This morning I tried out a cup of my latest roasted batch of Indonesian Flores. I knew it tasted better after the first sniff and sip. Later, I sat down to taste and Tweet (or Twit, or whatever).
I noticed that the floral smell is much more sweet, more subdued. The first taste is more mellow than the last batch (which I believe was under-roasted). There’s still a floral flavor, but now the strong, overpowering citrus flavor is gone. I could taste some hints of almond and caramel in the coffee.
The coffee was so different, I brewed up a french press of the under-roasted batch. In comparison, the under-roasted coffee tasted like burned orange juice. I felt like I was drinking acidic chemicals or something spoiled for weeks, like finding a sippy cup under my daughter’s bed and taking a chug of whatever juice or milk had been fermenting and rotting away.
This exercise has been amazing, to discover the little different a few seconds of roasting time can make.
So here’s what happened:
- When I roasted a 1/2 pound of beans, and increased the default roast time by one minute from 12:00 to 13:00, the beans were roasted to about a minute past the first crack, City Roast.
- When I roasted a 1/4 pound of the same beans, and increased the roast time by one minute 30 seconds from 8:30 to 10:00, the beans were roasted to barely the second crack, Full City Roast.
Now, I wonder what would happen if I roasted a 1/4 pound of Indonesian under the same roast profile, except roasted it for 9 minutes and 30 seconds instead of 10 minutes. Would I wind up with the same bad tasting brew? If not, then that means that I can’t just toss different weights of same beans into the Behmor, press the same buttons and expect the same results.
There is a lot for me to learn.