OK the first is one I mentioned in another thread on the Hottop:
50% Brazil Fazenda Lago & Cachoera 50/50 mix
20% Guatamalan HueHuetenango
20% Lintong
10% Yirgacheffe
The roats time was a little over 20 minutes, taking the beans just to where 2nd crack starts to speed up (not wanting to underroast the Lintong), again the ease of hearing the cracks enabled me to stop the roast just when I wanted to. The beans were shiny, but no oil was showing. The roast looked pretty even, considering it was a pre-blend.
This was the same as a previous blend I had air roasted (the Brazil mix was new), but I have posted the Hottop roasted version due to JonathanM's request for 250g Hottop pre-blend ideas.
There is certainly more depth to the flavour than with the same blend air roasted a week or so back, and there was a cocoa flavour that had not been there before.
On the 4th day after roasting, and after raising the temperature on my machine this stuff is really coming good. There is lots of body, and some gentle acidity as a highlight, but no sourness.
I also tried some ristretto doubles, boy were these nice, really sweet, with some muted earthiness. I'm thinking now that I could try a little more Yirg to add some more highlights.
The 2nd blend was inspired by a shot that I had at Phil's place, which was 70% Brazil Lagoa, and 30% Lintong.
I did 2 roasts:
1) 214g Brazil Fazenda Lago
36g Etheopian Harrar
2) 175g Lintong
75g Aged Lintong
Roast 1 was taken to 20 seconds of slow pops of 2nd carck
Roast 2 was taken abou 20 seconds into a rolling 2nd crack
Neither roast had oils on the beans. I left the beans in open 1-way valve bags for a couple of hours to get the de-gassing going well. I have noticed that if I put them straight in to sealed 1-way valve bags, it takes 3-4 days to loose that big foamy pour whne running a shot.
I liked the smootheness of the Lago and Lintong, but fancied a little something to lift it, hence the Harrar for some fruit (I like Linting and hHarrar together in a blend), and the aged Lintong for black treacle sweetness and a little of that bite from an aged coffee.
I tried a quick shot this afternoon (2 days rest) using a mix of (weighed beans before grinding) 14g roast 1, and 6g of roast 2. This gave me a 45ml ish double. Nice dense, thick crema, not quite as much as with a Cachoera based blend, the Lagoa being a washed (not fully weat processed) cofee, unlike the dry processed Cach, will give less crema. Pretty good, not quite as sweet as the one with the Cach/Lagoa mix, but still sweet, lots of body from the Lintong, and the lovely dark sweetness from the aged one. You could taste the Harrar, but perhaps needed a little more for some more fruitiness. Now my brew temp is better I think I can use some more of the acidic beans in my blends, before more than 10% gave a sour edge.
I believe that the Hottop shows an improvement in taste for beans in espresso, but then I understand that the slower drum roasting is generally better suited to roasts for espresso. Also I think that more of the smoke stays around the beans and adds something to the flavour.