TomR Thanks for the recommendations, Tom - next time I order I’ll try them; I just got 3 × 500 bags of Malabar, Hill and Valley and Sweet Bourbon from Compass today. If I get another assortment pack with Mocha Italia, I’ll try your suggestion; the main difference is that I kept pulling well after the 1:1 (the grind was quite fine), but I can see how that might work.
Cherry Cherry - finished the ‘taster’ yesterday. Much lighter (in roast and flavour type) than the mahoganies. I wouldn’t say that it tasted of cherries, but it did have a definite fruit taste; more like peach or nectarine than cherry (still Prunus genus!). Very sweet - no bitterness at all and a very pleasant cup by itself or even with milk, as the fruit flavour is sweet and not acidic. Only ‘complaint’ is that it’s fairly light bodied and not very syrupy - or at least I couldn’t get it to brew that way - perhaps I should have gone finer grind and colder? (18 grams into 45 in 35 seconds including a good 10 of preinfusion, 94/100 °C)
