Green Bean Scene

This is my current list of green coffee beans… just in case anyone cares :)

* Indonesian Bukit Marrante Kalosi Toraja
* Indian Plantation A (Tiger Mountain)
* Costa Rica Tarrazu SHB (Fancy)
* Ethiopian Yirgacheffe
* Yemen Moka Ismali

On order:
* Sumatran Mandheling Grade 1
* Paupa New Guinea Sihereni AX
* Indian Monsoon Robusta (just to see what all the fuss is about with Robusta)

For me, roasting coffee is basically another level of understanding in the whole experience. I’m not sure what inspired me to get into it in the first place. To be honest, I’m not addicted to coffee. I can go for days without having one, and I’m sure I’d be fine if I never drank another cup of it in my life. But once I do get into something, I find it hard to stay on the fringe, without delving deeper and working out how things work for myself. My inner geek is never completely satisfied with just accepting what someone else tells me is true without investigating it myself.

That’s not to say I’m about to go planting coffee bushes in my backyard (although i would be able cut all the middle men out of the picture :)), but It’s definitely been a great learning experience so far.

Lately i’ve been struggling to roast the Yemen Moka Ismali… It’s such a tricky little bean… very uneven looking in the bag, lots of chaff, and difficult to tell when its at the right level. I’ve been stopping just into the second crack so far and it’s been coming out ok… but not exactly to the level that it’s reputation deserves.

To date my favourite blend is called ‘Easy Tiger’. It’s a smooth, but punchy espresso blend made of predominantly Indian Tiger Mountain, with some Yirgacheffe to add some sweetness, and a nice chocolately highlight bean to round things off :)

My new shipment of beans should arrive next week, so i’ll be posting more reports when I’ve had a chance to give them a try.

6 thoughts on “Green Bean Scene”

  1. How do like the Yemen Moka?
    We tried some a while back & I really liked it but my wife hated it. I liked the earthy-mustiness quality it had & have yet to taste a bean that has any kind of flavor profile like it.

    I love the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe too. We haven’t had it in a while, I may have to order some. Right now we have a bunch of Peru La Florida that I think I am burned out on, to tell you the truth. It has way too much caffeine for my taste.

  2. Hey Collin,

    I’d like it a lot better if I thought I was roasting it properly. I find it looks very uneven before, during, and after roasting…which makes it tricky to get the level right. However the first roast I did was great… really thick crema and great chocolatey aftertaste. Whether its worth the price though… almost 4 times more expensive than the other beans i’ve bought… I’d have to say no. Theres so much great stuff out there to try :)

    How do you roast your beans ?

  3. Hey Matt,

    This is Collin’s wife Laura. We actually roast out beans with an air pop popcorn maker. While we would love something more efficient, effective, and official, we haven’t found anything that fits into our budget quite like a ten dollar popper. How about you?

    As for the yemen moka, Collin is right, I could not get into it at all. I am about over this Peru la Florida too. We have been buying in such large bulk quantities lately that I am sick of just about everything we try by the time we finish a bag of it off.

    Truth be told, I am crazy about Mexican Chiapas. Loads of caffeine, nice bright flavor. It has been my absolute favorite so far.

  4. Hey Laura,

    I use a little machine called an IMEX CR-100, it’s a korean made coffee roaster, which basically functions like a popcorn popper with a cooling cycle. I think they market them in the US as the Cafe Rosto. I’d love to move up to something like the Hottop Drum Roaster, but it’s really not worth it at the moment.

    I get all my beans through an Australian co-op called Coffee Snobs, and normally buy a few at a time so I can blend. I mainly use it for espresso on my Silvia… so perhaps that might make a difference as to how bored I get of certain beans after a while.

    Tell you guys what… If you’re keen, send me an email with your address and I’ll trade you a kilo of my beans for some of yours. Say the Costa Rican Tarrazu or the Indonesian Bukit… Let me know what you think.

    Later,
    Matt

  5. Heya Matt,

    Just a few of my quick observations about these beans:

    (a) The monsooned robusta needs to be rested for at least a week after roasting. Wierd, but try it. I did some into rolling second and some just at the start of second … I tried the rolling second batch as a small portion added to another bean. Very chocolatey! Haven’t tried the other.

    (b) The PNG stuff strikes me as being very hard, not unlike the kalosi toraja. Perhaps the two would roast well together …

    How are you finding all of these?

    Luca

  6. Hey Luca,

    To be honest I haven’t explored my new beans to any great extent so far. I’ve done a single roast of the Mandheling and the Siherini, which i thought was great, although i roasted it too dark, but first taste was really sweet floral undertones…very nice. I’m stopping most of my roasts these days just at the start of 2nd crack. Although the IMEX isn’t the greatest for stopping on demand… but it normally comes out well.

    I’ve yet to roast any of the robusta… Not really sure what I’ll do with it… would you try it as a SO ??

    Think I need to start cupping and working on my palate because at the moment my blending is really just random guessing :)

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