Tasting notes, RichardM's Drum Roasted Blend

Kelsey

Hi Richard,

I've almost reached the end of the bag you sent, spreading it over the week to compare it with my other roasts and against its own changes over time.

First of all, in milk, this roast never failed to elicit greater sighs of delight from my wife than any of my roasts have done - and I've done pretty well so far on that front. (That came out way dirtier than I intended)

I tried it in milk myself today and would have to say that this is the roast that has made me understand milky coffee. It's like drinking dark chocolate.

For espresso, it's been a much trickier bean to get right - In fact, I'm not sure I have. I suspect it would take a better machine/operator combo than my own. I also suspect my OPV needs a little further downwards adjustment.

That said, the first hit of this as espresso was always a delight, with no sour taste at all and just a rich, strong flavour that I'm not experienced enough to place. The subsequent sip(s) would always have a sour taste, but would vary between a powerful almost citrusy sourness to a light hint that really added to the brew overall.

This morning as one of my final tastes, I brewed it as a 3/4 long black. I discovered in Sydney last year at Ruby cafe that the tastes which overpower my senses in espresso are frequently eliminated with this method, often allowing the more subtle flavours to come to the fore.

As a 3/4 black, the roast was very well balanced, hitting the front, sides and middle of my tongue with a linger after-taste that's still present nearly 20 minutes later. For whatever reason, I also feel like I can 'taste' it on my soft palate more powerfully than elsewhere. I can't explain that.

So the final result for me is that it's eminently drinkable in milk, great as a 3/4 long black and very very nice as espresso - but perhaps not as 'quaffable' as something like the Java Kalistat.

Feel free to ask any questions and thanks again for the beans, I've really enjoyed the process.

RichardM

If I wasn't now out of one of the beans that made up that blend (50/50 Malawi Nyika/Nicaragua Las Glorias la Brisas), I'd send you greens to roast in the KKTO for a more direct comparison, as it may be the beans (as I'm not really an espresso drinker myself, and aim for roasts that work well in milk). I'm really thankful for these notes though. I think, as discussed in chat, that a slightly darker roast would work well, and from yours and shape_shifters descriptions, as well as my own thoughts on a few other roasts I've subsequently done in my roaster, I've got some ideas to make the roaster better (starting with step one of changing it to a steel drum, and insulating the top half, as it would have way less lag time than the current aluminium "drum" that it is in). Step two will be  mounting a vacuum cleaner in the back so at any point during the roast, I can extract the chaff, as I think that a slight smokiness is coming through in the beans (though nowhere near as bad as what I was getting with the Behmor).