After a disparaging comment I made re my experience with green beans from the Yemen, Chris from Talk Coffee took me to task and sent me a sample of Yemen Matari Al - Hamdani, along with strict instructions not to open them until 14 days after roast, what I did notice while they were sitting on my desk over the past week is they continued to off gas, the bag was barely inflated when I received it however by day 10 it was like a balloon, I expelled the gas via the valve and by this morning it had blown up again, though not as much as previously.
They were roasted on 23/9/14 (roast date printed, not hand written on the Vacpak) so today was the day, on opening, the beans looked pretty much as I expected, small and quite rustic looking, far from impressive, similar in fact to a couple of other Yemeni beans I have roasted, they looked to have been roasted to about CS 9 and taken to approx SC, just a few tiny spots of surface oil showing on some of the beans.
Gave the grinder a good brush out, weighed out 18 grams of Chris's sample, I had the grinder set up for some beans I had roasted a few days ago to pull a Lungo of approx 100ml (my morning drink) this shot proved to be way too tight, only produced about 40ml in 30 seconds, the stream its self when it started was very viscous, thick, syrupy, quite dark with lots of crema, the taste was very very intense, more so than anything I have previously tasted.
I adjusted the Mazzer Mini by a notch and a half, ground another 18 grams and attempted my second Lungo, this time, (in the words of Borat) great success, got the required 100ml which started to flow, or I should say gloop from the spout of the Bezzera in approx 7 seconds, and I do mean gloop a bit like a stream of pulsing molasses, with an enormous amount of red brown crema.
Now the taste test, this is where my lack of coffee education fails me, suffice to say at the moment, exceptional, big, bold and chocolatey, I'm going to pull a few of more shots over the next few days and try to describe the taste sensation in more detail.
A big thank you to Chris for his generous sample.
This post/thread, like Neighbors, is to be continued.
They were roasted on 23/9/14 (roast date printed, not hand written on the Vacpak) so today was the day, on opening, the beans looked pretty much as I expected, small and quite rustic looking, far from impressive, similar in fact to a couple of other Yemeni beans I have roasted, they looked to have been roasted to about CS 9 and taken to approx SC, just a few tiny spots of surface oil showing on some of the beans.
Gave the grinder a good brush out, weighed out 18 grams of Chris's sample, I had the grinder set up for some beans I had roasted a few days ago to pull a Lungo of approx 100ml (my morning drink) this shot proved to be way too tight, only produced about 40ml in 30 seconds, the stream its self when it started was very viscous, thick, syrupy, quite dark with lots of crema, the taste was very very intense, more so than anything I have previously tasted.
I adjusted the Mazzer Mini by a notch and a half, ground another 18 grams and attempted my second Lungo, this time, (in the words of Borat) great success, got the required 100ml which started to flow, or I should say gloop from the spout of the Bezzera in approx 7 seconds, and I do mean gloop a bit like a stream of pulsing molasses, with an enormous amount of red brown crema.
Now the taste test, this is where my lack of coffee education fails me, suffice to say at the moment, exceptional, big, bold and chocolatey, I'm going to pull a few of more shots over the next few days and try to describe the taste sensation in more detail.
A big thank you to Chris for his generous sample.

This post/thread, like Neighbors, is to be continued.

like all intermittent faults I'm sure it will recur.
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