First espresso blend

[Tonka]

Ok, so I attempted an espresso blend last night. 50% Brazilian arabica, 10% java robusta, 10% harrar, 15% Honduran, 15% columbian.

Guess what??????
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It's F**king disgusting!!!!

[stevenzaat]

Did you roast it yourselve and who was the supplier of the beans that it was that disgusting!

Hope you feel better now,

Regards,

Steven

[phil]

OK James - more detail please.

Describe "disgusting" in as much detail as you can, and then we can begin to deconstruct your blend and understand your experience.

Also details about the roast levels of each g the beans will help greatly.

[RobC]

Definately a bit more information would help, I always find some blends work really well as espresso on it's own but when combined with milk loose their appeal - but others work in reverse, unpalletable as espresso but great as cappuccino? Also a few tasters can help - I find coffee preference is very preferable - blends I am informed are "Mustard" just seem OK to me and my own favourite's get a distinctly mediocre response at times - life would be so dull if we were all the same!!!

[Tonka]

Thin and sour! Thats all I can remember about it, with a crappy crema that disappeared after brief swilling. I roasted the brazilians seperately from the rest of them, and they were all roasted to number 3 on the HotTop.... so a mid-brown job. I re-roasted half of them tonight a little bit darker, but havent tasted them yet. I did make a cup of filter coffee from the original blend and it was quite nice, but a lot duskier than I was expecting given the relatively light roasting. I think its the Harrar beans that have done this.

It wasnt down to my espresso technique either as I am pretty consistent (now that the Sivlia has a PID... fecking marvellous)

Incidentally, the only quality beans in there were the Harrar and the Java robusta. The rest (about 80%) were arabica but generic regional beans. I don't blame the supplier as they were free with the roaster... it's more likely down to my inept blendidng. i must admit I did it on a hunch and without knowing the characteristics of the beans (other than the Harrar) we'll see what the darker roast tastes like in the morning.....

Incidentally I roasted up a batch of Hasbeans JBM on number 2 (so quite light) and it already smells heavenly. I'll try to leave it alone for a couple of days to even itself out.

Well, anyway... it's my bedtime, and hopefully I'll get a proper night's sleep tonight... in all the excitement of the new PID, the HotTop and the new grinder I have been having too many late night tasting sessions recently (I'm sure you all know the scenario!!!) night night.. see you in the morning!

[phil]

Did you do this lot as a pre-blend? I wouldn't fancy sticking Robusta in a pre-blend.

[Tonka]

i roasted the robusta along with all the other stuff (minus the 50% brazilian). I wish i'd roasted it seperately, but what stopped me was the fact that I'd have to roast all 250g of it, enough for the next years blends!!

[phil]

Ah, welcome to home roasting! Yup, that's one of the reasons I don't pre-blend, and also why I don't use Robusta.

This isn't hugely helpful, but I've always believed that if you're going to pre-blend you need to have done at least one batch of each bean on its own so you've an idea how it roasts.

OK, what was the roast level of these beans? Say relative to second crack?

[Tonka]

early into 2nd crack. It agree entirely with you about the logic of not preblending... however I was responding to Steve L's comments about pre-blended blends holding together better

[phil]

My close friend Mr Leighton and I have had a few lively discussions about pre-blending. Bluntly I've never observed that particular thing about them holding together better.

I think the truth is that Steve is sufficiently skilled at his craft, and has put so much work into it, that of course his pre-blends work and hang together well. The rest of us should be so lucky!

[simonp]

Pre-blending is always tricky, although blends likle the Daterra Reserve, or Sweey Marias Monkey blend work well.
You can mix-roast beans as long as they are similar in roast characteristic. Dry procesed beans roast well together e.g Brazil Cachoeira and Harrar. but not a dry processed Sumatran or Sulawesi, these roast longer like wet processed beans.
I often roast Cach and harrar together, and then the longer beans together like columbian, Lintong, Yirgacheffe.

Like Phil says, you need to roast them separartely to see how they go. I tried roasting Yuaco Selecto with another wet processed bean, but it took much longer, so I had it too light.

Steve's advice to me on Robusta was to roast it separately in a batch. He said that robusta needed rest before using, and doesn't go stale as much as other beans so you can keep the batch for a while and still use it.

As I manually profile I can slow down a roast to keep the beans even, so it may be easier than with a Hottop (see, there is one thing I can do that a Hotop can't , that's about the only thing though :harrumph: )

[phil]

As I manually profile I can slow down a roast to keep the beans even, so it may be easier than with a Hottop (see, there is one thing I can do that a Hotop can't , that's about the only thing though :harrumph: )

Ah but a Hottop-plus-variac can!

[Steve]

As above really tonka, I do my robusta seperatley, and with time (5-10 days i get through around 3-4 kg of robusta) it tastes better left and loses lots of its harshness, so dont worry about having 200g of robusta sitting around for even a couple of weeks. You are useing so little of it, it should be fine and not effect the rest of the blend exept for the better (crema and caffine boost).

Note: I would never recomend anything else being left this time, but robusta desreves this treatment

[kingseven]

I've been getting more into roasting and blending and the like. I am a post-blend man meself - maybe because the coffees I've been working with have been roasting very differently (not just in terms of flavour development but also in terms of sheer physics - how the coffee roasts physically, how it takes the heat and stuff).

Putting a competition blend together has been immense fun - however it is a frightening thing, there is too much too learn. Infinite possibilities and all that. I'll post up a report after the finals which might be interesting....