I'd like to give fresh roasted coffee as part of stocking stuffers and general gifts for the holidays.

Can anyone suggest a solid, versatile bean or blend?

By versatile I mean enjoyable at:

1. A range of brewed temps and techniques (some drip, some press, rarely espresso). These won't be given strictly to coffee geeks.

2. A range of coffee-to-water ratios.

3. Something that lasts a bit longer before staling (not sure if that is a bean-specific variable).

Most of my target gift-receivers are the type who own blade grinders if they own a grinder at all (dialed-in Hario's will likely be part of the package).

Thanks for any suggestions!

Good Centrals are great crowd pleasers, IMO.

I got an Ethiopian Guji Suke Quto from sweet Maria's about a month ago, and it's got the flavor profile of gingerbread at a city plus roast... I couldn't think of a more appropriate profile for the holidays

As far as shelf life is concerned? I don't know what you're roasting in but I'd suggest imitating the "Nordic approach" to preserve the integrity of the bean's cell wall during roasting... In plain english: roasting at a low heat profile for an increased length of time leads to a less devastating first crack, which leaves the beans quite intact, and evidence suggests this increases shelf life rather well- unless you grind the coffee and let it sit of course... Then it would be like preventing apple slices from turning brown without preservatives

Hope this helped!

SM's Harar is pretty versatile. Great SO espresso or press.

BaristaO'steele wrote:... I don't know what you're roasting in but I'd suggest imitating the "Nordic approach" to preserve the integrity of the bean's cell wall during roasting... In plain english: roasting at a low heat profile for an increased length of time l...

"Nordic Approach" is Tim Wendelboe's green coffee importing biz and his style of roasting is nothing at all like that.

Light roasts do last far longer (in fact, well packaged may taste best 3weeks off roast), but aren't what most folks expect from their coffee...

I've had various thoughts on choices for roasting for gifts.
1. Does it matter? What is the recipient likely to notice?
2. Am I trying to match existing notions of "good coffee" or am I secretly trying to educate.
3. How much of this is a vanity gift: Look at me, I roast my own.

Here's what I try. More or less.
Multiple roasts of noticeably different coffees and maybe degrees of roast if I know there's a starbucks fan.
Maybe 3, 6 oz pkgs (or more--depends) vac sealed ready for freezing.
Really nice wrappings and bow. People pay attention.

endlesscycles wrote:Good Centrals are great crowd pleasers, IMO.

Excellent. I already have several pounds of SW's Guatemala Finca La Florencia, though I'm still working on dialing in the roast.

Martin wrote:How much of this is a vanity gift: Look at me, I roast my own.

Excellent point and certainly part of my motive, but in a "look at my roast, let me know what you think" point of view. The family is interested in what we're doing with coffee roasting, so they'd likely be interested in providing feedback to us.

mborkow wrote:SM's Harar is pretty versatile. Great SO espresso or press.

That's a tempting one as well, because I'd like to take a stab at a dry-processed bean. All that I've done to date have been wet-processed.