Sweet Maria's Hello Box of Chocolate Roast Set

Discuss roast levels and profiles for espresso, equipment for roasting coffee.
Milligan
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#1: Post by Milligan »

I haven't seen this discussed here yet.
Our new series of "Hello..." sets are intended to introduce flavor and origin themes from the world of green coffee. While these sets are introductory, they are for home roasters of all levels of experience. The information card in the set introduces the theme, and also details the roast as we have never done before. It takes out some of the guesswork of replicating our roasting results.

Each set is attractively packaged with information about the specific roasts for this particular grouping, including overall roast times, roast moisture loss, associated flavor notes and scores. We've also included roast photos of each coffee for you to match up to, and a color reference chart that can be used beyond this set.
I ordered a few things from SM and decided to throw this in with the order. I was curious about their detailed graphs, cupping notes, and roast directions for each specific coffee. Perhaps there is some nuance to learn from with this set. I could see it being nice as they expand to different origins and flavor profiles to learn more about how to handle specific coffees and roast levels.

Anyone give this set a try yet?

https://www.sweetmarias.com/hello-box-o ... o-002.html

Trjelenc
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#2: Post by Trjelenc »

That sounds pretty cool and informative. I love the chocolate theme on this one, especially with all the different ways he tends to describe different chocolate notes it could be useful exercise for future ordering from Sweet Marias. Is it 6 different beans and 1lb samples each? If so that's a reasonable price at around $6.60/lb.

Milligan (original poster)
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#3: Post by Milligan (original poster) »

Yes it is 6lbs of beans.

I have several family members and friends that enjoy the chocolate notes. I've leaned more toward floral and fruity so this seems like it would be a nice crash course on roasting for chocolates and allow me to check out different chocolate profiles. I should get the box early next week. I'll be sure to check back in and post my impressions.

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CarefreeBuzzBuzz
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#4: Post by CarefreeBuzzBuzz »

Seems like a good deal for the price. Might find a good blender @Milligan to go with those fruity ones. Would be interested to hear your impressions if each one matches up with the flavor wheel, especially the body score.
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Capuchin Monk
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#5: Post by Capuchin Monk »

I wonder if SM got the cue from Hello Kitty Chocolate...

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drgary
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#6: Post by drgary »

There's a two set limit. I ordered two because my typical load is 750 gm. It also comes with one of their bean color cards. I believe that it has Agtron indications on that card.
Gary
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Milligan (original poster)
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#7: Post by Milligan (original poster) »

I got the box of chocolates today. The presentation didn't meet what I was expecting. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting but all that was included was a small index card summarizing the six coffees with a postage stamp sized picture of the roast level. It looks like a normal ink jet printer was used so no way to know if it is properly calibrated. I've found that trying to match by eye is way too hard especially on whole beans. On the back of the card is a very small four color Agtron reference guide.

I was hoping it would perhaps come with graphs, development time, development ratio, FCs temp rise, or something that I could roughly use. That would be much more meaningful to me than descriptions of weight loss, color, and overall time. However, they said they used a Probat sample roaster so perhaps they don't have graphs.

Anyway, not sure how much is to be learned from this but I will use my Roast Vision to try to get close to their descriptions although they do not give an indication of Agtron roast levels for each roast just an image.

All the information can be found on their website here:
https://library.sweetmarias.com/hello-a ... ple-set-2/

There is no additional information included in the package that isn't available through that link.

Still a good deal on the coffee though!

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drgary
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#8: Post by drgary »

That's disappointing. I just got my package of two kits because I have a 1 Kg roaster, and they suggested I get their regular roast color card also. The printing isn't the best for judging color, but they correlate 1C and 2C temperatures to the color swatches and to named roast levels and temperatures, so this will help me dial in. I.e., the card says that 1C starts at 405-412F. My probes measure 1C at 395-399F. They also correlate roast levels to weight loss. This will be more useful via measurements than as a color swatch card.

Also, they provide a QR code to connect to this box set information, and each coffee there is linked to its notes, which are pretty extensive.
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Milligan (original poster)
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#9: Post by Milligan (original poster) replying to drgary »

Did you tackle the set yet? I'm planning to go through them over Christmas break. I'd like to compare them side by side and will have enough people here to drink them down so the 6lbs doesn't go to waste.

I'm figuring out my plan of attack. I've been looking over the cards and translating some of the roast levels to my Roast Vision so I can compare to some of my last medium/dark roasts. What is throwing me off is their roast times. 8:20-8:40 to get to Full City seems like a very fast roast. Anytime I go that fast I end up with too much momentum into first crack and get a rise and dip. I'm thinking I'll target more of a 9-10min roast time. Only the Brazil and Timor call for Full City, so I plan to pull them off right at second crack.

Should be a fun roast session.

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drgary
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#10: Post by drgary »

I hope to get to it soon. Per Scott Rao, timing changes on different equipment.
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