Yeah, both of those sound pretty good to me. I too am a sweet kind of guy!

[creative nickname] wrote:That's really generous of you! I'll get in touch after I've roasted some samples. According to the Shrub, both the coffees I'm interested in are quite sweet:

http://www.coffeeshrub.com/shrub/coffee ... ek-nauli-0

http://www.coffeeshrub.com/shrub/coffee ... ooperative

Interesting to look at their roast recommendations:

Sumatra - "City+ to FC+. I'd start out in the Full City range and taylor the roast to your liking from there."

Ethiopia - "City to City+ roast levels have the best sweetness and fruited notes. Full City has more berry fruit notes and slight chocolate bittersweet. Darker roasts not recommended."

I have yet to start from FC and work from there. Might be fun. I'll definitely defer to your tasting results and have fun with either. Thanks for coordinating.

Another thought. That Panama Elida Natural that Klatch has is a coffee I've enjoyed in the past. And, if we got it at the end of the month, we'd probably get free shipping.

I'd be happy to do that Elida, but I suspect it might be pushing some of our members past their breaking point on price.

The two coffees from Shrub arrived today. I'll roast, cup, and let you guys know the final selection ASAP.

I cupped the Ethiopia Agaro sample today and it was excellent. Lots of sugar sweetness, citrus & florals, subtle spices, and a light, tea-like body. I enjoyed it intensely despite the pain and challenges of making and drinking coffee with only one working leg (I badly injured my knee at the climbing gym last night).

I found the Sumatran sample challenging to roast; I suspect that I could learn a lot from working with more batches of it. I'll cup the results tomorrow. If it is promising, I might pick it even if it doesn't cup quite as well as the Agaro, if only because we haven't done a Sumatran coffee yet in the R&L.

I cupped the Lintong, and it is a great coffee. I scored it a few points behind the Duromina Coop sample, but some of that may have been the limitations of my first profile when used for brewing. It has a rich, syrupy body, dark chocolate sweetness, interesting spice and wood notes, and some pleasant acidity, somewhere between raspberry and shiraz. Unlike many Sumatrans, it produces a nice, clean cup. I'm pretty excited by its potential for brewing, once the roast parameters are dialed in just right.

It performs even better (IMO) as an espresso; it has the body and heft to stand up to milk, but it is sweet, rich and balanced all by itself. I pulled a shot of it to figure out how I wanted to use it in blends, but now I want to get my hands on ten pounds or so to roast primarily for SO espresso.

So with all that said, let's go with the Sumatra Lintong Aek Nauli as our September R&L choice. I'll PM Eric to get things started for the distribution, and post details in a new thread in the next few days.

Sounds good to me. Now if I can just roast it right.

I will be in.

I would like to join you as well - I have a TJ-067 on order and hope to have it set up for September. My plan is to shut up, pay attention and try to roast/cup alongside you guys and learn as much as I can about both.

I would like to join you as well - I have a TJ-067 on order and hope to have it set up for September.

Why don't you challenge Brother Green to join us and see if he can make the Sumatran sing in one of his North floor models <grins>.