Did anyone else snag some of this coffee during the day or so that it was in-stock? I just received mine a couple days ago and haven't roasted any yet, but I am excited! I haven't had a coffee over 90 points in the house in several months. Not sure about SM's new website, but here is the cached page for reference: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/ ... clnk&gl=us

jonny wrote:Did anyone else snag some of this coffee during the day or so that it was in-stock?...

I saw it and passed based on price.

Careful on the roast. I just finished going too dark on the Maui Mokka sample that Ci-Ci gave me at the SCAA demonstration. It was a size 10. I admit to a hearing deficit but when I distributed the Maui Mokka, many recipients also struggled with hearing first. I came to the conclusion that the size 10 contributed to the inaudible "first," rather than the 800' Maui elevation. I have roasted it numerous times and always rely on sight and smell. This last occasion, I went to what would be full city plus and I lost that "fruit punch" that the Maui Mokka has. Cwap!

Love to see your report back. Maybe the higher elevation on the Colombian Mokka will give you first crack and then I can throw my theory out.

Thanks in advance.

I know from Twitter that Greg Thomas (the_trystero) from Trystero Coffee picked up a bag and roasted it. I don't think he's been on the forum lately but you could drop him a PM or hit him up on Twitter and see if he has any tips or comments on this coffee.

Thanks for the input guys. I'll check twitter and share here when I give it a shot. Yeah the price was high, but I figured I'd spend about the same amount if I picked up a 12 oz bag of a high quality African from a good roaster. I know I'd spend twice that on an 8 oz bag of Central/South Am. coffee of a unique varietal like gesha or moka... But I digress, since we all know we don't need justification for what we do here.

I grabbed one of the last bags in stock last Wednesday and took a stab at it earlier today. I'll add notes in the next several days, cupping, then drip, then espresso.

In any case, this was pretty much a guess. Standard hot and fast, approximately Rao-style roast to a city finish, 20% development time, 12.5% weight loss. I went with an extra hot charge since the beans are ultra-dense and a slightly elongated ramp to highlight the complex florals. I'll tweak from here.

As has been noted, marking "1Cs" is really hard for such a small bean. So the actual development time - that is, based on the type of reactions we're achieving during first crack - is somewhere in the intended 20% range, but first crack doesn't take place at a typical temperature.



Notes, cupping, +1 day:

Bright (smooth citric and tartaric), very sweet
Ultra-pronounced lemongrass flavor (like lemongrass tea), jasmine (noticeable but not as much as, say, the Gedeo from the R&LT when it was fresh), very much an Ethiopian-style cup, moreso even than most Geshas
Super clean with no off flavors whatsoever other than perhaps slightly more caramelization than I'd like - a roast characteristic and not the coffee's fault
90-91 points SCAA

Notes, V60s, +1-2 days, 204 F, 12:204:

First of all, this coffee is insanely soluble. I'd credit the ultra-small, ultra-dense beans. I got an EY of 23.3% with my normal grind that would produce 21% EY with most coffees. Even backing off on grind, I still got 22.5% EY.

Flavors were reminiscent of a Yirgacheffe, but with a more citric character. I got lemongrass, jasmine, vanilla, lemon meringue, caramel, honey, chocolate, lime, and this pronounced caramelized butter flavor that reminded me of cooking pancakes. It's a tasty coffee for sure.

Espresso at seven days, 40% brew ratio, 20.5% EY was pretty insane - bright, ripe, and super sweet with tons of lemongrass and jasmine.

My next approach will be a slightly faster-finish at a cooler temperature. I think this coffee could perform beautifully at a drop as cool as 400F on my thermocouples, 12% weight loss. I'll probably arbitrarily mark "1Cs" at 385 or so. (I've been thinking that I wish Artisan allowed a separate "development time" and "1Cs" events. Development is marked by reaction types moreso than the escaping of water vapor from beans.)

And here it is:


(1c arbitrarily marked at 385 since 1c is normally 380-385 F and this coffee behaves quite weirdly in 1c.)

Initial results (cupping, V60)confirm that this is a great coffee. I'm pleased with the faster finish. These beans don't need as much development time since they're small; the centers come up to temp quickly. Super sweet, bright, aromatic (lemongrass and jasmine)...

As espresso, this way pretty tasty but not ideal. Extraction yields were just below 19% at ~40% brew ratios. If you want soluble coffee, Rao knows what's up.

Updated my post with complete notes. This is a really lovely coffee, and I'd be curious how it turned out for others.

I wound up with a fast-finish profile since these dense, small beans need plenty of heat at first but then not too much time for the centers to catch up.

I roasted my first batch last weekend. I didn't take any telemetry but I over-developed it anyway. I only took it about 13F over the start of first crack. Maybe my roaster doesn't muffle sound very well, but I had a quite noticeable first crack. Although, it was about 10F earlier that most other beans! Jan is right though. It doesn't take much development. I did about 2 minutes, which I could tell while it was happening was going to be too slow, but it was too late to correct it. I bought 2 pounds, so I'll have a few more attempts.