I've typically shied away from honey process because I had some weird behavior with them in the past. I was looking through Cafe Kreyol's website and noticed they showed roast curves for their coffees. That was a pleasant surprise but more surprising was the look of their curves. They didn't look like the traditional curves out of Rao's books. They gave some explanation of the curve and it made me curious enough to try them.

The one that caught my eye was their honey process curve. At a passing glance it looked as if it was a stalled roast, but upon looking closer I was curious to try it with this description:

This red honey processed coffee requires a steady hand and a fast fan. You'll want to focus on convection heat over conductive heating by increasing drum speed and/or fan speed. This will keep the fruit and sweetness intact. You'll know it's roasted right if the beans give off a sweet jam note the days following the roast.

Cafe Kreyol Honey Curve:


Their roast curve, found here: https://cafekreyol.com/shop/green-unroa ... ez-estate/

I had 1lb of Sweet Maria Rwanda Honey Process Kanyege left from a previous order that I decided to try this style of profile on. Using their notes I went with the damper closed to promote convection. I went with a higher fan speed and tried to stall malliard more than I normally do. I also lengthened development at a lower RoR. This was my first attempt and I couldn't slow the roast as quickly as they did, but managed to control the honey process well.



While the graphs do not look 1:1, there were some key things I was shooting for: a fast drop in heat application to slow Maillard, more convection through damper closed, MET at FC, and trying to slow development phase more than normal. They seem to be showing a graph for a much larger roaster since they soak. The thing that I think is interesting that I don't believe I could replicate is the lower gas at first and then a ramp up during Maillard if that is indeed their gas flow represented by the black line.

So how does it taste? Fantastic. Ended up a 21 on the roast vision. A bounty of caramel, full bodied, with very little chocolate, pleasant acidity but not too bright, and an abundance of sweetness. So sweet that it feels like I sprinkled a bit of cane sugar in. Very clean all the way to room temperature.

I'm out of this coffee now, but it has me wanting to experiment with a fast dry and slow Maillard with low RoR post FC development in the 2 min range. I want to try to slow Maillard more in the future and get through dry a little faster. It is hard to balance fast dry with slow Maillard but I'm no longer afraid to drop the curve faster at dry end. Cafe Kreyol also shows a quite interesting curve for their slower, darker roasts that I want to explore as well. It is nice getting outside the box every now and then.

How do you guys approach honey process?