by blackice » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:21 am
I went to the Annual Food and Drinks exposition, here in Greece on Sunday. There was a lot of food for my brain. I found a fellow roaster who runs a small company and has built a big roaster for himself and we spoke about machines, roasting, and blends. I tasted an espresso made with cheap coffees and it was nice. The blend was Brazil Santos (generic), Costa Rica (10%), Nicaragua, and Guatemala. It had nutty chocolate flavors but it was a little bitter (maybe brewing temperature or sth else not beans related).
So I add this to my list. If you replace the Santos with a better Brazilian and get a good Guatemala you'll get a very good espresso IMHO.
PS
I've tasted another blend of my own which was 50% Brazil Santos, 17% Uganda Drugar, 17% Ethiopia Djimah, 8% Uganda Bugisu, 8% Ethiopia Harrar and it wasn't good. It was like mixing different foods and eating sth without any particular taste. Just a blend. Nothing extraordinary. Drugar has a very strong character and shouldn't be mixed with other similar coffees. I should also use only Harrar or only Bugisu. Lesson learned. I'm going to roast a new batch today. The blend will be kept secret for 3-4 days...
Olympia Cremina
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Turbo Crazy