James, it's always great to have your contributions here. You were a gracious gent when we chatted at the Symposium this year and I hope you're more inclined to return to share your thoughts and opinions.

I think Scott is doing a much appreciated job of interpreting old patterns to discover fresh information. This is a great thread that can't help but promote his efforts. I am looking forward to firing up my Hottop and working with his ratios. I wasn't wild about Scott's espresso back in the days that he owned Rao's in Amherst, MA. The espresso (that I believe he consulted on) at Esselon in Hadley, MA is now my target roast for great coffee--taste and learn.

Actually, I agree this thread should be a good kickstart to his book sales. There's a certain amount of skepticism, but not all out negativity.

Could you describe the differences in the two espresso styles?

Hi there,
I prefer not to participate in a thread that's mostly about my work, but it's important to me that people understand that my former companies' roasts do not represent my current preferences. I'm not passing judgement on what they're doing; I'm just noting that they roast quite differently from when I ran those companies, and also differently from how I choose to roast today.

Thanks
Scott

I'm enjoying Scott's book so far; it's well written and concise. The part about increasing drum rotation during the roast is something I've been thinking of trying. It's nice to see a suggestion in print on the subject.

bigabeano wrote:Hi there,
I prefer not to participate in a thread that's mostly about my work, but it's important to me that people understand that my former companies' roasts do not represent my current preferences. I'm not passing judgement on what they're doing; I'm just noting that they roast quite differently from when I ran those companies, and also differently from how I choose to roast today.

Thanks
Scott

I support Scott on his remarks. How does one obtain coffee beans roasted by Scott, or his colleagues, now? It would be very nice to sip a cup while reading about what is behind his process.

I got Scott's book over the weekend and I'm reading it now (went through the whole thing once quickly and now reading in more detail).

One of the more interesting things to me so far is the his "second commandment," which basically says that ROR should gradually be declining throughout the roast (after the initial spike of course). What's particularly interesting is his discussion of several sample ROR curves and the coffee that resulted.

In contrast to some other roasters who are relatively hands-off during the roast, Scott appears to advocate a more active approach (from what I can tell at least). He discusses the commonly experienced dip in ROR before FC and suggests that roasters anticipate it and adjust accordingly (doesn't get specific how, just says that the curve should continue to decline smoothly).

He also says that a stalling ROR (one that's constant for too long) will contribute to flatness and a lack of sweetness. This sounds a little bit like a temperature stall, and I'd personally never considered a stalling ROR a bad thing.

There's a lot more in the book that I won't attempt to cover in this post, but suffice to say it's been an interesting read. It's hard to say if my personal experience agrees with what he's saying, because while I've produced some roasts that I would consider excellent, who's to say they wouldn't have been better if I'd had Scott's stone tablets? Seriously though, the book has been great food for thought, and I expect it will stimulate a lot of discussion around here.

BTW, someone mentioned splitting the technical discussions in this thread from the general book review ones, and I think it would make sense.

Frank

dogjamboree wrote:...
BTW, someone mentioned splitting the technical discussions in this thread from the general book review ones, and I think it would make sense.

Frank

There was, but it looks like it got re-combined into this thread by a moderator (not myself) for simplicity sake. Now that the book is available, the topic is one and the same anyway, so it's rather irrelevant, the discussion will naturally shift towards the content of the book.

That ties into his theory of bean temp. development; outer vs inner on p.47. If the ROR is declining inner and outer bean development would be maximized.

Note: In order to quote several sentences out of the text for clarification; Scott has asked for prior permission. It shouldn't be a problem, but that's up to him.

Thanks Hank, I'll have to look at page 47 again.

I was intentionally not quoting the book but rather trying to describe the principles in my own words as I didn't want to run afoul of any written or unwritten rules on such a discussion...hopefully I succeeded.

Frank