Coffee roast opinions and cultural differences

[paulraphael]

David Schomer on roasting for espresso.

[haresfur]

David Schomer on roasting for espresso.

 

Of course, if you like the dark flavour or (gasp) don't see anything wrong with adding some sugar...

[cdh]

Roasting your own is definitely worth the learning curve, just for the opportunity to experience a bean at differing roast levels.  Some beans are really nice taken to a nice dark roast... but they're also sorta insipid at lighter roasts... I've got some Brazilian and Peruvian coffees that are like that. Some, on the other hand, are mind-blowingly good at very light roast levels... that Schomer article's normale roast is really all that this blend of Yemeni and Ethiopian beans needs... 

[weinoo]

Paul - have you tried Grumpy or Gimme Coffees?  I've been enjoying the coffee from Grumpy for a while now - good stuff.

 

Surprisingly, Whole Foods carried quite a number of different "brands", from local roasters to national roasters.

 

But you do have to check the roast dates; I've been there when Stumptown is stocking the shelves, and I've seen coffee that is a few months past the roast date - buyer beware.

 

I don't want to belabor the point, but taste is in the mouth of the beholder. And as I'm sure I've said in numerous other posts, roasting at home in NYC ain't that easy. Unless you have a terrace or balcony or outside space - it's gonna make your apartment, and often the neighbor's as well, smell like Starbucks.

[paulraphael]

Funny you should mention, I wandered into the Bowery WF just yesterday, and specifically checked the coffee section. I was pleased to see that they now have Grumpy and Intelligentsia and Stumptown. They had a small variety from everyone ... mostly blends that did't particularly excite me. Otherwise I would have grabbed some of the Grumpy. Been meaning to try it. Although it was indeed expensive.

 

Have you tried Brooklyn Roasting Co.? I've been hearing good things and the prices are a couple of notches lower than the more famous west-coast guys.

[weinoo]

Yep - the Bowery Whole Foods is where I shop, when I shop at Whole Foods. And I find their coffee beans prices a notch below everywhere else.

 

RE: Brooklyn Roasting - I've tried one or two varietals of that one and enjoyed them. I'd like to find a good source for Four Barrel, because I have always liked their coffees when drinking it and bringing beans back from San Francisco.

 

There's an Everyman Espresso on West Broadway that has had good beans for sale in the past.

[andiesenji]

A friend sent me a couple of samples of "super-premium" coffee beans - Alto Grande from Puerto Rico - "Blonde" roast.

 

I ground the beans and made one pod for my Senseo - Bleh!  Not at all to my taste.  Insipid, slightly sour.

So I brewed two cups in one of my vacuum brewers.  If anything it was worse, what "coffee" flavor it had was nothing like I expected.  Unfortunately there was not another roast option.

 

The other sample was La Bolsa Maragogype from Guatemala and it was a medium dark roast which was much more to my taste.

It had none of the sourness of the other brew and there were the chocolate tones that I expect in the darker roasts.  There was greater complexity in the taste and a very nice, lingering aftertaste.

 

He has promised to send me some more samples - a special small crop varietal from Ethiopia that is akin to the Yirgacheffe but is dry-processed (he rather lost me at this point) and will be roasted a special way that is more time-consuming.  

 

When I get the package and have the time to grind and brew the coffees, I will post again.  

 

In the meantime I am finishing a bag of Good Coffee for a Good Cause  dark roast - a Fair-Trade organic coffee.  Not cheap but very, every good to my taste.  

[paulraphael]

"Blonde" sounds quite a bit lighter than anything I've encountered. It seems that most of the high-end roasters these days don't talk much about the darkness of the roast in traditional terms. They figure out what they like best for each new batch. It's just that they're finding the sweet spot in a lighter place than they did back when the beans they sourced weren't so good. And much lighter than the starbucks standard.

 

It's certainly possible to underroast coffee, and yeah, you'd expect it to be super sour.