• Beans

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Baldrick A lot better picture for sure!

@DavecUK - Looking at the picture and the chaffs on the crevices, is this tending towards a dark roast (if not a dark) than medium dark? Would it then have seen / almost seen a second crack ?

      LMSC @DavecUK - Looking at the picture, the chaffs on the crevices, is this tending towards a dark roast than medium dark. Would it then have seen / almost seen a second crack ?

      Unless it’s a peculiarity of the camera or my monitor, I would call that dark, yeah, or medium dark if I’m being generous. No it won’t have gone into 2nd, would have needed another 60 to 90 seconds. I would imagine in a week or so oil droplets will start showing.

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          DavecUK No it won’t have gone into 2nd, would have needed another 60 to 90 seconds.

          Thank you Dave! Is it because, at the 2nd, the chaffs would have charred versus where they are at the moment ? Of course, the surface of the beans would be a shining black !

              LMSC 2nd is a pretty aggressive roast, the chaff lines would usually be black and sometimes oil on the beans, they would be very dark. I never ever roast to second crack…not even close.

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              • LMSC replied to this.

                  DavecUK
                  Some but not all are quite dark. They’re 11 days off roast and although you can’t see from my photo there’s a bit of a shine on the beans but not at the oily stage yet.
                  I’ve probably been using far to hot a brew for these. I made assumptions based on the flavour notes rather than looking at the roast. Live and learn.

                      DavecUK Thanks. So, my interpretation of those beans is not far away.

                      I don’t think my name LMSC is a fair representation of my taste profile. I tend to prefer medium at the max and mostly light and medium light. I am not a fan of medium dark, let alone dark.

                      My family does like medium dark, as they prefer less acidic .

                      However, we end up with medium dark more often than I would like as I find the medium roast description from roasters often misleading as they are medium dark for me. 😊

                      So, it looks like I am going to have to be choosy buying beans. Can’t afford to buy a roasting machine and I am not interested in.

                      I would rather buy an electric grinder and a VST!

                          LMSC I’d like to see roasters put a little colour sticker on the bag to show the roast level. Got to be better than light/medium/dark.

                              Baldrick A lot of roasters send you a similar amount of crap as you get when you shake out a magazine before reading it….It would be nice if they sent something useful like a business card colour chart with their roast levels on it.

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                                  DavecUK RAL number? Anything really. They could even have a bit of fun naming the shades like a farrow and ball paint chart. “Elephants breath” and the like.

                                    Baldrick This is interesting… more shots throughout the day without having to change to full decaf or tea

                                    Every single person I have trained on the Amazon Dalian ever since I started doing it, I give them the advice to make a Half Caf blend…. Simple, makes sense doesn’t it….flavour and less caffeine.

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                                      I saw that Rave email and was tempted to try it as I do wonder if I would be better off with less caffeine (I typically only drink 3 or 4 × 18g a day, morning, cutoff 3pm). I like my coffee light to medium though and always worry that decaf or half caf might be a bit roasty for my taste. Maybe I should just try some.

                                      So Dave, do you get them to roast a charge of full fat and then another roast of unleaded and post-blend, or roast a blend of greens? I’m guessing roast each separately and blend after, as the decaf would want to go a bit farther? (Idle curiosity as I don’t roast my own as you know).

                                        Hotmetal So Dave, do you get them to roast a charge of full fat and then another roast of unleaded and post-blend,

                                        Yes, it has to be done that way, because decaff roasts a little differently….really though with any Blend, they should be roasted separately.

                                        I would actually recommend (for variety, from any roasters you use who don’t do a half caf), select a bean you really like and then their decaf and blend it yourself. If they do 2 decafs, then select the one you think will complement the full fat coffee most.

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                                          Dunno why I never thought of that myself hahaha! I could hide the decaf behind 50% of some mega ridiculous farmyard funky fruit bomb and forget it has decaf in the mix. Good tip, albeit it would need a little commitment to at least 10 shots at a time cos the E37S isn’t ideal for SD and I generally bung 150-200g in the hopper so there’s weight on the beans.

                                          Baldrick Literally got this arriving tomorrow as the wife is quite sensitive to my usual cups and says her latte had her ‘wired’ for hours 🤣

                                              Baldrick so had a cup and both the wife (milky drinks) and myself with a black aeropress of the Rave ‘half caf’ have been very impressed by both the flavour. Ground medium fine in the X54 12g 1:16 in aeropress gives a sweet, clean cup with a distinct caramel note, which is very pleasant. Would highly recommend if looking for a drink that doesn’t sacrifice flavour for less caffiene.