Too Much Coffee

In the past, my attempts at blending have been dismal. Yesterday it was forced upon me, when I came towards the end of some E. Yirgacheffe, Fazenda Monte Alegre and some Monsooned Malabar.

These beans are now 10 days old; the Fazenda I roasted to FC+ and the others to Lt.Vienna with oil spots showing. 5gr each and a coolish brew temp of 87C, produced a delightfully smooth espresso.

The aggressive earthy notes of the Monsooned, were subdued (I believe) by the brighter taste of the Fazenda. Their was a nuttiness to the drink and I could detect hints of caramel and milk choc.

I've no intention of taking up blending too seriously. Prior to the arrival of the dental vibrator, I tried my hand at blending in the p/f. i.e. split-dosing or layering the lighter roast, above the darker roast. As you can imagine, the hassle factor was large and time consuming. Time is the enemy of temperature control etc, etc.

However, it's nice to experiment every now and then, with chucking a few single origins into the casserole and see what emerges. Sadly I've often found that SO's which are brilliant 'stand alone' coffees, often are bland and dismal - when mixed.

Bertie

Bertie

Nice sounding blend. Smilar to a blend available here which has MM, Kenyan, Mexican and Java. The Mexican/Kenyan ally mellow the MM as you have describd and th MM does the same to the Aciic Kenyan an Mexican. MM is a bugger to blend, but if you get it rit it really sits well in a cup IMHO.

Breako

I haven't tried any of the Kenyans, being put off by the reports of brightness and acidity. The only Mexican I've tried is the Maragogype, which Steve was selling in 05/06. A bit bright solo, but worked ok with Yemen Mokha Matrar. It didn't work with Skyberry, but I think the Skyberry is a 'stand alone' coffee.

A really great blender is Dominican Republic Barahona. I believe most of the harvest is bought by the Japanese, with some going 'Down Under'. Is there any for sale in your neck of the woods Matt?

BD

Never seen any Dominican at all, which is a shame as the barahona was really nice. Did I send you some once upon a time??? One of my Fav's now is Indian Tiger Mountain Arabica. Very similar to Barahona but with a little more nuttiness in the cup.

I really like Kenyans in a blend (Yes I am a heretic!!) as they give a nice bright cup with a hint of acidity. I would give it a go, nothing to be scared of

espressomattic wrote:Never seen any Dominican at all, which is a shame as the barahona was really nice. Did I send you some once upon a time???

Agh thanks for jogging the old memory. When I was debating which roaster to buy, you and George were kind enough to send me a sample you both roasted - but I couldn't remember who had sent the the Dominican or who had sent the Brazilian.

The samples didn't help with the machine choice as they both tasted damn good. I suspect you both roasted about 10Kg each and 'cherry-picked' about 250 to send me - they looked suspiciously uniform in roast

Bertie

Bugger! You found me out!