When I roasted this, I started drinking after 24 hours rest.  At that time, I had a half cup for sampling.  I liked it.  It has a light fruit flavor.  I enjoy fruity tasting coffees, and this one had what I liked.  I took my second taste after 48 hours of rest post-roast.  This time I made a full cup.  Wow!  It was a fruit BOMB.  It was like this stuff exploded in my mouth.   Unmistakeably, it tasted like Grapefruit!  My goodness, this was the most unique coffee I had ever tasted, and I liked it a lot.  After drinking a full cup of this coffee, my tongue still had a grapefruit taste a full hour after I finished the cup.

This stuff was wonderful.  I roasted only a quarter pound for starters.  I like to roast small batches, because I feel more in control of the roast.  Get too many beans in the pan, and sometimes the roast can get away from you.

Just a couple days, and I was ready for another roast of the Kenya beans.  This time, I decided to do a half pound batch.  I usually don’t roast a half pound at a time, like I said, I find it easier to control the roast of a smaller batch.  But, I really enjoyed this coffee, and wanted a bit more of it.  Out of an abundance of care, I messed up the roast!  In fear of making it too dark (darker roasts tend to kill off the fruit flavor that I enjoy so much), I under roasted it instead.  I tasted it a couple days later, and indeed, it was not good.  Acid was way too strong.  Oh, I was so upset, because I was wasting a half pound of my new favorite coffee.  After a week, I still had these beans sitting there in the bag, I just decided to try them again, fully expecting that the acid would still be way too much.  I had resolved to throw these beans away and start again.  But, wait….

Surprise!  The acid had faded, and the fruit was nice.  So, even under roasted, by letting these beans rest a full week, the nice flavors started showing themselves again, and the coffee was very good.

My recommendation on these beans is to go for a City+ roast, or maybe a Full City.  No need to go beyond that.  Keep it somewhat light, and the brightness and fruitiness will be great!  I have already ordered some additional Kenya beans.  This particular bean is out of stock, but I ordered another one from Kenya that should be similar.  I can’t wait to try them!

For me, though, I am just a baby in this hobby.  I mean, I’ve been doing this since around the beginning of March 2009, so that is only about 3 to 3 1/2 months at this time.  I basically know virtually nothing.  But, I enjoy it.

So, how do you learn about it?  Well, number one is to be in contact with others in the hobby.  For me, that number one contact is Bobby Timonera, my close friend and coffee mentor.  We are basically in contact with each other nearly every day by e-mail or text message.  Usually talking about coffee!  But, I have other ways of learning too.

First, one of my favorite ways of learning is just doing it!  I mean, buying green coffee beans, roasting them, and then drinking the coffee.  Every time I drink a cup of coffee or roast some beans I learn a little more, and I enjoy it.  Not only do I realize how much I’ve learned, but I also get to enjoy the great coffees.  How can you go wrong?

Finally, another jackpot of information is from participating in online forums.  There are two forums that I participate in daily, either by just reading what is new there, or sometimes by posting comments or questions.

The first forum that I got started on was the Green Coffee Buying Club, or GCBC.  GCBC is not only a forum where you can learn information, it is also a club of coffee lovers who share green beans.  People there buy large lots (large for me… ) of green coffee beans, and then split up the bags and offer the beans for sale.  Mostly, these beans are sold within the club at or near cost.  It is an economical way of buying coffee beans, and a great way to sample a variety of beans.  I highly recommend this forum.

A new forum where I have begun to hang out is the Sweet Maria’s Forum.  Sweet Maria’s (SM) is an online business where they sell coffee beans.  SM has green beans from all over the world, and they seem to be a friendly bunch of people.  The SM forum is just a month or so old now, and I have only been a member for a few days, but I am enjoying it, and finding it educational too.

I hope to see you on the forum!  One of them, anyway.

Let’s start with…

Rwanda Cup of Excellence #18 – Nkundiye Innocent – Bufcoffee Nyarusiza

For the purposes of the article, from here on out, I will simply call this coffee Rwanda CoE for short.  I roasted these beans to the point where I was just hearing the start of the 2nd crack (an audible popping sound, almost like hearing popcorn pop).  This level of roast to people who know coffee is called Full City+.  Full City+ is about the darkest that I usually enjoy my coffee.  For fruitier coffees, I enjoy it even lighter than this.

After roasting the Rwanda CoE beans, I let the beans rest.  Resting the beans means that you didn’t grind them and drink them until after some time has passed.  This allows the gasses in the beans to escape, and generally produces a better cup of coffee.  My practice is that I usually start by making a half cup of coffee with the newly roasted beans starting 24 hours after the roast, and then every 24 hours.  As a beginner in the art of roasting coffee beans, this gives me the opportunity to see how the coffee changes flavors as each day passes.  And believe me, it does change flavor!  After only 24 hours rest, the Rwanda CoE had little flavor at all.  By the time it had rested 4 days, the beans were very tasty.

I found that the Rwanda CoE beans had a kind of maply flavor, or a molasses flavor.  Very enjoyable.  Professional cuppers give coffee a score of up to 100 points after cupping a bean.  I’m not an expert, so for now I will not be scoring, but just giving my impression.

The Rwanda CoE is an expensive coffee bean, for me at least.  Most coffees that I purchase are in the $3 per pound price range.  The Rwanda CoE was more around $9 per pound (these prices are before shipping).  So, it is about triple the price of most of the coffees that I drink.  It is a flavorful bean, but personally, I would not say it is worth three times the price of other coffees that I drink.  I would probably spring for a pound or two of this from time to time in the future, but it would not be my normal cup of coffee.   Nothing wrong with the flavor, but I can get just as much enjoyment from a non-premium priced bean.

That’s my impression!

As I said, the shipment included 4 different coffees.  I immediatly roasted about a quarter pound of each bean, just enough for sampling, and testing out the roast.  I have now sampled each of the coffees.

Here are my thoughts on each, my early thoughts that is:

Rwanda Cup of Excellence #18 – Nkundiye Innocent – Bufcoffee Nyarusiza

This is one of the winning beans in the Rwanda Cup of Excellence contest this year.  Roasting was fairly typical.  I roasted it just to the start of the 2nd crack.  I tasted a cup at 20 hours rest and it was excellent.  Very smooth, kind of a molassas flavor, quite sweet.  Very smooth in the mouth.  We’ll see how this continues to develop given additional rest time to continue degassing.  So far, I am very happy with this bean.

Kenya AA Eegads Estate

This was my first time to get a bean from Kenya.  I didn’t know what to expect, but I am very happy that I decided to try this bean.  It is excellent.  Again, I roasted this bean right up to the start of the 2nd crack.  Cupped initially at 20 hours rest.  Very strong grapefruit flavor in the cup.  I mean very strong.  Very distinctive and unique cup of coffee from my perspective.  My only disappointment is that I ordered only two pounds!  Now this bean is out of stock, and I wish I had 10 or 15 pounds!  By far, this is my favorite bean of everything I’ve ever tried.

Mexico SGH Organic Natural Terruno Nayorita

Again, my first time to try a bean from Mexico.  I roasted these beans a little darker than the first two, not intentionally, but it just worked out that way.  Cupped after about 21 hours rest, and enjoyable.  Smooth flavor.  I am happy with this purchase, no doubt there.

Sulawesi Kalossi Toraja Gr. 1

First chance to try an Indonesian bean.  This is coming from close to home (our neighboring country), so it’s interesting to give it a try.  My roast on this bean went beyond where it should, leaving a bit of oil on some of the beans.  Not too much, though, and still perfectly usable.  Cupped at 21 hours after resting.  Wow!  Strong, strong taste, and my wife and I both agreed completely, it has a flavor of MUD!  Yes, mud, as in watery dirt.  At first I didn’t like it, but after a half cup it grew on me, and I like it now.  It’s not one of my favorite beans, but I will keep some stock of Sulawesi beans on hand, because it is an interesting cup.  Will be interesting to see how it shifts in flavor as it ages more.

Jackpot!

Yes, Wednesday’s mail was like hitting a jackpot.  Coffee is a new hobby for me, and getting in four new beans from four different countries gave me lots of new opportunity to enjoy the hobby, and learn some new things too.  I’m having fun!

Work?  Yes, work.  remember, I have to drink the stuff now!  I mean, a very dedicated coffee drinker like me can’t just roast the beans and then forget, I have to put the scientific process into play and give the beans some taste testing.  Hey, it’s a tough job, but somebody must do it, right?

You see, when you roast coffee beans, you don’t get to go brew a cup of joe right away.  I guess you can if you want to, but if you want the best cup of coffee, first you need to let the beans rest for a few days, and degas.  Degas?  Yes, you see, coffee beans have gasses in them after you roast them, and over a short time of a few days or so, the gases escape the bean, and leave a better flavor.

My strategy is this.  When I roast a new bean that I’ve never tasted before, after 24 hours I brew a half cup of it so that I can taste it.  I brew another half cup for tasting on the second day.  On the third day and forward, I brew a full cup each day.  You would be surprised, the flavor of the beans can change very drastically from day to day.  This is why I do it this way, so I can see on which day the bean reaches it’s peak of flavor.

So, since I roasted these new beans, I am on the 5th day post-roast.  I have been following my day-to-day procedure of tasting the coffee that the beans produces.  Over the next few days, I will share with you my “cupping notes” on each of the beans that I received last week.

Just a quick note.  In coffee, “cupping” is a science.  There are expert cuppers who taste the brew and they come up with lots of different descriptions, and notes about the beans.  I am no scientist.  I simply brew the coffee and prepare it the way I like it, and drink it.  While drinking it, I decide what I think, but it is not scientific, and I am no expert.  Well, let me change that.  I am the world’s leading expert on what  I think, but beyond that, no.  So, don’t look at my ipressions as absolutely fact or anything like that.  Just what Bob thinks of the bean.

Pan Roasting

For me, I usually roast about twice per week, sometimes only once per week.  I roast small quantities, usually 1/4 to 1/3 pound of any variety.  If it’s a coffee that I have a large stash of, then I will do up to a half pound on a single roast.

Why such small batches?  For a couple of reasons:

• I find it easier to control the roast process when I roast only a very small batch of beans.  If I get too big with the quantity, I end up with more of an uneven roast (some dark, even burned beans, and some light beans).  When I roast a small batch, I find that I can more evenly roast the beans.  I have heard the opposite of this from some other roasters, but this is my experience.
• When I roast very small batches, I can roast more varieties of beans for use at that time, giving me a good variety of what I can choose to drink each day.  If I roasted like one pound of 3 or 4 different beans, I could not use them up before they would start to go stale.

I personally go through about a pound of coffee per week.  I’ll use a bit more than that if my wife or one of my neices or nephews who is living with me has an occasional cup.  But, generally one pound per week will keep me in coffee whenever I want a cup.  Having a variety of beans available, which have been roasted, lets me choose something that sounds good.  If you are not a home roaster, you may not realize how different the taste of different beans is, but it is a huge difference.  Some beans taste like fruits.  Other beans taste earthy.  Some beans taste smokey or leathery.  So, by having 5 or 6 different beans all ready to drink, it’s like walking into a restaurant and choosing what kind of soft drink you want.  I mean, you get variety.

Right now, I have 6 different beans that are all ready to drink.  Roasted, rested and still fresh:

1. Barangay Bobok, Philippines.  This bean is a sort of middle of the road bean.  No special flavors to it, but kind of smooth.
2. Sulawesi.  I really like this bean.  Very earthy, my wife says it is “muddy” and I like it.
3. Rwanda Cup of Excellence.  This bean is sort of molasses/brown sugary.  Very nice.
4. Kenya Eegads.  Grapefruit to the max.
5. Ethiopia Yirgacheffe.  Citrus fruit and spice.
6. Mexico.  Nice cup with a bit of spiciness to it, maybe a bit of salt.

See, by having so many different beans available, I can choose what I feel like!  A couple of these beans are left over from last week’s roasting, 4 of them are recent within 2 to 3 days.  The ones from last week are almost gone now, which is good, because they will start to loose flavor soon.

How about you?  How many different roasted beans do you keep on hand to satisfy your coffee urges?

Well, as you know if you read this site, I am pretty new at coffee roasting, and specialty coffee beans in general.  When I roasted the yirg beans, I thought I did an OK job, given that it was only about my 3rd or 4th time to ever roast coffee.  I e-mailed a photo of my roast to my best coffee buddy, Bobby.  Here is a picture of my initial roast:

Well, Bobby e-mailed me back and told me that the roast was “ugly.”  As I scrutinized the picture, I couldn’t help but agree.  It wasn’t evenly roasted, some parts looked burned, other parts looked under roasted.  There was still a fair amount of chaff on the roasted beans too.  OK, it was ugly.  So much for my sense of pride.

Yirg Roast on March 31, 2009 - Ugly but delicious

Well, after the roast had rested for about 3 days or so, I made a cup of coffee with it.  My first cup of Ethiopian coffee!  Hmm… it didn’t taste like coffee at all.  I told my wife, Feyma, that it tasted like Spice Tea.  I could taste the spice so clearly, and I loved the flavor.  I told Bobby that it was so good, and the spice flavor was so strong.  He told me that the cupping experts had said that these beans tasted fruity.  So, I went online and read the cupping reviews of the bean.  Fruity.  But, Bobby was only half right, because the cupping experts did say fruity, but they also said there was a distinct spice flavor.  Yes!  I felt good to have picked out that spice flavor myself!  And, as I continued drinking, I could also identify the fruit flavors as well.  I was really happy with my ugly roast!  Hey, taste is a lot more important than the looks anyway, right?  My coffee had the flavors that the experts said should be present!

Well, I have roasted more yirg beans three times since, and the results have not been good.  No spice.  No fruit.  First two subsequent roasting attempts were too lightly roasted.  Next attempt after that was over roasted.  I was trying to roast a half pound at a time, and the results were not good.  That wonderful tasting first roast was a quarter pound.

So, today, I decided to go back to roasting a quarter pound again, and I monitored the roast very closely, and tried to duplicate my first yirg roast.  I really want to have that flavor again.  Today’s roast, I felt was going pretty good.  The first crack (popping sound of the beans while roasting) occurred at almost the same time as that first time I roasted yirg.  The results after roasting?  Here is a photo:

Yirg Roast on April 18, 2009 - Ugly but will they be delicious?

Hey, they look very close to the same!  Well, I’ll let these beans roast for a few days before I give them a try.  I am encouraged, though.  These look so close to that first roast that I did, I am anticipating that the flavor will be similar too.

What do you think?  I’ll report back when I taste them.

There are a lot of better ways to roast coffee beans, but I am a bit of a simpleton when it comes to coffee, and I enjoy pan roasting.  You can do a better job with commercial roasting equipment, but pan roasting is fine for me, for now anyway.

If you like coffee, but have never roasted your own beans before, you probably don’t know what coffee really tastes like.  The coffee you buy in the grocery store was roasted months ago, and it’s stale.  The coffee that I roast and drink is used within 1 week or so after it is roasted.  I store it in special bags that keep it fresh.  The coffee I roast and drink tastes nothing like what you will taste from a can you buy in the store.

To roast coffee beans, there are a few steps:

• Personally, I pan roast no more than a half pound of coffee beans at a time.  I do this because I feel I can better control the roast on a small batch, and also by roasting a small batch I can drink it while it remains quite fresh.
• You will roast the coffee in a pan, as I show in the video.
• After the roasting is complete, you need to cool the beans as soon and as quickly as possible.
• Let the beans rest for at least 24 hours before drinking the coffee, as they will develop more flavor after having rest time.

I hope you enjoyed the video!  Enjoy the coffee too, I know I will!

First, I roasted some Natural Yirgacheffe Worka beans that came from Ethiopia.  I got these beans from my Sangay, Bobby Timonera.  Bobby bought these through GCBC, but he didn’t like them as much as some other varieties of beans, so I bought them from him.  These are some excellent beans that I really enjoy.  The roasted beans have a combination of a fruity and spicy flavor, which I really enjoy.  My first attempt at roasting the beans, I thought that I went too light with them, so on my second roast I went darker, to a Full City + darkness.  When I tasted the FC+, I decided that they weren’t nearly as good as the lighter roast.  This morning was my third time to roast these yirg beans, and I throttled back to a lighter roast this time.  I took them right to the end of the first crack and stopped.

Lighter roast on the yirg

One thing I noticed on roasting these yirgs is that the chaff comes off the bean much earlier than on other beans I have roasted (which is only a limited number so far).  Today, a lot of chaff was coming off after about 5 1/2 minutes of roasting, while the beans were still fairly green.  First crack started at about 8 1/2 minutes, and first crack was rolling nicely by 9 1/2 minutes.  I stopped the roast at 12 minutes today.  Last time, I roasted until about 17 minutes, so today was a lot lighter than before.  After a few days rest, I’ll taste them.  I hope to get a similar taste to my first yirg roast, because those were so delicious!  That second darker roast was still good, but not outstanding like my first roast of yirg.

For my second roasting this morning, I decided to roast the remaining beans that I had from Mt. Matutum, South Cotabato.  Mt. Matutum is a special place to me, because I used to live in General Santos City, and Matutum was somethat that I saw every day, unless it was too cloudy.  It’s a beautiful volcanic mountain, and I love the place.  Unfortunately, these Matutum beans are not too special, though.   As a matter of fact, I don’t like them at all.  However, they are good for guests, who always say that they taste good.  They are also a favorite of my Bisaya Teacher, Bebe, so I will cup some for her whenever she is here.

The Matutum beans are much larger than the yirgs.  The yirgs are actually pretty tiny, based on the beans that I’ve dealt with in the short days that I’ve enjoyed coffee roasting as a hobby.  The Matutums, I’d say, are average sized beans from all the beans I have seen.  I only had about 1/4 pound of Matutums left, so I decided to finish them off today, and that is actually a pretty small batch.  I usually roast about a half pound at a time.  The Matutums took about a 14 minute roast today, and I took them right up to the second crack, quite a bit darker than the yirgs.  But, the Matutums, I find, taste best at this level.

Roasting beans is something that I enjoy.  I’ll write in another article about my current roasting method, and why I enjoy it.

Magkape ta ba?

Delicious!

I can detect a smoothness to the flavor and a fruity taste as well.  I would classify this as a slight cherry flavor, with an aftertaste of nuttiness.  A definite winner in my book.

Now I am debating if I should go back for another shipment of these beans.  I only bought 3 pounds for this sampling, and I like them.  Maybe I should get 15 pounds this time, since that is the next amount for a shipping price break.  I’ll give it a few days thought before making a final decision.

Green Coffee Beans from Brazil

As of right now, I would rate this as a tie for my favorite coffee.  The other coffee that it is tied with?  Yirg, from Ethiopia.  They are two totally different flavors, but both are very enjoyable.

Brazil Moreninha Formosa 2008 Crop – it’s a winner for me!