Hi all
With great fear of putting a cat among the pigeons, I'm going to put forward the hypothesis that a hand grinder (I'm using a Lido) is a great tool for fine turning 'ideal' roast depth and profile, as the changes in turn resistance are easily felt in a hand grinder, and that by adjusting the profile to achieve a consistent 'feel', you are also roasting to an ideal baseline for any given bean and roast depth…
What leads me to this spot is that I've found that in many beans - when I have roasted via trial and error to the best flavour profile for my taste - there is generally no grind adjustment required on the hand grinder. But when I muff it, I have to make large changes.
For example, the Harrar Longberry. Roasted with a long profile, the bean is super soft (think baked) and responds in the grinder like I've put baked beans in there rather than coffee beans - no resistance at all - easy grinding. But then it chokes up the machine. So therefore you make massive adjustments to grind.
But … with my latest batch of Harrar, roasted with a faster profile, it 'feels' like every other bean, pours like all the others - and tastes great!
On the other end - a bean like a brasil, roasted too fast, is really hard going in the grinder and tastes a little lifeless. Stretch it out, feels good in the grinder, pours well, and has the great sweets cocoa flavours we'd expect.
So … maybe there an ideal, consistent espresso roasted bean development level, achieved by varying profile dependent on bean and origin, that will work for every bean?
Just a few thoughts…
Cheers Matt
PS I do know this won't work quite the same for filter roasts - but I wonder if they will also all be harder work to grind at the same roast depth?
With great fear of putting a cat among the pigeons, I'm going to put forward the hypothesis that a hand grinder (I'm using a Lido) is a great tool for fine turning 'ideal' roast depth and profile, as the changes in turn resistance are easily felt in a hand grinder, and that by adjusting the profile to achieve a consistent 'feel', you are also roasting to an ideal baseline for any given bean and roast depth…
What leads me to this spot is that I've found that in many beans - when I have roasted via trial and error to the best flavour profile for my taste - there is generally no grind adjustment required on the hand grinder. But when I muff it, I have to make large changes.
For example, the Harrar Longberry. Roasted with a long profile, the bean is super soft (think baked) and responds in the grinder like I've put baked beans in there rather than coffee beans - no resistance at all - easy grinding. But then it chokes up the machine. So therefore you make massive adjustments to grind.
But … with my latest batch of Harrar, roasted with a faster profile, it 'feels' like every other bean, pours like all the others - and tastes great!
On the other end - a bean like a brasil, roasted too fast, is really hard going in the grinder and tastes a little lifeless. Stretch it out, feels good in the grinder, pours well, and has the great sweets cocoa flavours we'd expect.
So … maybe there an ideal, consistent espresso roasted bean development level, achieved by varying profile dependent on bean and origin, that will work for every bean?
Just a few thoughts…

Cheers Matt
PS I do know this won't work quite the same for filter roasts - but I wonder if they will also all be harder work to grind at the same roast depth?
Comment