Getting the most out of single origins

Muscles

I think we are very lucky in that we (here in Australia) are spoilt for choice when it comes to buying green beans (thanks to our sponsors) and as part of this "third wave" we have many specialty single origins to choose from. I'd like to know what approach you all take to get the most out of your single origins.

For example: I bought some Kona a while ago, roasted a 300g batch and thought it coould be better. After my second and third attempts I still thought it could be better. On my fourth and last attempt I think I really nailed it. This last roast was a lot lighter than any of the preceeding roasts but it was not destined for the espresso machine, it was destined for the areopress at work and to be drunk without milk. So now I have it just the way I like it but one small problem exists - I have no more Kona green on-hand    This is one reason why I want to keep fewer varieties on hand...

So, when buying your greens, do you buy more of one type of green or many small lots and on average how long would it take you to "nail" a roast? Am I thinking too much or do you think I have just realised what most experienced roasters have known all along?

mycuppa

Marc - perhaps you are thinking too much. As a broad statement (not applicable to you), what I see with some home roasters is a behavior that can be tending towards irrational - a propensity to judge a bean prematurely. Everyone starts the journey with a desire to sample all origins, processing methods, etc. to build up one's own internal knowledgebase of preferences - similar to food, knowing what we enjoy and dislike.  The paradox for home roasters is this.......... Small lots are purchased and added to a "stash". There is natural human tendencies to hoard the things you cherish and a typical home roaster will only "take" from the stash occasionally to do a batch, either a full SO or used in a blend. What happens is the home roaster relies on memory or written notes as to the reference point for the bean. Not having the opportunity of being able to apply themselves to repeating the roasting back-to-back, over and over in order to create sufficient cupping samples of varied profiles that can be evaluated using structured control methods....e.g. roasted AND extracted under the same conditions at the same approximate time-space. Without the continuum of roast, test, optimize, roast, test, optimize it become difficult to effectively judge a bean for it's intrinsic value.  Often the batch sizes are too small, the roast profile not correct and the knowledge of how to roast the bean was from weeks or months ago and there can be a little bit of the "fly by the seat of your pants (or panties)". The other factors at work in the variables are the posting on forums from others experiences with beans and profiles - does this actually play a role in subliminal approach to what you experience....someone says chocolate notes and does your mind play a slight trick telling your palate there is a "hint" of chocolate. Too often I have seen people judge a bean for the 1 roast they have done. In my mind I question if the comments have a reference point......is the person speaking from an authoritative perspective. Can I trust what I read. Sharing comments and feedback about beans and roasting is a wonderful thing. It helps us improve and most likely a key contribution to Australia's high standing on the world coffee stage. My advice for home roasters is continue to keep an open mind about beans and always seek to grab new beans if and when they become available. A favorite may only be around for 12 months. As a commercial roaster I evaluate new beans almost on a weekly basis. This is the excitement part of my job and without doubt the highlight of my day is the testing of new sample batches. I never cease to be amazed at the diversity of beans from farm to farm, origin to origin and crop to crop. Just when you think you know it all, along comes another day and a new discovery.

ash

Without the continuum of roast, test, optimize, roast, test, optimize it become difficult to effectively judge a bean for it's intrinsic value.  Often the batch sizes are too small, the roast profile not correct and the knowledge of how to roast the bean was from weeks or months ago and there can be a little bit of the "fly by the seat of your pants (or panties)".

I think this pretty much sums it up for most home roasters, including this one. Because most home roasters only roast 2-3 times a week for personal use, unless you keep religious documentation of each roast and accompanying taste notes for each roast up until you finish it, you do tend to fly by the seat of your pants. Having said that, I do tend to only keep a record of the roast only. For me half the fun of roasting, is tasting the changes in a coffee over it's life. My stash is too big for me, with too much variety I think, so I'm slowly working through it, finding some beans that I like and making a note of the bean. Eventually I may get around to buying some more of that farms/regions beans again and hope to emulate the roast that put me onto it in the first place. I pretty much only drink SO espresso at home and SO Aeropress at work. To my taste, I do not like a dark roast espresso, so I don't tend to roast too dark, maybe until the first snap of 2nd crack at the most. And only after I've tried a couple of other profiles that tend to work for me. I do this to try and bring out the characteristics of each origin, rather than the roast characteristics. For me, this works better as I don't do enough roasting to worry too much about roast characteristics. It's hard enough to get a handle on individual SO characteristics.  :tearhair: I say roast characteristics, as I believe that how a bean is roasted if you like a darker roast (somewhere 2nd crack or later) plays more of a role in the taste of the finished product. I may of course be completley wrong in this hypothesis!  :angel: In my (limited) experience of roasting for SO, I've found more varietal/regional/farm/year differences if I stop the roast before 2nd crack. I will however continue to experiment as most roast experience slowly builds up.

Muscles

Well I know I tend to hoard the things I like but Ash, wow, reading about your "stash" just made me feel a lot better My plan is to get the "stash" down in a big way and then focus on a few select coffees in the hope that I can learn more about the roasting process overall and about the individual beans. I love variety, so much so that the last two weekends are the only times I have roasted the same beans consecutively since I have been roasting. I figure if I go through 5kg of one bean I have a better chance to learn than by roasting 1kg batches of 5 different beans. See how it pans out....