Recommendations for Espresso selection

#1: Post by **day** » January 13th, 2015, 9:24 pm

Hi, and thanks for reading. My situation is that I have an awesome roaster in town (I won't mention the company name because I dont know how he would feel about that) that I get my green beans from. However, I am working on learning how to pull good shots..and that would seem hard to do without a really good espresso blend or incredible SO, especially while I am still working on the basics like spending 30 minutes yesterday practicing tamping to get it truly consistent and level...

So I thought I would post my available beans here, and see if you guys recommend any as possible SO Espresso, light or dark roasts, and possible simple blends that would be guaranteed to produce decent shots if pulled correctly. I need to do more reading, and will, but in the meantime I have to make purchases and pull shots... I figure the worst case is this post just disappears into the vaults of HB, best case I get some excellent recommendations. (also, if you see one that is known to be outstanding for regular pourover, dont hesitate to mention it as well

)

His espresso blend is incredible-the best I have had--but I just cant spend 14 bucks on one pound right now, and the roasting is too much fun to pass up anyway

So, here is the available list, some are not real specific but he has given me the specifics when requested. (I currently have ordered
2Lb yirga, 2Lb Peaberry, 2Lb Kenyan so it will be a couple weeks before I order again):

1. Daterra-
1A. Sweet Blue
1B. Bourbon Collection
1C. Sunrise Blend
2. Colombian FNC
3. Costa Rican Tarrazu Micro-Milled, Micro-Lot
4. Ethiopian Harrar
5. Ethiopian Washed Limu Wild Tega (Currently unavailable)
6. Ethiopian Washed Yirgacheffe
7. Guatemala Acatenango Micro-Lot(Currently Unavailable)
8. Guatemala Huehuetenango
9. Kenya AA Special Category Auction Lot
10. Monsooned Malabar
11. Sumatra Estate Grown *contact for info
12. Tanzanian Peaberry

#2: Post by **drgary** » January 14th, 2015, 10:45 am

You could have your roaster suggest these one by one since you have a relationship with him. Buy the greens from him and see if he can provide a roasted sample for you to emulate without having to buy a full bag. Or, see if any of these offerings match up with what's being tried on the Roasting forum. Or better yet, participate in the Roast and Learn Together series, buy what the others are buying and enjoy your long journey down the rabbit hole!

BTW there's no harm in naming your roaster. We do it all the time, especially in this thread:

What is wow'ing you?

#3: Post by **rgrosz** » January 14th, 2015, 2:27 pm

Have you read the Sweet Maria's article on blending (I found it useful)
http://www.sweetmarias.com/blending.php

If you want to do single origin espresso, I really prefer Ethiopian coffees like your Yirgacheffe or Harrar. Just roast to about 2:30 past the start of 1st crack (my preference - I want to get it just barely up to 2nd crack, but not into 2nd).