Skylark Coffee

MattH

Hello - so I am trying the sample pack of the “chocolatey” selection from Skylark. As the packets are only 125grm it does not give my time to dial it in and make a proper evaluation.

But so far not so great (for me) - first up was the Banko natural - with hints of chocolate, Nutella, Cherry.

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

Tbh its way lighter than the oil/treacle dark roasts I go looking for ( The 3 I had from coffee compass were excellent - I think Hill and Valley came out on top this time.)

But this thread is more about my lack of success in taming the bean :)
I started at my normal setting about 3 on the Super Jolly - and tbh it ran so quick I almost missed stopping it.. it was 18in, 50 out in like 13 seconds,…..

So by the time I got to the last shot I was at 2.5 on the Jolly - and probably nearer 25gr in the portafilter and it still ran away so I may have reached 20 seconds tops…. Slightly surprised at the huge difference on the grinder.. and confused but on the other hand I did not like it so it’s not on the rebuy list.

In general for prep - Is this just bean which needs a lot finer grinding than the darker roasts ? I have 2 more taster packs to work through - will be interesting to see what happens with the next one!

Cheers

Matt

FadedFrontiers

MattH think I’ve had a bag of this before and wasn’t a huge fan, but yeah I’d imagine you’ll have to grind a lot finer than you do for super dark roasts. It’s also a natural which can require a finer grind too, so don’t be afraid to go closer to chirp. In my experience updosing never really increases extraction time significantly, so just change the grind until you get a better taste and longer pull.

thetravdog

I love me a Skylark Coffee. For my Bambino Plus I was drinking only the brown labelled range but I don’t think any of it was every roasted anything other than medium really, but I like that. It’s still forgiving enough that it still tastes good on my old Bambino plus and Smart Grinder Pro that I have handed down to my parents so I can avoid their cursed Nespresso pods! Currently tweaking their Rwanda Ituze Washed and it’s a pretty light looking roast, playing around with pre infusion times. Seems to be in the middle of my espresso dial on my DF64 but I haven’t quite got it right. I think I might buy one of those so called chocolate bags for milk drinks or the Mrs who doesn’t quite have the palate, along with something more funky for a slightly longer pull espresso or americano