DavecUK You raise some fair points but Dog and Hat don’t market the international subscription as a money saver considering it’s more expensive than the standard sub.

@InfamousTuba Roasters off-loading coffees that haven’t sold makes sense. I’d be interested to know how many of the coffees provided do Dog and Hat actually cup? They’ve got orders to fulfil so are they actually going to send batches back if the coffee doesn’t taste as the bag states? I doubt it.

    Dog n Hat international subscription is competitively priced, IMO. It is a great deal for someone looking at international varieties. Based on my limited experience, it can be a hit and miss for a brewer like me as I am fuzzy with taste, roast and notes. I no longer buy from them as their coffee doesn’t suit my profile, but they are great if one were to consider exploring or looking for varieties.

    It doesn’t diminish

    I’ve purchased beans in the past from a roaster that I really enjoyed, so much so that I purchased another KG from them. The second purchase felt like a real let down in comparison. I wondered whether I’d built up the original coffee too much in my head that the second batch had too much to live up to. That might be the case but it could also be a poor batch that wasn’t picked up in QC or the greens were past there best.

    Sorry to hijack this but my question is related, when you get beans is it best with the bag you’re not using to freeze it, should it go in the cupboard? Also say you order a kg would you put some in an airscape and do what with the rest? Another airscape?? And would you put airscape in fridge or cupboard?

      Teaboy I would let the coffee rest for two weeks post roast, then portion some into the airscape and freeze the rest.

      In regards to the topic. I’ve found some roasters beans don’t taste anything like the tastes notes (or nothing at all) and then I will not buy from them again. I do find that cost is usually a good indicator of quality, I very rarely buy kilo bags if at all. Would agree on the dog and hat quality comments. I tend to only find one bag a month that lines up with the tasting notes. I’ve paused mine for a while and have just bitten the Bullet with paying more.

        MediumRoastSteam

        Received the Udesa myself today, it was roasted on the 28th, so it’s 4 days rested already, so thought I’d give it a go in a v60.

        It’s defo the lightest roast I’ve ever bought!

        The brew ran really fast (500ml 2 cup brew in around 2min 20….), will tighten it up for the next brew. But have to say, the smell of this one is rather mad (in a surprisingly good way), the taste is good to with some of the notes present which is quite satisfying. Can taste banana for sure and a lot of fruitiness.

        I’m very new to light roasts and naturals, but rather pleased with the first brew! Should get better with time too…

        Wife just came downstairs, picked up her cup and said, I quote “bleh. Why does it taste like berries???”….she’s now drinking it, though doesn’t look overly impressed, she likes coffee to taste like coffee..,

            Tal If it tastes good and you are getting the notes, this sounds like a win. So, are you changing grind because you feel better is to come?

                DavecUK You are getting a great deal, on excellent quality expensive coffee and a top quality roast. The roaster is taking massive hit and even with the aggregators margin added on, it’s a bargain.

                I agree that is it very unlikely that you are actually getting a good deal from these multi subscription services as a whole and most of the exclusive lots aren’t that great (I have had a couple that were stellar but it might have been more luck than anything). But also most roasters do take massive hit on profits for these subscription services so most of the profits ends up with the middle men

                LMSC Countless experiences like these taught me contacting roasters re-a bad batch offer little value to the end consumers like self. :-)

                I will say that is very hard, I have had the same issues as you and sometimes roasters can talk to you as though you are an idiot even if you know what you are doing. I have had the opposite end of it where roasters are super happy to help and fix any perceived problems

                On the flipside some customers can have no idea how to actually brew coffee and still complain about it, like buying pre-ground espresso coffee and then complaining it runs too fast or too slow in their machine

                Coffee Roaster. Home: Sage Dual Boiler, Niche Zero, Ode v2 (SSP), 1zpresso ZP6 Work: Eagle One Prima EXP, mahlkonig e80s, Mazzer Philos and lots more

                    MWJB

                    You make a good point…

                    I use James Hoffman’s 2 cup recipe. And usually aim around 3min 30. So this one was a full minute quicker than my usual baseline, so I guess it would be to see if the flavour would improve if I prolonged the brew?

                        Tal I wouldn’t put too much store in brew time, different coffees brew at different speeds for equivalent extractions, especially if you have a large amount of liquid above the bed at the time you stop pouring, as this increases brew time variance.

                        In Hoffmann’s Hario white filter test, 2 of the Japanese white 02 papers he tried, completed at 2:20 & 2:35 respectively.

                        Focus on grind size, keeping to pour times & resulting taste balance.

                        • Tal likes this.

                          Tal Received the Udesa myself today, it was roasted on the 28th, so it’s 4 days rested already, so thought I’d give it a go in a v60

                          Looking forward to it. Let’s see how they fare as espresso!

                            On travel to Japan, I picked up quite a lot from Kurasu and a bag from LILO. They were all fantastic, delivering the stated notes in the recommended brew methods and recipes. The only stuff I’ve had that consistently does that closer to home is from The Picky Chemist, but those are premium micro lots roasted exceptionallly and so command luxury prices.

                            I suppose one thing I would be up for is sharing larger import orders and then shipping on from there. But, for now, I’ve started a Tim Wendleboe subscription, which I will check out - if it disappoints, I move to one from Kurasu or LILO.


                            My last Skylark offering, was this

                            https://skylark.coffee/collections/coffee/products/china-banka-natural

                            I have never had a coffee from China before. Through both the imitation V60 and the Moccamaster it was tasteless brown water, so for breakfast I made an americano. I mistakenly extracted 44 gms from 18 where 36 would be my normal……it seems that there is a pattern with coffee I make mistakes on! The end result was tasty. I can get cherry or dark fruits but no chocolate but I will tweak it at 11am or so. I believe in giving credit where it is due

                            https://www.suddencardiacarrestuk.org/2024/02/thank-goodness-for-madeira-cake/

                            InfamousTuba The process for the extract decaf is still sugarcane process, they have just labelled it as water and ethyl acetate but they are the same process by different names. The process isn’t labelled as sugarcane because the ethyl acetate isn’t derived from 100% sugar cane but from fruit as well

                            Thanks for this, I had no idea.

                              whinmoor85 I wrote to 3 Marks and asked them for their preferred recipe. Here’s what I got back:

                              Our recipe for that coffees is:

                              • 20g coffee (a little bit finer, medium fine.)
                              • 320g water at 90 degrees.
                              • 60gr water in 30sec. blooming.
                              • 4 pouring of 65gr.

                                Jcheney As stated many times, taste is subjective. I bought a kilo of Extrawelt last yr on recommendation and really didn’t like it. 🤣😩
                                I’ve been burnt a couple of times buying from Django now so that’s a roaster off the list.

                                Each to their own, I just don’t think it’s for me.
                                It was actually the last kilo purchase I’ve made, just too much of a gamble now so I’ve got a few subscriptions on the go and I’m enjoying the sampling a few.

                                    ST30B Yeah. Making/taking recommendations is always a risk… As this thread was more about bean’s being interesting/impressive, all I can say is that that was one of the few that I felt was undoubtedly interesting. Did your batch meet that criteria (regardless of whether it was your taste profile)?

                                    MediumRoastSteam and I will both be getting the same batch of beans given the proximity in order date. I’ll report back if the beans are no longer as interesting/impressive. But the batch that I got back on 09-Nov was a fun weird impressive taste.

                                    The beans also had the interesting property of having an unusual grind feel by hand. I could feel that some grind rotations were relatively easy (like a medium roast) and others were very difficult (like a light roast). Officially they describe Extrawelt as “omniroast”, and I wondered if their use of omniroast meant that they were blending roast profiles (probably not…).

                                        Jcheney - thanks. In all honesty I never really something I disliked from Django - so they are a safe roaster, for me at least. But I equally never really anything that impressed me that much. Worse case scenario I’ll happily drink the coffee. Best case I’ll enjoy so much that I’ll order more! 👍