Need to venture out more on delicious medium roast coffees - Page 2

#11: Post by **SJM** » December 18th, 2022, 1:00 pm

This discussion is interesting. I think it is important to keep in mind that roasters who offer named blends have a hard job trying to keep their flavor profiles the same or similar enough from season to season with a varying availability of beans to use. Which only means that blends which you liked and then didn't like may well cycle around again at some point.

I am a loyal Northbound customer, and this was brought to my attention in a recent email conversation I had with them about the beans listed on the label of one batch of American Beauty vs an earlier batch. Somehow I hadn't paid attention to the fact that the roasters are continually having to rebalance what is available to produce what they want, what you want, what I want.

It's a tricky job; I'm glad it's not mine.

#12: Post by **spressomon** » December 18th, 2022, 1:15 pm

chanty 77 wrote:Actually, I do enjoy some fruit notes in my espresso. I stick in the solid Medium category 99% of the time. I also don't care for the blah & bland "chocolate" as the only note. I love some fruit in the mix, but not lemony, grapefruity overly sour notes. I love stonefruits & blueberries, cranberries.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE blueberry notes. I have tried Caffe Lusso's GMC & too ashy for me. I've moved away from one-dimensional blends. Yeah, I like chocolate notes, but not solely chocolate. Example, I used to love Nossa's Teodora (med-dark--but to me, more of a solid medium)--but got to be bland after awhile. It was like a mild chocolate flavor.

Ok, nice to get more definition regarding what you like & don't like. It sounds like our flavor preferences are very aligned. Based upon the above, I am back to highly recommending Peregrine's Wote Konga and their Papua New Guinea. The WK is not a funky over-ripe/manipulated/fermented type of Ethiopian flavor, but rather its very nicely balanced with blueberry leading out in front. Honeysuckle, think floral but not cloying, at the back end of the shot; very distant/minor in scope but still plays a nice supporting role in the overall flavor/taste notes. This bean surprised me, given its light roast label and color, in that it it ended up being a rare bean requiring a significantly coarser grind on my Monolith Flat (3.9 setting) than a vast majority of beans I use.

Whereas the Papua New Guinea, a medium/medium-light roast, is opposite at 1.5 setting (significantly finer grind setting). Just FYI/FWIW if you opt to try them.

December 18th, 2022, 1:20 pm

SJM wrote:This discussion is interesting. I think it is important to keep in mind that roasters who offer named blends have a hard job trying to keep their flavor profiles the same or similar enough from season to season with a varying availability of beans to use. Which only means that blends which you liked and then didn't like may well cycle around again at some point.

I am a loyal Northbound customer, and this was brought to my attention in a recent email conversation I had with them about the beans listed on the label of one batch of American Beauty vs an earlier batch. Somehow I hadn't paid attention to the fact that the roasters are continually having to rebalance what is available to produce what they want, what you want, what I want.

It's a tricky job; I'm glad it's not mine.

Very true (I don't want their job either

)

I have to be more cognizant when reading the bag notes online. The downer with Olympia is that their bag online was showing everything I loved in the past with Little Buddie (Sweet berry, stonefruit & chocolate). Despite my emailing back & forth & telling them the bag I got had a floral note added (which I don't care for floral notes--give it a thinner body IMO)--they refused to do anything about it other than offer me a 10% discount on another order. The floral note was added in the description on the bag I received. They still haven't corrected the bag online.

#14: Post by **Milligan** » December 23rd, 2022, 10:38 am

That is a good point. I wouldn't cross your previous roasters off completely if it was a note change due to coffee selection and not a roast defect or philosophy change. Harvests even from the exact same farm can vary year to year, so if they are getting their coffee based on a direct relationship with a farmer or coop then that is just part of the "fun" of speciality coffee.

Perhaps a way to view it is that you didn't care for this season's blend. Give some feedback and maybe next season's will be back to what you like.

Dragonfly Roaster's Leam Hammer is a nice fruity/chocolatey medium/light roast for espresso. I usually stick to B&W when I'm ordering coffee online.

December 23rd, 2022, 1:10 pm

I think it was more the point that despite the website showing NO floral in the notes on Little Buddy and getting floral on the bag I received--that Olympia should have been a little more receptive to either a replacement bag or partial refund. I had to email them probably more than twice to let them know the website still did not list the floral. She said they would take care of it and FINALLY noticed that they did add floral to the Little Buddy on their website. I really avoid "floral". If I see it on the notes, I don't buy it because I don't like what it does to the 'flavor'. To me (and yes....I know taste/smell is subjective) floral makes it thinner mouthfeel, tea-like flavor (which I do not enjoy), weaker.