Gio, whose work brings him to Chicago, dropped by for the cupping on Sunday. Turns out he's a natural and had no problem identifying the flavors and point ranges for each coffee. He also dropped off a well executed medium roast of the Haile Selasie; the heat gun and bread machine combo that several home roaster's use is definitely a very workable arrangement

The coffees were roasted to a standard cupping roast level ended just after the first crack winds down, at 415F, but in a slightly leisurely 10.5 to 11 minute profile.

The espresso samples were roasted to just before the first pops of the 2nd crack, in 11 to 12 minute roasts.


Haile Selassie: Typical Sidamo flowers, tangerine and apricot flavors, medium to high powered, very sweet. Clean for a DP, some astringent black tea flavors in the finish. Cool cup improves and predicts good SO performance at medium roast
DRY FRAGRANCE 4.5 WET AROMA 4.25
TASTE 8.75
FINISH 7.25
ACIDITY 8.25 BODY 8
TOTAL 91 points.
Espresso: Classic Yrgacheffe bright fruits and flowers. Sweetness does not stand out, but balances the acidity. Overall, somewhat high toned as an SO

Yrgacheffe DP Grade 3: Very characteristic apricot and bergamot flavors. Dry processing ferment shows up in the finish as a slight sourness & astringency; but the added sweetness predominates, especially in the cool cup. Flavor profile is pretty generic, except for occasional surprising whiffs of orange blossom. This coffee is edgier than the Haile Selassie, but with enough sweetness to balance.
DRY FRAGRANCE 3,2 WET AROMA 4.5
TASTE 8.4
FINISH 7.2
ACIDITY 8.1 BODY 7.8
TOTAL 89.2
Espresso: Middle fruit and honey, with more sweetness than acidity. Lower toned than the Haile Selassie, and better suited as an SO.

La Maravilla: Beautiful mix of pit fruit, banana, and brown sugar. Very sweet, milky mouthfeel, but not heavy bodied. Like drinking a peach milkshake. Not as bold as the Sidamo. Goes downhill with some dryness and astringency in the cool cup; will need careful roasting for SO use.
DRY FRAGRANCE 4 WET AROMA 3.5
TASTE 7.5
FINISH 7.5
ACIDITY 8 BODY 7.5
TOTAL 88 points.
Espresso: Smooth and creamy mouth feel and vanilla flavors are the first thing to register. Some smoky distillates and a clean apple finish follow. Understated but superbly balanced and subtle as an SO.

Brazil Morinhena Formosa Raisin: The initial flavors and aromas are molasses, raisins and vanilla. The finish is surprisingly tart, like Granny Smith apples. This is a much more assertive cup overall than the FVA, and reminds me more of Brazilian auction coffees.
DRY FRAGRANCE 3.5 WET AROMA 3.5
TASTE 8.0
FINISH 7.3
ACIDITY 7.4 BODY 8.2
TOTAL 87.9
Espresso: Oxidized raisin flavors, like an off-dry sherry. Heavy body. Citrus twist finish. Complex but one dimensional, like lots of shades of beige.

Aceh: All the Sumatra wood and mushroom smells and flavors, very clean with lots of sweetness, especially as the cup cools. Surprisingly seductive, and very promising for espresso.
DRY FRAGRANCE 3.5 WET AROMA 3.5
TASTE 8
FINISH 7.5
ACIDITY 7 BODY 7.75
TOTAL 87.25 points
Espresso: Deep toned wood smoke, but with plenty of molasses and an acidic twist to keep it balanced and tasty.

FVA: Mostly rooty, vanilla, and sugary flavors, with a background of pit fruit marred slightly by ferment. Cool cup is sweet, heavy bodied and low acid, so it will do well as a blender; but probably not a headliner.
DRY FRAGRANCE 3 WET AROMA 2.5
TASTE 7.5
FINISH 6.5
ACIDITY 7 BODY 8
TOTAL 84.5
Espresso: Fruity, sweet, and fresh tasting, like biting into a peach. A shock given how it cups. Plenty of body.

Thanks for posting. I'll start with one question, and one statement.

1: On the FVA (Brazil Fazenda Vista Alegre Natural Dry), I noticed the green beans have some sort of brownish pulp/husk on about 20% of the beans- perhaps a result of the unusual drying process. When roasting, this became charred, and for the most part, remained affixed to the beans. You can see this in the photo as patches of shiny black, and the bottom green bean as shiny brown. Is this a problem? If so, is this avoidable?




2: On the Haile Selassie, I noticed a lot of first crack stragglers, at least at the roast profile I was attempting. Next time I'll follow my bean probe readings and ignore the cracks. Waiting for them all will take you too far past a city/city+ roast.

And here's my roasting profile for the Guatemala La Maravilla on the Hottop. First crack began began when my bean probe read 374F. Dumped at what I approximate as City+. Honestly I'm following this same profile for all four beans, just ejecting earlier/later depending on degree of final roast.



Any suggestions are welcome! (Or if this is more sharing than Jim would like pre-competition, I'll save it all up for after the comp. )

Those beams look to me burnt. That is the main problem with low density beans. You have to use a low starting charge temp and low env. temp because they are delicate. A trick to transfer more heat to the beans (to make the roast faster) while keeping a low env. temp is to use a lower charge.

Check your environment temp to see how high it is.

Even beans that look good could also suffer from flavor damage. You have to chew the bean and you'll see how it tastes.

A trick for the Sidamo beans is to use a very high charge temp.

Rgrds

Arpi, thanks for the suggestions. I'll definitely chew a few and inspect the bean interiors when I get the chance. However I don't believe the beans are burnt- the photo indicates what appeared to only be on the surface- you can remove most of it with your fingernail if you tried. The vast majority of the beans looked fine:

The FVA may need more careful handling than the usual Brazil. There was a subtle background of distillate flavors in my cupping roast (fairly high drop in), that I don't remember from my slower espresso roasts.

Earlier today roasted the second batch for tasting next week.

This is my first time roasting Sumatra coffee. I noticed there are numerous not so good looking beans. The roast from last week tasted salty. Is this a characteristic of Sumatra? I can understand the variations in beans for the DP Ethiopian to give complex berry flavor, but what about these Sumatra beans? There are also what appear to be strands of synthetic fibers.....

This is the Aceh? This is roasted? It looks like green triage.

The beans I got are rustic, sub specialty in prep, with too much insect damage and partial black to pass muster. But they are pretty much par for the course for Sumatras, and roasted well. If I had to guess, your picture looks like beans selected for flaws, not roasted to the first crack. If my guess is wrong, then something is very weird.

Please allow me to clarify....I noticed these green-blue fibers which prompted me to look at the beans in detail. The macro lens probably amplified the defects more.

This is the roasted Aceh from earlier today:

As I said, my sample has about 20 to 40 insect damaged and partial black beans per 300 grams. This is sub-specialty but still acceptable. If your lot has a lot more defects, then the bags SM got are non-uniform, and we have a problem.

The Aceh is a fundamentally good coffee, IMO. So I advise picking out the insect damaged and partial blacks for your competition submission. It's not the ideal solution, but it's not unheard of when less then perfect coffees are used in competition.