Well, for me this is a new experience. I don't often order coffee, so it was a surprise, I typically get CC Big Trouble from Earth Fare (It's surprisingly always fresh, within at least 1 week of roast!). I've found that Red Bird's Espresso tends to be a bit too earthy even 3 days after the roast date.. if I remember correctly after the 4th or 5th day it's always super chocolaty and rich. The shot I pulled today was nearly all crema, I think it's gonna need a few more days. Probably one of the longest resting coffees I've used. I loved their Blue Jaguar, probably going to be ordering that next time around.

Bodka Coffee wrote:I ordered some Red Bird Espresso to try. I don't very often order coffee but I'm gonna give it a swing.

Pretty cool to publicly state that you're excited to order up a competitors coffee. I've never tried Bodka, but that will be my next order;)

LukeFlynn wrote:I've found that Red Bird's Espresso tends to be a bit too earthy even 3 days after the roast date.. if I remember correctly after the 4th or 5th day it's always super chocolaty and rich. The shot I pulled today was nearly all crema, I think it's gonna need a few more days. Probably one of the longest resting coffees I've used.

These comments strike me as odd. Espresso roasts benefit from several days of rest - three days is a minimum for my taste buds. Many classic blends hit their stride around day six. A baking soda fizziness is characteristic of under-rested coffee.

Re crema: lack of it indicates that something has gone wrong, not right. My shots always extract as crema. Always.

Ahh! That's what I was looking for, it is like a baking soda fizziness.. I've also noticed that it smells slightly like pepper within the first few days of roast after it's been ground.. not sure if this is normal or not. I have some CC Big Trouble right now, it smelt similar yesterday (after grinding), now it smells like the beans smelled.

Balthazar_B wrote:Jeff manages the right amount of roast (to my taste) and is incredibly consistent.

I agree, RedBird has been my "go-to" for years, but I got 5lb roasted just before Thanksgiving, and I'm finding it much darker than usual. I have to grind much much coarser, and it's actually too dark for my tastes. I'm finding I need to "push my way through" the batch by switching to other coffees frequently. I reached out to Jeff to see if he thought it was just a "dark batch", and make sure he wasn't taking RedBird darker, but I never heard back from him.

Since I didn't hear from him, anyone else experience this, or do you think it was an over-roasted batch?

EDIT: Heard from Jeff, see below.

jfrescki wrote:I agree, RedBird has been my "go-to" for years, but I got 5lb roasted just before Thanksgiving, and I'm finding it much darker than usual. I have to grind much much coarser, and it's actually too dark for my tastes. I'm finding I need to "push my way through" the batch by switching to other coffees frequently. I reached out to Jeff to see if he thought it was just a "dark batch", and make sure he wasn't taking RedBird darker, but I never heard back from him.

Since I didn't hear from him, anyone else experience this, or do you think it was an over-roasted batch?

I got a 5 lb batch around the beginning of December and it was the usual full city-ish roast, no darker than normal. Just one data point, but sounds like the bag you got was a fluke.

Same here for his Ethiopia Sidama Red Cherry, Ethiopia Wote Konga and Sumatra Permata Gayo; business and tasty as usual.

Heard from Jeff. He confirmed he's making no changes to the blend, and his roast is pretty automated so it shouldn't/couldn't roast darker. He suggested maybe one of his people mislabeled.

Anyway, I'm glad to hear no changes are being made, and he gave me a discount code for my next order confirming the OPs original assertion.