Preblend Kenyan/Costa Rica/Colombia coffee for drip coffee

[stevenzaat]

I want to roast a preblend of Kenyan Peaberries and Colombian or Costa Rica coffee to make a drip coffee blend. Does this make sense or are the features of the beans that different that it can not be preblended and needs to be separately roasted.

Furthermore does anyone has a suggestion for the roast profile. I was thinking of a roast just into the second crack.

Thanks for any help.

Regards,

Steven

[phil]

Kenyan & Costa Rican is a favoured blend among many for drip. Good choice (although personally I tend to prefer drinking single origins).

For such a coffee (or blend) I would stop before the beginning of 2nd crack in order to get the best varietal flavours.

Not sure about the wisdom of pre-blending these two origins. The easy answer is that you should roast both beans separately first (always take notes!!) and then compare the results to form a judgement about how well they will roast together.

A slightly longer answer is that these are the results of roasting a specific Kenyan and a specific Costa Rican in my Hottop:

Costa Rica Naranjo Bandola (source: Hasbean)
1st crack starts: 16:47
1st crack ends : 18:14
End roast (before 2nd) : 19:14

Kenyan Kiaruigu (source : Hasbean)
1st crack starts : 17:23
1st crack ends : 18:55
End roast (before 2nd) 19:55

So I would personally not choose to roast these two together.

HTH

Phil

[stevenzaat]

Phil,

Thanks for the very informative answer.

I roasted it as follows:

Kenyan peaberry Eaaagads estate (source : Hasbean)
1st crack starts : 17:01
2nd cracks starts: 19.30
End roast 19.31

Costa Rica Naranjo Bandola (source: Hasbean)
1st crack starts: 18:10
1st crack ends :19:57
End roast (before 2nd) : 20:52

As you see the Kenyan roast was shorter, although I thought the 2nd crack started (and then I pushed the eject button). But as you can see also the 1st crack started earlier. maybe the beans are different looking at the name of your Kenyan beans.

The Costa Rica started much later, which is strange because the machine was hotter and I started timing from the moment it started beeping to throw the beans in.

I think I roasted it quite well or do you think the roasts are a little bit overroasted. The first picture is the Costa Rican roast and the second picture the Kenyan roast.

As you suggested I will start drinking (or tasting) it as a single origin and then I put them together. I can not wait to drink it tomorrow morning or need these beans a longer rest (2-3 days?).

Anyway thanks for your help and it was again fascinating to roast with the Hottop. By the way: Do you know what the crisping sound is before the 1st crack starts? (loosing its chaff?)

Best regards,
Steven

[Steve]

That peaberry looks great, the costa rican could of benefited from a little long I think but should be fine. Let us know the outcome

[stevenzaat]

Tasted the peaberries this morning and it was delicious. A very special flavour which I never tasted before. It was a little bit spicy and it tasted like dried tomatoes. Despite I am not a fan of tomatoes, it was a very special to taste it in a drip coffee. It was a wonderful experience and I got almost tears in my eyes.

I am already looking forward to the Casta Rican tomorrow.

Thanks again for all the help.

regards,
Steven

[tisri]

The peaberry looks broadly as I'd expect it to. It does have a distinctive flavour - personally I'm not fond of it although obviously others may disagree.

Hey Eeffoc - you have to admire my restraint for not saying it needs to be darker

[Steve]

LOL well done Tisri

[matts]

What's the general feeling on these roast times? I would think that 16-17 minutes to first crack was pretty long....

I would generally be looking for 1st about 12-13 minutes, sometimes as early as 10 or 11 if I was trying to keep some brightness in.

Whadya think?
Matt

[phil]

No they're generally fairly OK times Matt. Typical for drum roasters IMO. I talked to a pro recently about this sort of thing (you know who I mean) and he expects similar times with his Ambex.

[matts]

Fair enough. Although I'm sure there's no absolute rights or wrongs with these things.

Couple of other data points, old Italian chap who roasts commercially in Glasgow finshes well into 2nd about 14 mins, as far as I remember the gimungous computer controlled things at Algies were about this as well, this was for espresso.

Did a 600g green batch in the BBQ tonight (1/3 each Honduran/Indo Gayo Mountain/Sidamo, not special beans) for espresso,
1st crack starts : 12:45
2nd cracks starts: 15:50
End roast: 16:45

2nd was well established but this was not a dark roast, no oil or Tisri pleasing sheen

Can the Hottop go faster or is it a fixed profile? If I was roasting a SO for plunger or vac pot my instinct would be to go for 1st even sooner, I have done a couple of 20 min odd finshes and found that it 'flattens' the bean taste a lot....YMMV as always

Cheers
Matt

[tisri]

Gah. Tisri pleasing sheen? Gah. I don't care about the sheen. What counts is that the beans are dark. Better dark and dry than light and shiny