Canadian Roaster Recommendations - Page 10

Discuss flavors, brew temperatures, blending, and cupping notes.
PIXIllate (original poster)
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#91: Post by PIXIllate (original poster) »

baldheadracing wrote:My guess is that recipe could come from under-dosing a VST 20g basket. (Places use the 20g as the VST 20g was the basket used in World Barista Championship competition from 2012 - 2019.)
The email I received from them specified the 18g VST basket. Sorry, I should have included that info.

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bcrdukes
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#92: Post by bcrdukes »

A handful of Canadian roasters have an active or upcoming Black Friday sales on their coffee. Be warned - some of them have been mentioned in this very thread as not very responsive or yield poor results, so buyer beware. I've warned you! :mrgreen: 8)
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PIXIllate (original poster)
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#93: Post by PIXIllate (original poster) »

Kenta - Papua, New Ginuea from Social is off to a bumpy start. I'm down to 190-192F and so far pulling shorter that the recommended 42-44g is better. As is running longer than the recommended time at around 31-32 seconds. Let's hope I get to something impressive before I get to the end of the bag.


It should be said that any opinions that I share about the coffees in this thread are just that, my opinions. This is based on my limited experience of pulling shots at home on decent equipment but doing so while learning the process of dialing in and tasting a whole new beverage. Not that I don't have lots of tasting experience but that's in the world of wine.

I'm doing my best to be objective and to give the roasters the opportunity to point me in the right direction. Having said that, any bad experiences I'm having may still be MY fault. This is one of the reasons I went back and ordered Detour a second time even though my first go around with their coffee's was not spectacular. As I get better and more consistent I'm wondering if the coffee will get better as well.

boublanc
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#94: Post by boublanc »

The challenge of finding good fresh roasted coffee is what led me to start roasting at home. now that is an other bowl of wax...
The challenge for me was compounded by living in a small remote ski town in the south east corner of British Columbia. Needless to say there isn't many roasters without even mentioning good ones...
being 45 min. drive from the USA, I had the luxury of ordering from the states and a short drive over the border I would pick up my coffee at a shipping/receiving business. Red Bird espresso was always an amazing coffee, I would order it on Wednesday Jeff would roast it Thursday and I would pick it up Saturday. The 5 lbs option with free shipping was a bargain. I would vacuum pack in half pound portions and freeze the bags.
As I am following the tread and looking at the Canadian prices I think you should look at Red Bird and see how much shipping would be.
Definitely a good coffee well roasted. Very forgiving, at least it was for me 3 years ago when I last bought some.

Troy G
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#95: Post by Troy G »

PIXIllate wrote:Working my way through some Social. The first bag was their Kenyan Ndimanini. When I emailed them about brewing parameters the answer was a bit odd. They claim all of their coffee's, including the SO, should be pulled with 18-18.5g in with 42-44g out in 25-27 seconds at 190-195F. That's a really fast shot. With the Kenyan I was all the way down to 190F at a 1:2.2 Ratio in 25-30 seconds and still didn't feel like I had anything really good. Just as I was going to try dialing it in for a slower more conventional shot and I ran out.

I'm just starting a bag of their Kenta from Papua New Guinea at the same kind of fast shot dial in. I'll report back once I have a few days of tasting in.

Phil & Sebastian is one of the best roasters I've tried so far. It'll probably be my next order. I'm starting to wonder about how these places store their greens. P&S suggest they freeze the greens. I wonder if that is one of the reasons they stand out?

Haven't tried Ace or Prairie Lily. Any specific coffees you've liked?
From Prairie Lily. Janson Panama Geisha, CM Jasper, CM Indigo, Ethiopian Shantawene, Gadeb, Yirg, Honey Keramo, Guji, Kenyan Peaberry. Phone or message Terry and discuss what you are after. I drink mostly espresso and do a little pour over. All of these roasts would be on the lighter side.

big_mack
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#96: Post by big_mack »

has anyone tried The Roasterie in Calgary?

PIXIllate (original poster)
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#97: Post by PIXIllate (original poster) »

Finished up with People's Liberation from Social. Didn't ever really manage to nail it down I think. The best it got was an extremely balanced, smooth mouthfeel drink without anything too lively in it.

Working on bags from Detour. I'm having more success than I did the last time I tried their coffee. The first bag was the blended Punch Buggy. Dark chocolate and nuts but the odd appearance of blood orange. Just started a bag of the Costa Rican Piesan. Two sink shots dialing in and then something pretty nice. Almost candied. I'll have to pull another shot to be sure if it's dialed in completely but so far there seems to be something good happening.

More coffee on the way from 49th and Phil & Sebastian. P&S had a sale on a Geisha for $32CAD for a 3/4lb so I ordered it. I just checked and it now seems to have disappeared.

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bcrdukes
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#98: Post by bcrdukes »

Funny enough, I just went through a bag of Detour's Costa Rica Piesan as well - Consistent shots and flavours through and through. I'm just wrapping up a bag of San Sebastian from Columbia, and just as good as the Costa RIcan roast.

Currently de-gassing a bag of Fratello's God Father roast. I haven't tried them in a very long time, and almost forgot about them.

Friend of mine pulled a few shots of Monogram's Ethiopian natural - strong notes of strawberry and peach. The shots looked and tasted amazing using 19g in, 26 seconds, 40g out from a Rancilio Silvia V3 with PID and Rocket Faustino grinder.
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PIXIllate (original poster)
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#99: Post by PIXIllate (original poster) »

bcrdukes wrote: Currently de-gassing a bag of Fratello's God Father roast. I haven't tried them in a very long time, and almost forgot about them.
I'll be very interested to hear about your experience with this coffee. Everything I got from Fratello turned out to be quite a challenge. Both from a general mess standpoint and to get something that tasted good. The advice I got from Russ at Fratello was 200F, 19.5in 40 out with no time specified.

Good luck. The Godfather was the easiest of the three.

1canuck2
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#100: Post by 1canuck2 »

Have not posted to this thread for a while. I tried 49th parallel three bag set (Old School, Middle School, Epic). It was fine. Still prefer Gold Star. It was a good experminent though (if only to re-assure I am good sticking with Gold Star).
For espresso, the Yauco Selecto AA is the way to go, have finally settled on it as my go to espresso roast.
For drip/pourover the JBM, Kona, and Maui are all superb. If you want single origina variety in your espresso, they'd probably be goo for that too.

No-one else has tried them yet? I urge you to give them a go. I'd rate them as better than Detour, 49th Parallel, Social, Red Circle. And it so happens, slightly cheaper too if you buy 6lb at a time (the variety combo).