favorite coffee bean and roast

[fastupslowdown]

I'm addicted to Kenyan coffee, either Peaberry or AA. What's your favorite? The high acid and nutty profile is a huge winner for me. -Mike G

Thought about it after my local market pulled a sneaky one and started substituting AB for AA and claiming they are the same.

[Too Tall]

Moca Java from Coffee bean corral. They nailed it.
Mocha Java Green Coffee Beans - Coffee Bean Corral

[Mark Kelly]

I recently reviewed my year's purchase of greens from my local supplier, something like 3/4 of it was Ethiopian, much of it from Limmu, so that must say something.

I roast this fairly dark, I like to control the roast post FC so I get around 5 minutes development before a final drop around 218 - 220.

[holliscx]

Kenya Nyeri, Tanzania Peaberry, and Ethiopia Chelbesa in that order

[mzilliox]

its always different. they are agricultural, so not all kenya are the same, etc etc.

Ethiopia Guji region beans have the right acidity and fruit for me most times.

a honey process Sumatra blew me away this year.

Honduran beans can have the perfect body and a delightful strawberry taste.

always roasted form light to medium, anything more and why waste your time buying flavor beans?

[davids]

My every day bean is George Howell Tarrazu.

Nutty, creamy smooth, and one of their least expensive beans.

[Mark Kelly]

always roasted form light to medium, anything more and why waste your time buying flavor beans?

I dunno, maybe I just prefer coffee that tastes like coffee.

[Too Tall]

I dunno, maybe I just prefer coffee that tastes like coffee.

Mark speaks to my truth yo. Recently, I had the unpleasant experience of walking into a coffee roaster who told me they only have light roasts. The roaster than went on and on to tell me why it was the only bean for me. With my head nearly exploding with visions of yanking out his hipster beard, no really I was light on caffeine, I bought a lousy bag of expensive and tasteless beans.

That is my story and I'm sticking with it 1C+something something

[Mark Kelly]

What gets my goat is the presumption that because I don't like acidic cats piss masquerading as coffee I am some sort of barbarian who couldn't possibly appreciate the nuances of single origin beans.

Oh, and my non-relation pioneered your "look" 150 years ago.

220px-Ned_Kelly_in_1880.png

Ned Kelly - Wikipedia

[mzilliox]

the thread is after all about your favorite beans and roasts. i shared mine. if you dont like acidic coffee, fruity flavors, or nuance, then buy cheaper beans and taste the roast and caramelization, its nothing new, thats how its been done for years. you say you like coffee to taste like coffee, yet you say you dont like the nuanced flavor of the beans themselves. so do you like coffee flavor or roast flavor? and you are the only one presuming that about yourself. i dont presume anything about peole who dont like good coffee, other than they dont like good coffee. theres a lot of you guys, its nothing new

some of us like to taste the nuance of beans, something different in each cup, something unique and indicative of the terroir of the bean and region.. im not saying you are anything for not enjoy that experience, its just how you are. thats neat, but its no point to buy the nicest beans if you do not like the flavor of them and are just going to roast the nuance out of them. and because you do not like the flavor of the finest beans, doesnt mean they are not the finest beans. these are still the finest beans one can buy, and to burn them is to mistreat them.

light roasting can be taken too far, ill admit that, but dark roasting is taken too far far more often. lucky for you, the majority of the world still burns their beans allowing you to have that so called "coffee flavor"

lucky for me, home roasting and quality green beans are real, allowing me to roast for me. regardless of your words or thoughts or feelings. i can roast what i like for me, and you can buy what you like for you, then we can come here and share those things. cool huh?

lastly, and most importantly, i said light to medium. a medium roast is completely different to a light roast and appropriate for some beans. but of course you choose to pick one word, get enraged by that word, and rant. radical. i love a good rant myself

[mzilliox]

man, you need some more coffee, thats just your words, not mine. you choose to be a dick here, i choose to share my preferences as asked for in the post.

[Mark Kelly]

i love a good rant myself

Evidently.

[IrideDirt]

I work in coffee, so making a decision on my favorite coffee changes maybe monthly.

I do really enjoy a Narino, from Cololmbia, and certainly most washed Gujis as well.

I personally like to stay away from categorizing coffee professionals ( whether they act professional or not and no matter what they look like/dress like)

So my only comment on roast is that I think alot of roasters are missing some key aspects of what their job is there. To merely claim they are passing on a product that represents its origins with out placing any kind of fingerprint or having any impact on its eventual finish point is a bit silly. Roasters have a bigger responsibilty to fill that important role, and pass on a product that is flaw free, and after that is balanced with good flavor notes. Those light roasts some of yall are speaking of is an example of that missing some important marks. Light roasts can be good, fully developed and balanced. That also depends on the coffee. Darker ( or more developed coffees) can be good too, with fuller body and more carmelized sugars. Yet I digress, coffee is great and there is so much variety. Just like in people. Id love to hear more about yalls home roasting processes, and all the other fun coffee bits that are involved per regular coffee consumers.

cheers

[Too Tall]

Thanks for bringing this discussion back to sanity IRIDEDIRT. I'm into my 6th roast using the new(ish) Behmore A/B and I do not burn my beans ;) ha.

When I first started roasting it was a few years ago using a Rube Goldberg contraption made by a clever gent. The machine has zero programming abiliities and depended on my monitoring heat, time, cooling etc. The skills I gained by hammering away at it until I understood the basics were pure gold...and I ruined at least 10 pounds of beans oh well.

The Behmore has a bunch of canned programs which mostly are awful. However, the machine is very manageable and has a terrific system for monitoring the roast. Wellllll it is not Mark Kelly-level terrific but it is good enough for a hack like myself.

I can roast most Middle America beans by sight/time/smell and sound with a wee bit of temp. monitoring. That is a skill I've learned from the old machine (good riddance). Lately, I'm having good luck with Ethiopia Dry Processed Yirga Cheffe which is quite forgiving if you are a City++ or just barely into 2C kind of guy.

I'd love to tap into the knowledge of other folks who are using the same machine and get their notes for roasting their own favorite beans. In truth, the folks who go overboard with methods using the Behmore have lost me at that starting gate. Roasting a pound of beans in the Behmore ain't rocket science.

My recipes thus far are real simple and work. With a bit more experience and fiddling I think I'll be able to roast as well as Mr. Kellogg.

That said, I love a good coffee fight so let's take this over to some other forum (cough). <<< you guys kill me....it's coffee WE LOVE COFFEE its all good. sheesh.

[mzilliox]

my apologies for my role in the drift. im just tired, and out of patience for nonsense.

im also passionate about coffee.

The post above is well said. thanks for that. you took my less well chosen words and made them sound much nicer whle explaining there are nuances in coffee worth exploring.

I roast on a home behmor these days after being spoiled on a diedrich 7kilo commercial machine for years. roast 250gs as i cannot get 1lb to finish. I start my cycle on 1lb P2 almost every time. by the tme the temps max out at 295 around the 11-10 minute mark i let it drop to about 275 then hit p5 to keep the roast cruising or i notice i lose too much heat and the roast extends too long. Sometimes p5 is too hot so ill drop down to p4 to finish the roast. for minutes 7-5 im looking for the beans to hold in that 275 zone until first crack. once i hit first crack, i hit 1 again to return the roast to its normal cycle and i open the door to drop some heat. i smell and listen my way to the stop. A guji may only get 1:25 or 1:45 development after 1st crack. this sumatra i like so well, (honey Basah Jernih Jaya) takes a bit longer to develop due to its density. i might get 2 full minutes of development on these beans as i think a sumatra benefits from a bit more roast. overall, the setting starts with 18 minutes of roast time. im usually done roasting with 3-5 minutes left on the clock. i then dump the beans into a large colander and cool them with a box fan because the behmor cool function is pretty much a joke.

keep notes manually, but being such a small machine, changing ambient temps make replication difficult. i sometimes get a roast perfect, try to replicate it, but its difficult without computer software.

I really want their new kilo roaster!

[AngryScientist]

personally, i have coffee taste ADD. i would be hesitant to declare a favorite roast, for sure.

fortunately, i have a good local coffee shop that roasts their own beans and rotates through a variety, so i have the luxury of grabbing a cup at the shop and deciding which beans to buy for home, but mostly i enjoy trying different roasts. Currently into some ethiopian stuff that is very good.

[mzilliox]

there is currently a 93 point Guji at sweet marias i really want to work with. i mean this description gives me a boner...
Ethiopia Dry Process Guji Gerbicho Rogicha
City and City+ roasts show big fruits and clean floral aroma; strawberry lemonade, dried cherry, raspberry, pineapple hard candy, dried mango, orange and a jasmine nose. City to Full City.

[Mark Kelly]

it is not Mark Kelly-level terrific but it is good enough for a hack like myself.

You give me too much credit, I am very much a learner roaster. My problem with the learning process has been that so much of the "information" available is quite poor*.

I have been working hard for a while on developing an understanding of what is actually going on in a roast, I think I'm starting to get somewhere. To test this out I've written a little algorithm that should allow me to predict roast result from the temperature profile. We'll see if it works.



* As an example, almost everyone will tell you that first crack is caused by a sudden release of the the steam pressure inside the beans. I cannot find any good evidence for this assertion but I can find data that appears to contradict it.

[Mark Kelly]

my apologies for my role in the drift.

snip

keep notes manually, but being such a small machine, changing ambient temps make replication difficult. i sometimes get a roast perfect, try to replicate it, but its difficult without computer software.

I really want their new kilo roaster!

I should also apologise for biting as hard as I did.

FYI Behmor's agent in Australia makes a retrofit temperature probe, the Heatsnob, and monitoring software for it (roast monitor, on the same page).

Both have their problems but for the price they are well worth trying. I use them on my Heath Robinsonesque roasting setup and can get very good replication of profiles.

[J_B]

Ethiopia - Shakiso - Natural – Brandywine Coffee Roasters

Having a go at this coffee this week. My favorite coffee I’ve had this year was roasted by Brandywine as well, and was a Costa Rica Cattleya, natural process. Making coffee is one of my favorite pre-ride ablutions, but when I tasted that, it was hard for me to set out as I made one or two more cups.