I had to work with this coffee for a 2023 Roaster Championship prelim. It didn’t go over well for me. I feel like this coffee got the best of me, so I’m determined to figure out how to get the most out of the remaining 7lbs.
Even though I’ve worked with the coffee in the past, I’ve since started using Rob Hoos’ sample recipe for 150g batches. Since I hadn’t tried this approach with this coffee, I gave it a go.
The profile here is familiar to me and wasn’t surprising.
Things I’ve noted in the past, this coffee stalls then starts rising ~6:30-8. There’s also a delayed flick post first crack.
“But how does it taste?” It’s not great, to be honest. A light sample roast still has clearly underdeveloped notes. There’s a bit of bittersweet chocolate in the body that turns caramel as it cools, and a little bit of lemon acidity comes through as it cools too. There’s a pervasive nutty tone here throughout, and a touch of smoke.
Conclusion: Need to go darker/longer/more development and lower the charge temp.
I’ve had this weird idea lately of trying to emulate a fluid bed roaster or a closed system convection roaster like a Loring. There’s no way I could seal up my bullet, but what happens if instead of making heat power adjustments I make fan adjustments?
It's stated in the Bullet user guide that fan speeds 1-4 increase convection in the roaster while 5-9 pull in more air that offsets any increase in convection. So let’s try it!
So this graph and roast are much more interesting to me.
First, it’s so fast! Look at that sub 9 minutes! The charge temp was even 15F cooler. Power was higher over the first profile here.
Second, the ROR profile is pretty different. Most notable to me is the sharper drop and flick at first crack.
Third, that drop temp at 405 with only 10% loss is wild to me. I’ve never seen something like that before.
“But how does it taste?” Better, but still has some work. The chocolate body was missing, but the caramel sweetness remained. As it cooled, that lemon acidity was still there too. It could definitely use more development, but I’m starting to align with the importer’s notes of light body and mild acidity with a medium clarity.
Conclusion: Let it run another 30s as is. Maybe run another profile where we let it run as is and drop the power 1 with the last fan adjustment.