I ended up submitting a blend, sent today. Its been a very exciting experience (much more so than I'd expected when first committing to the idea). But I'm also a bit relieved to have finally finished.

I'm in. Coffee's going out tomorrow for a Friday delivery.

Thanks, Jim!

John

Another_jim wrote

I'm sure all the entries from the regulars will do well. My sense so far is that the competition is attracting mostly very experienced and motivated home roasters. But I'm hoping there'll also be a lot of people, not regulars on the forums, just curious to see how their home roasts stack up.

I'm mostly a lurker and will be sending in tomorrow my home roast, been at it about 10 years and still think I'm a neophyte. Not my usual choice of beans but am still learning.

Marvin

Jim,
I'm confirming that you will accept coffee on Monday also? If not I'll overnight them.

Thanks

I've been playing around with blending 50% Brazil, 25% Sumatra, and 25% Ethiopia and I get the feeling that during the first days I get some kind on anise flavor to it. But that flavor goes away with age. Maybe it is a sign of freshness. In my roasting competition entry I based my blend in this effect. But after a few days, I think the flavor went towards some green bean flavor. How and when did you calibrate/try your entry?

In my entry I used 50% Sidamo, 35% Sumatra, and 15% Brazil.

Arpi wrote:How and when did you calibrate/try your entry?

Good question. I was wondering if it was quiet on this topic lately because people didn't want to show their hand until it was too late for others to benefit from it at the last second.

My entry was a 50/50 blend of the Ethiopia and Sumatra, and tried to time it so it'd have 5 days of resting before being used. My logic was:

* The Ethiopia seemed to benefit from more than 5 days, but the Sumatra didn't. This was a compromise.

* I was surprised to prefer many of the blends over any of the SOs.

* The Brazil was a finicky roaster, so given the limited time (and my limited experience), it was eliminated.

* The Guatemala was eliminated mostly due to my taste preferences. On my first roast session of each bean, I didn't feel it contributed enough to justify the added logistics of blending with it.

* The 50/50 blending ratio because I'd liked what the Ethiopia and Sumatra tasted like together, however the submitted batch would be untasted (due to insufficient resting time), and the 50/50 blend seemed like the best way to eliminate batch-by-batch variation from the previous blend I had cupped.

I generally do SO for espresso but will roast up several batches of SO or close candidates sometimes including roasting one at a couple levels. Then I will use as SO or add one maybe two of the others and blend by the shot or two. I decided to try something out of my norm and try to use all 4 beans and went with 40%Brazil, 20% Sumatra,20% Ethiopian and 20% Guatemala. Roasting the Sumatra just to the start of a rolling 2nd, the Brazil just a few snaps of 2nd, the Guate to the doorstep of 2nd, and the Ethiopia was 2 roasts one into city+ and the other about 6* higher or a light full city. The Maravilla has a nice feel to the taste, the Ethiopia the fruits and zing. The others to fill out with some choc. and low funk(I'm not a big Indo. fan and the Alegre was a little more extreme a Brazil than I usually use)
The brewed I used 50% Ethiopia, a roast about 8* past 1st and a light full city and 50% the Maravilla med. roast. I liked it for a DP Ethiopia cup smoothed and rounded out with the velvety Maravilla.
I have no guess how others will like them but that is why we are doing this. I know I will definitely learn a lot from the comments.