Too Much Coffee

I don't know if anybody else roasts the Sweet Marias Monkey Espresso blend, which is one of my favourite pre-blends for home roasting, but I tried adding a small ammount (10%) of robusta (Ugandan Nanga Farms, which is really smooth for a robusta). This adds a real lift to an already nice blend. I also roasted it a tad darker than I have before after looking through some archive bits of the SM home roasting mailing list. I took the blend to a steady 2nd crack, rather than the first pops. This stll gave dry beans, but the odd spot of oil appeared after 4 days.
The rich fruity taste is still there, but with more chocolate overtones, and some bass notes and bite from the robusta. This is nice straight, and makes a particularly good cappuccino.

I've always been insterested in Monkey blend, maybe it's the name. Where do you buy it?

You buy it from Sweet Marias in the US http://www.sweetmarias.com/. They are a great supply of greens, often some more unusual ones not available through the (also very good) UK sources. Lots of people here use them, if you go for slow postatge it works out quite cheap.

The Monkey blend is a very good espresso blend as it is mostly dry processed coffees for great crema, and is has chocolate and fruit dominant flavours.

simonp wrote:You buy it from Sweet Marias in the US http://www.sweetmarias.com/. They are a great supply of greens, often some more unusual ones not available through the (also very good) UK sources. Lots of people here use them, if you go for slow postatge it works out quite cheap.

Hi there,
I tried all their espresso blend and maybe had too big expectations but for me, the only one that did the trick is the liquid amber. I spent a lot of money in those blends and now I regret because I should have tried the rarities he stocks.

The Liquid Amber blend is similar to Malabar Gold, which I don't like much, not sweet enough. The Monkey blend is (I am told) Brazil, Sumatran,Costa Rican Tarrazzu, and Harar or Sidamo, which is a pretty classic blend, I'm surprised you were unimpressed, but each to their own

Thanks simonp I'll give it a go.

ps hottop now seems to work ok (on 7 only and manually ejecting beans)

on 7 only and manually ejecting beans

That is the best way to roast in my opinion, then you can account for any variables and stop when you want.