It's been almost three years since our last group taste test. Prompted by TomC, Team HB and four nominated HB members will have a group taste of two espressos, one "traditional" and another "light(er)".

If you'd like to nominate someone for participation, use the "Select for MVP" link in their profile for any of their posts. You can nominate up to five members. If you nominate a sixth, it replaces the last one on your list of five. You can check your votes by clicking this status link. You can see the current nominees (alphabetically) by clicking the top 20 link.

Note: Due to shipping issues, participants are limited to those in the United States. If you're selected, you can pick either light(er) or dark(er). The member with the higher number of votes gets first choice.

Last call for voting! Winners will be announced Sunday evening.

Whoops, I think the end time for the voting was wrong. Please try again; voting continues through 8PM EDT tonight.

Congratulations to these MVPs; please contact me with your preference (light, dark / dark, light, or only one). First choice goes in the following order:

1: Milligan
2: Chert pass
3: Randy G. pass
4: jpender

If one of the above members are not interested, here's three runner ups.

5: CarefreeBuzzBuzz
6: LBIespresso
7. yakster

Where is the results thread?

Here's the dark roast: Espresso Neapolitan - Mr. Espresso - Dark(er) Espresso Review

Light roast is in progress. The roaster of the light roast suggested four weeks rest, which works out to be mid-September.

baldheadracing wrote:The roaster of the light roast suggested four weeks rest, which works out to be mid-September.

Interesting.

Did they explain the logic behind preferring deliberately staled coffee?

I'm intrigued.

Hi Chris,

Lighter roasts can mellow out in acidity when they get older and can become more aromatic. Since they don't have much roast bitterness to start off with, they don't go as gross as quickly as traditional espresso roasts do. "Stale" is probably a value judgment relative to the optimum consumption window for a given roast, which in itself is probably a value judgment.

An interesting question may be what the shelf life of coffees that need a long rest time is, once they are opened.

Cheers,
Luca

That's interesting.
So the belief is that lighter roast coffees prepared as espresso should be treated differently than lighter roast coffees prepared as brewed coffee?
I'm wondering as I've obviously cupped a ton of very light roast coffee, and at least when cupped there is a pretty rapid degradation in the coffee.

love a good light for all the flavor