Ethiopian Sidamo and Medium / Medium Dark Roast. 20g, 1.4 turns in Jx Pro, 46.4g out and took a little longer at almost a minute. The group was set 93C and the brew was set at 99C. Took 18s for the first drop into the cup. This is too long. I thought the cup isn’t going to be good. It was so good, I drank straight as an espresso. Fruity citrus and lemon grass for me. It will definitely benefit from loosening the grind. This bag will be very good for brewing for sure, which is what I will do later today. https://imgur.com/a/vTgy8Be

@"LMSC"#p1024 The beans look well roasted for a medium dark roast….who was the roaster?

@"DavecUK"#p1035 Clumsy Goat. They stated both the Peru and this Ethiopian are medium roast. I did not think so. I reckoned the Peru was medium dark / dark. That bag was ok; I was never happy with that Peruvian Bag. This Ethiopian is very good and sweet. I was erring more on the medium dark; I didn’t think it’s a dark roast, looking at the dark yellow / light brown colours at the crevice of the beans; I thought they may have been taken out just before the second crack, not at the second. Obviously, I lack a roasting experience and still learning to differentiate the roasts. 😊 You won’t call it as a dark roast, would you ? Thx

> @"LMSC"#p1039 You won’t call it as a dark roast, would you ? Thx I would call that medium dark…it's about as dark as I like to go, normally I'm in the medium or medium light camps. as my personal preference and that of my roast sharers. That roast was nowhere near 2nd crack and I would guess it's about 30-50 seconds after first…not roasted too fast because I can't see any oil and no charred chaff lines, indicating the burners going off before 1st crack and the roast allowed to coast into it. My guess for what it's worth…anyway, they did a good job.

Crown and canvas - first light Brazilian and colombian blend. Bag states dark chocolate, hazelnut and red berry and I have to say it delivers! Espresso 16g in 32g out: really rich dark chocolate and hazelnut (think greene and blacks) and a gentle acidity to finish. Lovely mouthfeel and long lasting. As a flat white everything’s sweetened up and it really pushes the hazelnut flavour. Delicious. Off to make another 😉

@"Baldrick"#p1770 Hadn't heard of Crown and Canvas before. Having looked at their website and following your positive recommendation I think I will be giving them a try.

@"Dumnorix"#p1793 very popular roaster and some great coffees by all accounts. If you check our commercial directory, you will find some good and reliable companies to use. https://coffeetime.freeflarum.com/d/52-commercial-members-list

@"DavecUK"#p1796 Many thanks for the link.

Origin Colombia Estate Café Granja La Esperanza Farm Potosi Varietal San Juan Process Natural Altitude 1,800-2,000 masl Harvest January - April I got it from my local shop. It's got a really nice sultana smooth taste. Currently brewing it in a Aeropress 1:15 and diluting up to around a 320g cup. Really enjoying it at cooler temps.

Crankhouse, Cordillera de Fuego, anaerobic natural Caturra & Catuai - Initially hesitant & bracing myself due to the pungent, farmyard aroma off the beans, but absolutely delivers in every aspect on the flavour in cup. Complex, good perception of sweetness. Delicious! Like a coffee equivalent to mulled wine. I'm not big fan of naturals, nor Cost a Ricans generally, but I love this. 13\.6g ground at 32 on Wilfa flat, V60 02 with can strainer, 40g every 40s (each pour taking about 13s), 1st 2 pours direct on to the coffee bed, last 3 via can strainer. Dry bed 3:15 for this brew.

Mikari AA (Washed) (Kenya) from Coffee by the Casuals - two ways. Moka Pot - really rich, lots of peach. Very smooth. Pre-boiled water and AP filter, but no 'bloom'. CCD - 18g + 300g - 32 on Niche. Still steeping, but based on brews this week, flavour is more balanced, not as in your face (as expected) - not much pineapple, but more acitidty alongside the peach.

What’s in your cup this morning ?

Cuprajake

So unlike LMSC going to coarse, I’ve gone a tad too fine 🤣

LMSC

Cuprajake I tightened the grind and pulled another shot of the Foundry Amaya. Still it gushed with no improvement in shot time.

MediumRoastSteam The flat white from the shot was very nice. It’s going to be hard hand grinding finer from here. Will tighten a bit and tamp a lot harder. Although it is <20s shot, it is very nice. Am going to leave it at that and enjoy the rest of the bag.

MediumRoastSteam

LMSC - time to place an order with the Niche @LMSC 🤣

LMSC

MediumRoastSteam As I said earlier, did as a first thing on the morning of the release of the duo. 🤣😅

MediumRoastSteam

LMSC - oh! I didn’t realise! Nice one! 👍👍👍👍👍

LMSC

MediumRoastSteam Third attempt of Amaya! 54.21s. Gone a little too fine I think. Great coffee still. 🤣

mobius

I was expecting to have some ‘cheap’ beans to experiment, but after opening the bag and seeing oily black things, I suspected it may not last. After several attempts, each one coming out extremely bitter and just awful tasting, whether long/short/fast/slow I decided that it honestly wasn’t worth my time.

I switch to Jubilani from Owens Coffee, and although I only pulled one shot, so not really dialled-in, it was balanced and smooth. I think those other beans are destined for compost.

dutchy101

Just defrosted and opened the last 250g of my Django Santa Ana from September 2022. Drinking as an americano and it is pure blueberry. Lovely

LMSC

dutchy101 Django Santa Ana from September 2022.

Wow! You still have it. Well done.

Did you open Blackcat’s XO?

dutchy101

LMSC

I never got that one in the end - still have half a kilo of the other Colombian they did just before that one in the freezer (La Esperanza Mandela). Don’t ever want to see that one finish

I try to make them last by rotating through what I’ve got. Usually have about 8 or so at a time to choose from haha

LMSC

dutchy101 La Esperanza Mandela

That’s a very nice coffee.

dutchy101

Probably my all time favourite coffe

LMSC

Cuprajake

Had a few of my own Ethiopian today,

This was last night’s, dog and hat cold blow coffee

On the left is north star Brazilian

Raja123

Anyone know of a UK roaster that the equivalent of Manhattan or one of the prominent Nordic brands? Im looking at getting into some light roasts for espresso and filter brews.

InfamousTuba

Probably roasters like sweven or colonna, other roasters will have varying roast levels for their coffee so some might be ‘nordic’ light but others are darker.

You could also order from nomad, coffea circulor or Sey coffee. They all have good or free UK shipping, Sey and nomad don’t have as many funky coffees as Manhattan, but coffea circulor has some very unique offerings (the website is very overcomplicated and hard to navigate)

MWJB

My last experience with Colonna resulted in a rather dark roast for filter, light filter roasts seem very hard to find in the UK at the moment.

Some of the 150g tin offerings from Crankhouse are on the lighter side, I’d drop them an email asking for a recommendation prior to purchase. They also sometimes have the Bermudes/EL Paraiso, Cauca, Colombia coffees that I see on the Manhatten site.

I’ve had subs with a few of the prominent Nordic brands, they’re not all light roasts, Maybe Wendelboe & Drop are closer to the perception.

InfamousTuba

I think it is partly because of communication problems where roasters don’t communicate their roast levels to customers well. I have had some really light coffees from colonna but obviously they are not all that light and they don’t do a good job of informing the customer of that.

Also roasters aren’t pushing as light as they used to in general, tim wendelboe is more developed than it used to be and a lot of other roasters are doing the same.

Apollon’s gold and the picky chemist both have an extremely light roast level if you want something very light, but not from the UK

LeefromFoundryCR

InfamousTuba I think it is partly because of communication problems where roasters don’t communicate their roast levels to customers well. I have had some really light coffees from colonna but obviously they are not all that light and they don’t do a good job of informing the customer of that.

What would be most useful for people in this respect? We do take colour readings, but I’m not sure how helpful they would be to people and I’ve never really been sure about how useful it would be to try to tie these readings to the concepts of light/medium/dark etc. Like flavour, it’s one of those areas that I’d be really keen for ideas about how we can do better.

Raja123

Thanks, guys. Very helpful.

mobius

This morning’s (espresso, as always) was Owens Coffee ‘Bantham’. Described as a Medium Roast ‘Smooth Chocolate’, I found it to have more ‘roasty’ flavour notes than I’d like, and ended up pulling it a bit shorter with a lower temp to boost the acidity - it didn’t need it, as it was already balanced, but I would rather have things a bit bright than roasty. Luckily it’s just a 100g ‘discovery’ pack so not too much of a waste.

There were hints of chocolate in the finish, and I’ll try a more coarse grind tomorrow, but I think the roast is limiting my options here. Ironically, I chose it over the next trial I have, which is a Medium-Dark. Also, their other Medium (the Jubilani) was much better. Maybe it’s a Blend vs Single Origin thing as well.

LMSC

Rwanda Mutovu - Washed from @LeefromFoundryCR

Their tasting notes description

Chewy and full bodied. Well balanced and versatile coffee with a sweet cremy finish. Blackberry Jam, ripe plums and chocolate. In the cup, you can expect a seriously jam-like, creamy coffee. The coffee has a toffee finish too, long and sweet for that heavenly, easy-drinking vibe that we all love so much. You’ll find that this coffee is very soluble which means you can play around a lot with your brewing parameters and get differing results. If you like very heavy body and want to bring out the sticky, plum like sweetness, you can do that. Brew with more water and you may reveal a pleasingly zingy acidity. Good with milk and in all brew methods, this may well end up bing your go-to brew.

Their notes notes are - Blackberry Jam, Ripe Plum and Chocolate

I don’t usually look at the notes while opening a bag.

What can I say except it is spot on. Excellent IMHO. I got crisp and fresh acidity - I thought this along with the aroma are as in Mandrin. They said it’s Zingy acidity (citrus family and Mandrin are consistent). The fruity taste brings fruits like Plums out. I won’t say the fruity taste is like ripe Peach or ripe Nectarine as they are on the milder side than plums. It is smooth, juicy, sweet and creamy from start to finish coupled with milk chocolate like after taste. The sugary taste does remain for a while.

Lovely coffee in a nutshell

17g, 40.3g liquid, 91.5C Group, 97.5 Brew and 33s. I tightened the grind to the lower end of the espresso range after seeing how light the beans looked.

LeefromFoundryCR

LMSC Thanks for the review - much appreciated!! - the thing that drew us to this Rwandan was the sweetness and the absence of ‘earthiness’ which so often comes with Rwandan beans.

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