I ordered some Sweet Tooth from Ritual, and they accidentally shipped this instead. They said to go ahead and try it while I'm waiting for the sweet tooth to come, so that I will do! Here's what it says on the label:

The El Angel : La Casa Story

Alejandra Chacon and her father, Arturo, produce these Villalobos and Caturra cherries on their small farm in Tarrazu', Costa Rica, at 1680 meters above sea level. They are deeply invested in the quality of their coffee, and it shows. This lot represents a particularly nice section of the El Angel farm, comprised of coffees harvested from the trees surrounding their home. The abundant sweetness of the coffees from this area pairs amazingly well with a mechanically washed processing style, producing what is called a white honey coffee. This coffee is syrupy and balanced, with a milk chocolatey sweetness, flavors of floral pink apples and raspberries, finishing with notes of peach tea.

There aren't any brew recommendations for espresso, so I'm starting from scratch. I found a thread from 2015 (Single Origins: Roast Level and Espresso Quality), where another_jim suggested:

another_jim wrote:Technique: Start out dosing 1.5 to 2 grams lower, and making your grind ultra-fine to match -- the lighter the roast, the more highly extracted you want the shot. Using a VST or Strada 15 gram or 18 gram basket, which require very fine grinds, can be helpful. You can up the dose and coarsen the grind if the shots taste too mild; but always start out on the fine end.

Is this still the recommended way to start with a new SO? Dose low (I typically end up around 18g, so maybe start at 16-16.5?), grind fine, and go from there?

Also, I thought I had read somewhere here (although I can't find it now) that some sweeter SO coffees sometimes respond well to long pre-infusion times (sort of slayer style) - true?

I've brewed a lot of Ritual's SOE coffees and they tend to recommend 18g dose, 200f, 30-32 seconds and 30-32 grams beverage weight.

I realize this is not one of their specifically-intended espresso roasts, but I'd start there and see what you get. You'll know soon enough whether to adjust grind and dose.

Thanks Larry. I had a hard time with this coffee - I tried both smaller and larger doses, as well as different size/speed shots, trying to move around the extraction space per this article:

Mano Lite: A Short Guide to Dialing in Espresso SOs and Blends

I got some of the raspberry flavor, but never approached anything I would call milk chocolate or peach. And while I could control the acidity, I never got anything approaching what I would call sweet; tart would probably be a better word for the closest I saw.

Overall, out of 10 shots or so over 2 days (5 and 6 days after roast), I didn't taste a single one that I found enjoyable. Maybe it needs more time to rest; maybe the sweet spot is super small and I missed it completely; maybe I just don't like the flavors of the coffee. Not sure.

I have another 125g in the freezer that I might pull back out at some point.

I have some sweet tooth that will hit 7 days post-roast on Wednesday, so I have much higher hopes for that!

What you're describing definitely seems to coincide with what I was seeing. Looking at my notes, the best extractions (the least in-your-face) were those with an ultra-fine grind, run into a 1:2 ratio (or taller), run very slowly (like 45+ seconds) or with a long (17+ sec) pre-infusion and a 30s pour after that. All of these things seemingly point to a higher extraction...and I feel like I needed to go this direction even more, which lines up with what you're saying.

I'll pull it back out of the freezer when I have a chance to let it sit for another week and try it then. Thanks for the advice!

Yeah, let it rest a week or two and try high temperature if you can adjust the brewing temperature. Or just put it in a pour over or press pot and enjoy it.

nuketopia wrote: Or just put it in a pour over or press pot and enjoy it.

I've found this to be a pretty good alternative to getting frustrating with a bag of beans that I'm not making any progress with. Not too long ago I blew about half a bag of really nice coffee (can't remember what) getting it dialed in as I was working through some issues with my grind. Finally I ground some up really coarsely, threw it in my press pot, got a great mug of coffee and moved on to a more cooperative bean.

An update on this - I took the last jar of this out of the freezer last week, and tried it yesterday (8 days after defrost). Much better now! For reference, this was 18.5g in, 37.5g out, 30s at 200F.

What I found was it was _very_ intense as espresso. Very bright, a little overpowering. It wasn't the unpleasant tartness from before, a bit more balanced, but very "in your face".

So I put it in some milk for an iced latte, and it was quite nice! I can taste the flavors on the package (raspberry and peach iced tea), and it was very enjoyable.

Thanks for your helpful tips on this thread, especially about waiting another week - it seems that really helped with this coffee.

Hey Greg,

Glad you got it tasting a little better! Just FYI we have found that with those lighter roasted and more acidic coffees we have to get out upwards of 2.5 times the dose or more to reach real sweetness and softer acidity. Just the other day we had to pull a Costa Rican honey process 18g and over 50g out before it was drinkable!

And just a side note for anyone reading - be suspicious of shots that run much longer than 30 seconds, especially with pre infusion. Grinding too find can actually work against you and leave flavor/body behind. My two cents!

Thanks Doug. When you say "30 seconds, especially with pre infusion" - are you thinking of pre-infusion, then 30 seconds after that? Or 30 seconds total, including pre-infusion?

Also BTW, I've been drinking some of your Workshop Kenya/Colombia blend - so good! The first shot after dialing in was perfect - great flavor separation. I've been chasing that shot ever since - lol. Still have two 100g jars frozen, so I'll get back to it soon!