• Beans

  • Which roasters provide guide 'recipes' ?

Whilst I appreciate that taste is subjective, and there’s been some great discussion as to flavour notes, I’m curious why not many roasters provide guide recipes - for example: Espresso, 18g in, 40g out in 35secs at 93c.

I mean, whilst there will be variance, it could at least offer a direction as to where the expected ‘flavours’ hang out, rather than everyone starting with a 30s rule and not much beyond that other than personal preference. Sure, flow/pressure control etc. is beyond the scope, but I would imagine that most people interested in speciality coffee are using equipment that should be able to get somewhere in the same region ?

Are there any UK roasters that do this ?

Ratio and time can vary on your grinder set up. So it’s not a lot of use, if you need to pull a longer ratio to get a good extraction, for example and most roasters, where they do offer guides (these re not recipes) tend to have a generic one size fits all.

Your best bet is to take control yourself, note the grind settings & ratios that give you the tastiest results and use that as a starting point.

Ratios give a guide to strength/concentraton, the flavour balance will be similar at the same extraction, but different ratios/concentrations.

I realise things vary with grinder and machine, but surely ‘aiming’ for a target ratio in a set time, could help guide the grind. I do take control, and dial-in/experiment for the life of the beans, but it would be great to have a closer idea of where the roaster was thinking ‘espresso was good’.

  • MWJB replied to this.

    usually you will get the devine

    1:2 30 secs thing

    the dog and hat subscription tells you how to get a good shot, time and grind as a guide.

    but dial in, as you get a feel you will learn roughly were to set your grinder, and how your machine produces shots you like,

    Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -

    usually you will get the devine

    1:2 30 secs thing

    the dog and hat subscription tells you how to get a good shot, time and grind as a guide.

    but dial in, as you get a feel you will learn roughly were to set your grinder, and how your machine produces shots you like,

    Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -

    mobius Forget the ‘set time’ aspect, focus on grind setting, ratio and flavour balance/enjoyment …let the time just fall out, if it tastes good it can’t be wrong, nor too far out if you are using your own references for grind.

    You can’t second guess what the roaster was thinking/tasting, if you can’t make the beans taste good after a fair crack at them, move on.

      Dark Arts used to include brew guides for new coffees in their emails, if I remember rightly it was V60, Aeropress and espresso.

      Some roasters also seem happy to offer help via email/in-person.

      I was struggling to get a decent cup out of an Origin coffee and asked a barista whilst at their roastery cafe last Winter and he made some suggestions which helped.

      I’ve emailed NewGround in the past too who reply with suggested recipes.

      James Gourmet gives suggestions for each bean. Quite detailed, with a little milk, more milk or straight espresso.

      Roaster’s filter brew guides are typically pretty poor. I’ve yet to try one that gives representative results.

      For a brew recipe you need, as a minimum, grind size (which none of them can effectively communicate), dose, brew water weight, steep time/pour speed. You can get lucky but most of the time you’re starting from scratch each time, which is not how recipes generally work.

      Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -

        No, just a guide as per pretty much everything in this hobby.

        At least they give a bit of info 🙂

        Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -

        Square mile gives specific espresso recipes for its beans (or at least the espresso roasts) and seems to change ratio as well as time and dose per bean, although does come with caveat that its how their machine tasted best, although at least I recall them telling you what that was.

        actually, just found it for Red Brick

        RECIPE:

        We recommend the following recipe as a starting point:

        Dose: 19 grams

        Brew temperature: 201ºF-202ºF/94ºC-94.5ºC

        Brew time: 28-32 sec

        Brew Ratio: 1:2

        Brew weight: 38 grams

        This profile and recipe was developed on a Victoria Arduino VA388 Black Eagle with VST 20g baskets – so should be taken as a starting point, and not an absolute as different machines extract in different ways.

        The recommended baskets for this espresso recipe are the VST 20g.

        whilst the decaf is

        RECIPE:

        We recommend the following recipe as a starting point:

        Dose: 19 grams

        Brew temperature: 201F-202F/94C-94.5

        Brew time: 28-30 sec

        Total Volume: approx 50ml

        Brew weight: 38 grams

          simonc ha, I thought the decaf was 19/50 so a longer shot than the Red Brick, but see it now says Brew Weight 38g,so yes, both are just 30 seconds 1:2 standard stuff.