January 2, 2006
Third Batch
More notes for me. Ignore at will.
The Ethiopian Wet-Processed Sidamo turned out to be almost as smooth as the first batch, but not quite as "sweet". It had more of a mellow flavor (I think).
After killing two pots of that, I fired up the popper one more time and tried out the Mbaranga - Kenyan AA so that I would have coffee for the week without having to roast during the week. This stuff let off very little smoke and after running one batch outside, we roasted the second batch in the house with better success. It reached first crack in approximately three minutes and then was done by the 9 minute mark. All in all, a solid bean but not my favorite to date.
The big lesson learned for this batch was that I finally started hearing the second crack. This is important because this is a key device in determining what kind of roast the coffee has attained. Once you begin to hear the second crack, you have passed a City or Light City roast and are heading into a Full City roast. After the second crack goes on for 10 seconds or more, you are starting to literally burn the bean and head towards a Vienna or light French roast.
For most people (me included) this is not such a bad thing. That said, as I am spending more time with the coffee, I am finding that the lighter roasts actually allow you to taste more of the bean and less of the roast, which I like.
Comments
What has happened to you? Roasting coffee? What next - churning butter, making candles, spinning wool? You have GOT to get out of Vermont - FAST.
Sorry, couldn't hear you over the goat milking..
Who is that? We don't milk goats up here....we just er....um...shave them.
Hold a few grounds for me. I will be in on Tuesday. I like cream and Splenda - unless that is a copyright infring - in which case I like the yellow pack stuff.