General Sumatra taste?

Discuss flavors, brew temperatures, blending, and cupping notes.
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slipchuck
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#1: Post by slipchuck »

I realize that they are many different areas of Sumatra, but generally what taste should be in the cup? My shots have a sour start with a bitter after taste. The shots flipped from sour only to sour start and bitter after taste.
They are medium dark about 2-4 days old. 18g coffee with 36-38g output.
Shot time around 23-27 seconds

Thanks

Randy
“There is nobody you can’t learn to like once you’ve heard their story.”

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Boldjava
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#2: Post by Boldjava »

Whose coffee? Look for bug bites on roasted beans. Starting point. Sumatrans can be very sketchy.
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slipchuck (original poster)
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#3: Post by slipchuck (original poster) replying to Boldjava »

A local micro roaster. Beans have been top notch so far. What do bug bites look like?

Thanks so far

Randy
“There is nobody you can’t learn to like once you’ve heard their story.”

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Boldjava
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#4: Post by Boldjava »

Tiny holes, most often seen at the navel end of the bean, often right on the seam. Have seen many of them elsewhere. If larvae drew nutrition at navel, often will fracture off during roasting.

Sumatrans are probably the most lowly sorted/poorly graded greens we see coming into the US. Some improvement of recent. Many small producers with less than stellar sorting at the central mills, often with pulper damage from rudimentary pulpers on small farms.
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another_jim
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#5: Post by another_jim »

Good Sumatras have an exotic floral acidity, like flowers in a deep forest, with a deep Uebercoffee roast taste (there's a reason why coffee used to be called Java In the 19th century; the Indonesian islands were the world's main suppliers, and their roast taste is what we think of when we think generic coffee).

A proper Sumatra takes time to roast and likes high heat in the roaster; when I roast them, I use a heavier charge so the roast is slower and hotter than usual. Excessive acidity is not a great thing in a Sumatra, nor is an undeveloped roast taste; it sounds like you may getting both.
Jim Schulman

borislav
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#6: Post by borislav »

slipchuck wrote:I realize that they are many different areas of Sumatra, but generally what taste should be in the cup?
The Sumatra Mandheling from a local roaster has lots of body, earthy chocolaty flavor and almost zero acidity. It's my favorite single-origin espresso and a nice break from the acid bombs you usually get around here.

2-4 days sounds on the young side. How were they after another few days?

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Svilen
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#7: Post by Svilen »

Coffee cup would of course be different depending what area of Sumatra you get the beans from. Unless you keep ordering the the same coffee plantation. Have a look at how stretched the island itself is:
Image

OkcEspresso
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#8: Post by OkcEspresso »

borislav wrote:The Sumatra Mandheling from a local roaster has lots of body, earthy chocolaty flavor and almost zero acidity. It's my favorite single-origin espresso and a nice break from the acid bombs you usually get around here.

2-4 days sounds on the young side. How were they after another few days?
If I were to generalize (as noted- bad idea) to a single word with Sumatrans, it would be earthy. I think this is because of the weird wet-hulling prep used to process the bulk of the Sumatra/Sulawesi beans.

jefflovescoffee
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#9: Post by jefflovescoffee »

I love Sumatra for the bold intense earthy flavor.

stefano
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#10: Post by stefano »

OkcEspresso wrote:If I were to generalize (as noted- bad idea) to a single word with Sumatrans, it would be earthy. I think this is because of the weird wet-hulling prep used to process the bulk of the Sumatra/Sulawesi beans.
Spot on!

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