Version 2.0, Days 1-2

This version with the higher proportion of Africans (40%) on paper should show a lot of character. The woody/mushroom slightly funky note is gone, perhaps attributed to the reduced portion of the monsooned malabar, however the attempt to add fruit to the blend failed. Ashiness has increased, and the only way to pull a decent shot is to go with an updose of 16.5 grams and 2 oz. Acidity has decreased, and though I can taste dark chocolate from the Africans (I assume) I am not getting their berries.

As the roaster pointed out, it is very likely that the Africans were roasted too dark and perhaps too slow. My recommendation is to roast them separately, go faster to first crack, and stop the roast 5 degrees before 2nd crack.

I got word that there might have been a problem with the roast. But when I pulled my first shot on Friday evening, it had very good on taste, a 4, with decent body. There was plenty of fruit, and lots of low end complexity to set it off.

But whatever went wrong began showing up yesterday and it went downhill rapidly from there, with the shots getting ashier and ashier. By today, even the low dose, low temp, fast flow efforts were too ashy to finish. This even affected the cappas, which lacked the sweetness of the previous version.

Based on the first shot, I think the blend recipe is about right. I'm not sure whether I agree with Abe on changing the roasting strategy, or whether trying the intended roast first might be the way to go.

I thought I'd give a picture of how this troubled roast actually developed.

First - I changed the recepie without re-optimizing the roast. Slightly different bean weights from my original stock roast and while I thought I could handle it, I really need a couple of runs to get it right.

Second - my boys 'helped' me and it is more than likely that one or more of the beans aren't actually correct.
The Yirg, Yemen, and monsooned coffee are in there but I'm not really sure about the brazils. I store all of my beans with slips of paper in each bag. Five of the slips were pulled out by my helpers and left on the floor. Also, in the frenzy of having two boys watching a smoky roaster in the garage - I'm thinking that I must have really missed the timing/temperature on one or more of beans.

After shipping the beans, I wrote to Jim and let him know that I thought something was wrong. The shot I pulled the morning after the roast was atypically green and unbalanced. This was right in line with the somewhat irregular aroma that the coffee had just after roasting. Anyway it seemed to improve for a day or two then came crashing down. The shots that I made this morning were grassy, woody, and reminiscent of solvent. Frankly, I'm a bit embarrassed that I shipped this stuff.

So - too many changes with too little time to re-optimize. I'd like to try again after this very disappointing run...

Ok - back with another attempt at the improved version of Nutty Buddy.

A few interesting notes and comments.

I'd have to say that this roast is still a work in progress! There are several variables that need better control but I hoped to get a post in the ground suggesting that I'm headed in the right direction after the last mess up.

Since I roast in a SC/TO I have to say that roasting the Yemen is very difficult. Previously I was roasting the Yirg and Yemen together which seemed to help make sure that the beans were well agitated in the roaster. However, the new blend has caused me to move to roasting the Yemen and Yirg separately which makes the Yemen a tough bean to roast well. The variability in bean size is a real problem for the stir bars in the bottom of my Stir Crazy unit.

Second, I'm definitely still getting a bitter taste that I don't like too much and think must come from the Africans. It's interesting since it seems to be quite sharp bitterness that is strong early in the taste but which fades very quickly. As the coffee ages it seems to be getting much less intense and there is a chance that it may be gone in a day or two. Nevertheless, it is one of the unexpected features of this new blend.

The comments from the tasters will be very interesting to me. Overall, I'm not terribly satisfied with the flavors as I've changed the blend. Even if there are improvements to be made, I think I will start exploring some other beans. I've considered swapping Harrar for the Yirg and will be testing an aged sumatran as a replacement for the monsooned coffee.

Good evening all and thanks to Jim, Abe, and Dan!

I got an unannounced batch of the latest roast a few days ago. This is a no-no, since the package is quite likely to find us unable to check it. Abe is away, Dan is moving, and I'm about to move.

I did manage to taste it yesterday and today. There is a probably a too high MET on this roaster, since there is still a tendency towards ashy. However, this time around it, it's not nearly as bad, and a low pulling temperature of 90C or 195F, controls the problem.

The taste is predominantly chocolate. At lower doses one gets berries, at higher doses, there's an oakiness. There was a small but very distinct ferment note (sauerkraut) in the long finish of most shots, probably from the Yemen or one of the Brazils. It would rate at 4 for both body and taste without the ferment, with it, it goes down to anywhere from 0 to 3.5, depending on how tough one scores. I'm fairly tolerant of DP funk, so I'm OK with rating it a 3 to 3.5.

At its best, this blend will never get above a 4, since it's too complicated, and none of the beans would cup over 90 on their own. This is the "very good" level, what one expects from the regular blends at the top cafes. But to get out of the comfort food zone, and into the excellent zone, you'll need a simper blend that uses 90 plus coffees.