Monogram Arcangel Espresso - how do I improve dialing this in?

Discuss flavors, brew temperatures, blending, and cupping notes.
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rolex
Posts: 78
Joined: 8 years ago

#1: Post by rolex »

Hello all, novice hobbyist here. Bought my first ever "fancy" beans from one of the most prestigious roasters in Canada (apparently), learned about their sale on a Canadian deals forum and ended up with a bag of their signature espresso, Arcangel, among others

https://monogramcoffee.com/products/arcangel-espresso

I have seen another user in the Canadian roasters thread complain about Monogram not providing any type of brewing ratios or recipes and he is 100% right - there is no info to be found and they have been unresponsive to my questions in e-mail, just like him.

They are interesting beans, appear fairly light to my eyes, and taste good with milk, but in an effort to cut down on drinking so many milk drinks per day, I attempted to drink it in a straight shot and it tastes quite sour to my untrained palette.. Also, latte "art" I try to pour into it seems to almost turn "thin" and wash out in a way I've never seen with other coffees before! Is this due to some kind of screw-up in my extraction, causing it to react differently than I'm used to with the textured milk? Or is this just something I'm not used to with gourmet beans of this style, and different roasts/beans react differently with milk?

I have a Niche Zero and discontinued Lelit Mara PL62T (upgrading soon! within the next few months hopefully) at this time. I am brewing a 1:2 ratio because I have no other information I've been able to get from this roaster. 18grams in (can't imagine going less, the basket seems like it could hold at least 1g more, actually) and 36 grams out in 28 seconds, easily adjustable end time up or down just by modifying grind size.. I use both spouted and bottomless portafilters but am only currently using bottomless only to make sure there's nothing weird going on, and while I'm sure it's far from expert level, I don't see any severe problems that make me say whoaaaa nelly.. gushers, sputters, messes, things like that. It comes together into 1 stream and stays as such..

So, as someone keen to learn and strives to improve his own skill, just curious where I logically should go from here to further try and "dial" this in before I run out of beans. I only have maybe 10 shots left before I'm on to the next bean, but I'd apply this knowledge once I learn it to other beans from here!

Thanks again HB forum!