Once more, this weeks blend

[simonp]

It's that time again; yep it's this week’s blend.

This time I have tried blend similar to Sweet Marias Monkey blend. I was mighty impressed by this blend from Sweet Marias, very chocolaty, and fruity too. Unfortunately I only got about 500g, and so have run out.
I saw in an article on chocolaty blends that someone had detected what was in the blend and the rough proportions by looking at the greens. I though I would try using similar beans and see what happened.

The "reverse engineered" blend was:
4 parts Brazilian
3 parts Sumatran
2 parts Costa Rica Tarazzu
1 parts Ethiopian Harrar or Sidamo

What I used was:
4 parts Brazilian Santa Terezina (spelt wrong!)
3 parts Sulawesi (as I had no Sumatran at home, my lintong is under my desk at work!)
2 parts Tarazzu La Minta
1 parts Harrar

I used a pulped Brazilian rather than the usual Cachoeira, as I could roast it with the other beans (although the Harrar would be roasted slower than ideal) and as Sweet Marias tends to use pulped rather than fully dry processed Brazilians in their espresso blends.

The roast was pretty even, the Harrar was not any darker than the rest, which had worried me initially. I went about 20 seconds in to 2nd crack, even so that snaps were few.

I tried the blend after 2 days rest.
I had to set the grinder finer than I expected for a Brazilian based blend.
There was LOTS of crema, so much that I think another day of de-gassing would have been good. The taste was not dissimilar to the Monkey blend, quite chocolaty, and a little fruit from the Harrar, and mild acidity and fruitiness from the La Minta.
I only drank a little as I had a major headache (probably from the heat!) so didn't think lots of caffeine would help, but it seemed quite nice. Will try again later.

[simonp]

I've just had another chance to try this blend. Definitely better after 3 days rest, the pour is less foamy and more creamy, leaving a nice fine, thick, brick res crema in the cup. I pulled a slightly short double in 28 seconds.

This is very smooth, maybe too smooth for some, but definitely worth a go. It is not quite as chocolaty as the real Monkey blend, but there is d3efinitely some dark choc in there. There is also a creamy, buttery, velvety taste/texture. Also some fuit, both winey fruit (presumably the Harrar) and something maybe citrus or apple.
As it cooled, and I could slurp more easilty the mild fruity acidity came through better along with some vanilla.

You could perhaps add something more lively here, perhaps swap the Harrar for Yirg, the floral acidity would go well with the fresh fruit. I know the Monkey blend I tried to emulate the style of is often supplemented by something more lively, and sometimes some robusta added for bite.

I'm tempted to try some Cachoera in place of the other Brazilian, as the one I used is one that Steve mentioned in his espresso blending article as a "calmer" so perhaps a little too smooth as a base on its own.

All in all, pretty good, and definitely has a similar profile to teh Monkey blend I was aiming at, if not exactly the same taste. A blend for when you don't want a real challenging espresso.

[simonp]

Intereestingly, later shots were not so good, rather acidic. The shots were quite short, which I find can intensify the acidity. Either I got all the acidic beans in the later shots (seems statistically unlikely), or my palate was more picky later.
Anyway, I think the roast was a little too light in the end. The beans were quite light in colour, and never showed any oil, even after 5-6 days.