by jameso » Mon Nov 01, 2010 10:29 am
Thought I'd post an update. (I've been away, so it's taken a while).
We chose 6 beans to cup. Put a sample of roasted beans (we didn't have the greens) and grounds on a small plate behind each cup. Put 19g grit-ground coffee in each cup. Smelt them. Added hot water. Broke crusts one at a time and smelt, then tasted round and round as it cooled.
What was interesting was how little difference there was between them. Previously, when I've done cupping, the coffees stood out from one another. I think this was because we bought coffees from commercial micro-roasters that were roasted for espresso extraction, and (therefore in their judgement) properly into second crack in every case. The roast obscured the bean, so there were bitter tastes in there that made it hard to distinguish the qualities of each bean.
Two things did stand out, though, which made the cupping stage useful. First, smelling dry and wet grounds seemed to let the flavours of each bean come through in a way that wasn't muted by the dark roast. Some were fruity, some bright, some winey. At least while the cup was hot, it was then very hard to pick up those same flavours in the taste. Second, some had some very unpleasant notes in them, which allowed us to rule them out without every putting them near a portafilter.
Lots of fun! I wish the roasters we used had gathered that we wanted the samples for cupping, and offered to send us some that were roasted for the purpose rather than just offering us their usual darker profile. That would have helped.
He's now selected a coffee to start trading with. There are at least two roasteries we haven't even tried yet, so once things are up and running the quest for the ideal coffee can continue.
HotTop
Iberital MC2, modded Dualit grinder, Zassenhaus
Gaggia Classic + PID, 4 moka pots, 5 press pots, 1 Aeropress - and a Kalita Uno!
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Writing free fractal generation software