Too Much Coffee

Got some nice harar beans from hasbean. For the first few days, they had a very 'wow' taste - in a french press, they had an incredibly strong, sweet blueberry (almost muffin-y) taste and smell. After about a week they still tasted fine, but that strong taste was mostly gone...

Have I managed something odd, or does that just happen to these beans? Do I need to find a way to get through a half pound in under a week

Haraar is one of my favs in espresso and I'm looking to consume the batch by day 9. Next time you get half pound, split the pack and freeze half. Double wrap the beans and make sure they are defrosted, before opening the bag - otherwise, they will get covered in moisture.

Ah, freezer isn't much cop, so freezing beans has never worked well for me Good excuse to try to sell people at work on the beans, I guess

FWIW:

I have found as a rule my beans age an average of a day every 24 hours

espressomattic wrote:FWIW:

I have found as a rule my beans age an average of a day every 24 hours

Depends where you are!

* At the poles there is only one sunrise and one sunset in the course of a year. This occurs around the time of the equinoxes.

Yeah, yeah. I know. In the words of my old headmaster, "nobody likes a smartarse"

Smartarse!

espressomattic wrote:Smartarse!

Well, then... Nobodies like me!

*friend of the oppressed*

but - surely 'age' can have qualitative meanings too? 'old' beans might refer to 'stale' beans, just as much as 'beans that were roasted more than x days ago'...

Sure does Jon, aged Coffees such as Monsoon Malabar and Old Brown Java. The aging process in these beans develops a musty spice like flavour in the cup and is seen as desirable.

Some roasted Coffees appear to fair better with 'age' too. A bean such as Colombian Manuela is best after about 7 days as by then a certain carboardness has vanished from the bean.

As more oxygen comes into contact with the beans, ie each time the bag or container is opened, the beans will 'age' and the flavcours will begin to break down. Again in some cases, as with the WBC blend this actually improved the cup as at about 14 days it was still imrpoving somewhat.

Just opened a 17th Sept batch of Ethiopian Harar from Hasbean and the first impression when having the obligatory sniff was Wow, smokey! Unfortunately this also translated to a very earthy, dark and smokey espresso and very little, if any, chocolate or fruit flavours.

Am I doing something wrong with the Harar beans, do they need lower temp, shorter extraction or something to bring out the best in them? Surely they can't be too old already after only three weeks?

Cheers,
Matt

Hey mate

I would contact Hasbean and query the smokiness. It isn't something I have encountered from Harrar before either from Hasbean or anywhere else. I did come across it recently when i had a blend and after contacting the roaster, it turns out he left the vents on the roaster closed which resulted in the beans adopting a smoky flavour. He recitified this an sent another batch through which was really good and all the subtle flavours of all 7 (yes 7) beans really came through.

They will be more than happy to help at HB with any queries.

After 3 weeks you will be starting to lose some of the finer flavours in most coffees and another week would be about it I think. Harrar should be giving off a fruity aroma (Reminiscient of Bluerry) and have a nice bright tone to it.

I would also recommend using another extraction method if at all possible such as a french press. This can highlight and 'defects' in the cup or roast that you may be experiencing through an espresso.

Keep us in the loop as to your progress.

Cheers

Matt

Will be cracking my first bag of Harar in... ooo... about eight hours....

Looking forward to seeing what it's like!

OOooooooooooooooo.

Must admit, I was a wee bit skeptical... But - gosh - that's pretty blueberry-ish blueberry, ennit!?

Also...

Had been putting it through the Elektra MCAL til yesterday...

Put it through a bottomless E61 pf yesterday - and ye gads! That is the most ridiculously clear tiger striping I've seen! I've, like, only seen that kinda striping in videos online (!)