5 to 9 oz w/ day after shot tasting following a general approach of blending about 50% base coffee and 50% flavor/highlight coffees. My tasting goal was similar to what Jim described for his roast as Italian espresso bar shot (or at least what I recall drinking when I was in Naples). I started out w/ "few pops of 2C" roasts but that seemed a tad too bright in the tasting so I roasted a bit darker (5 sec into 2C) to shoot for a more balanced result. Going any darker than this seemed to add too much "roast" flavor. I also started out with a greater proportion of the Sumatran, initially, but found the espresso tasted better when I added a tad more Brazil resulting in the blend included in the submitted entry. Smaller batch sizes were increased due to some scorching (probably the Brazil as Jim mentioned). Pre sorting was necessary to cull flawed beans as others have mentioned. I also did some quick post roast sorting but perhaps could have been more thorough there.

I have not heard any additional details from the cupping results other than what was posted here but I am pleased with whatever info I can get. It would helpful to me to know whether my entry was included in the 4 that matched Jim's but did not make the cut or in the group of 9 with problems. Its ok to post any additional notes publicly (or e-mail?)...I have nothing to hide I understand completely if this level of feedback was only intended for the finalists but I thought there was a mention of sending some feedback to all entrants.

Many thanks to Jim and others who organized and participated in this. The feedback and discussions have been informative and fun to follow before, during, and after the competition.

Pat

Hi all - I uploaded a youtube video with some comments that Steve Ford and I had while cupping, and a few clips of our discussion after scoring. Jim thought he had scored different than us, but I actually think we were closer than he might think. We scored a few of the top coffees in close calibration, where we all found clean, sweet cups. We differed on ones with Sumatra in the blend, and when Steve and I found resiny/piney notes that we thought were not ideal. But thats an honest difference of taste. Sumatras are soft and need some very gentle roasting. I scored one coffee with a dominant Sumatra flavor well, whereas in some of the blends it sort of "muddied up" the cup more than it helped it out. Hey, it is tough to blend with Sumatras!

Anyway I had some comments at SM that showed interest in which roasts we thought, visually speaking, were good, and which might have had problems. So right now I am taking my macro lens and making a short video looking at those roasts and some comments about what I think I am seeing. It's youtube.com/sweetmarias in a couple hours or so. Again, thanks to Jim for making this happen! And thanks for the brave competitors ... seriously, it takes a lot to have your roasts critiqued, but I this is how we push things forward! -Tom

PS_ tried to embed video here but couldn't get it to work... not sure if it's allowed in this forum
PPS: Jim - would be great to get a final chart that includes Roast Machine type, and Roast Time so we can see how the various roasters fared in a quick visual reference.

Chiming in late here because I was looking for my notes, and apparently misplaced them- so this is from memory: my entry was a 50/50 blend of the Ethiopia and Sumatra, that was intended for the coffee competition but accidentally grouped with the espresso. Both were roasted roughly 14 minutes on an unmodified Hottop B with bean probe. The Ethiopia to a City+, the Sumatra to a FC, using a profile very close to what I described here.

David Rainiero
I used the Ethiopian Grade 3 Yirga Cheffe for both my drip and espresso as a single origin.
RK drum
5 minute drying phase of 275-325F after dropping into a 300F drum
FC starts at about 10:30 at 325F
SC starts at about 15:30 and stopped at 16:00, temp about 455F with a little too fast snapping for my taste, which I think spoiled this nice bean. I really wanted to only go to SC start but I didn't catch the first snaps.

FWIIW, I agree with the reviews and thought that it was over-roasted, but not terrible for a dark roast drinker.
I didn't care for it much as espresso, but I was more interested in getting comments for adjusting roast technique than making sure I had a winner.

A great exercise and something I hope could be done more often, say for something like a donation for Coffeekids or Jim S.'s empty mixed blend coffee jar .

Dave