Congrats to Todd! I knew that the field was strong, as I was fortunate enough to taste some of the calibration shots. in hindsight, I think that Jim had an incredibly difficult task; having the time, equipment and palate to do all of this.

Todd and Daniel, I'll join the chorus in hoping that HB hears more from you.

Best,
-s.

Wow, newbie victory, thanks! Thanks again to Jim for the kind words, I'm very glad you enjoyed it.

I think I will have to chalk this one up to luck and superior greens. That Elida DP was special this year, and the Quest is a much nicer tool than I am capable of fully using. This was the division of the competition I had the most confidence in, I will be lucky to not get crushed in the other rounds, especially not happy with my brew blend.

I have been roasting for about three years, maybe a little fanatically but enough to know how little I know. I have just started having some control with the Quest, after relearning for a year+ with a Gene Cafe, before relearning with duel Iroasts, layered on some bone chilling experience shared with a screened patio and HGDB.

Congrats Todd! Great all-around showing

The espresso blend results are up. Congratulations, Patrick, your "blend" was so good my first note was "ringer?" Everyone lese will need to read the results to know what I mean

I'd like to thank Sherman for being guest judge and helping me do justice to this great group of coffees.

Thanks, Jim for your hard work organizing this. I actually never blended (formally)1/ before the competition and am now thinking and experimenting. I think my brew blend entry was better than the espresso.... we'll see. But it was a very worthwhile exercise for me and that got me thinking in new directions.

Regards,

dan

/1 By "formally", I mean, of course in the past, I threw some beans together, but I never actually made coffees, lined them up, picked "base" and then tried to take that base in a better direction. I have a number of coffees that I've discovered are not great on their own, but can be tweaked by adding a "high end" or a "low end" or both.

Take away: blending is hard, and not worth it!

Congrats Patrick! The blending was tough, congratulations also to Rafael and Jorge for giving him a run for it!

Interesting combinations! Going by, having previously culled and roasted the Brazil, Guate, and Sibera and checking Henry's post of the pictures my guess is with Henry and Jim. I liked the Guate and Brazil as a chocolate with a little fruitiness mellow winter with milk drink.
Kinda makes sense with Tom's description and spider scores the Ethiopia could produce something that could work and standout within this category on it's own.
Jim what was your melange? Good tactic.

I realized after checking my notes that I roasted the Uragu and the Siberia last year too, so I'm taking myself out of the guessing competition.

My espresso blend was 50% E roasted dark, rolling second, 33% C roasted light FC, just ahead of the first pops of the second, and 17% B, roasted light City, just to the end of the first. This was just done for calibration only. My brew blend uses the same roasts of the same coffees, but with 50% C, and 33% E. That is a serious entry which I hope will win. However, after comparing my test roasts with the strength of the espresso entries, I realize I have no better chance than anyone else entering.

These competitions have taught me that just because I can talk clearly about roasting doesn't mean I do it better than anyone else

Congrats to Patrick and Jorge. Thanks Jim for all your efforts.

I sent out a 90%E (light roast) + 10%(D+B)

The graph of the profile I sent (90%E) for a light roast is this:


(PS: edited format and redraw to be more clear)

The only thingy is that the BT probe in my setup is in the way of the heatgun (it was on during mid phase but at very low power) and its value shows higher than it should be. But it gives an indication of the light roast approach (long mid temp dry phase and short dry phase). Actually I was doing things with the software at the same time, so this is not the best pic of graph.

Coffee E was the best on my books. I also sent a 100%E sample for drip (though a little different and maybe not as good but still the best of my pack). It had lots of citrus stuff that jump at the face but in a good way.

Cheers