MWJB @dfk41
I have stopped giving feed back to roasters especially if the brews aren’t good as expected - taste, notes, ….
Some are straightaway apologetic and offer a refund or replacement, which I refuse. This will not progress beyond this in 95% of cases. One roaster, whom I regularly purchase beans from, insisted on refund as a principle, while I stood my ground. Eventually, we resolved it as the refund went to a charity. This is good.
Otherwise, they will offer standard excuses like water, storage, a lack of a good grinder and brewing guides.
One popular roaster, with whom I have had some good coffee, blamed the brew ratio calling 1:15 as too strong a ratio and it was hardly a surprise the brew wasn’t good. He recommended 55g/L to 60g/L. I advised the roaster it is nothing to do with the ratio as the coffee neither tasted good nor had any notes as described, 1:15 ratio is a standard practice in the brew world and they ought to have known better. The roaster also indicated 9% and 12% 400 Kruve sifting offer little value to brewers. This roaster doesn’t indicate roast degree and said none of his customers is interested in the roast degree or what their take on the coffee is.
IMO, evasive responses like these mean they not only lose their credibility a bit but also result in they letting their moral and QA standards slip.
Countless experiences like these taught me contacting roasters re-a bad batch offer little value to the end consumers like self. :-)
