Discovering partners for favorite bean

[ironic]

After home roasting for more than 2 years, and getting to know some favourites well one is the PNG mt Ambra A. However it is slightly on the soft side, but has a flavour that keeps wanting for more. So to get more punch...
So have been roasting for the last 2 months 60 / 40 blends with Colombia Red, Peru , Kenya AAA bold, colomban Volcan Gal, Today Sulawesi blu and a Guatemalian.
Well every blend so far has been really great.
This home roasting is a joy. Is this a definition pf a base bean?

[daledugahole]

It's a great bean isn't it. I've got an 80/20 blend of the png mt ambra with Indian monsoon malabar at the moment and am loving it. Sweet oozy goodness!

[KJM]

Not sure there is an accepted definition of base bean! To me. the Ceja in the KJM blend is the base - because it is kind of smooth and inoffensive I wouldn't call the Ethiopians that. The PNG beans to me have more character than the Ceja, but I know what you mean!

I wouldn't get too concerned about what others say or think about that (especially KJM!). IMHO you can view almost any bean as a blending base and work from that..

Have you tried roasting the PNG to just after first crack, and then another batch just into second and blending the result? That was a tip I got from Mal (Hi Mal!) a long while back and it works really, really well. It remains a favorite around here to this day..

/Kevin

[ironic]

Thanks for your replies, And it is a great idea to roast at both depths and blend. Todays is the Kenya / PNG, and it is very good, roasted 30 sec longer than usual, perhaps the Mt Ambra needs a little longer than i have been roasting. (med)
About the Ceja, the lady 2 doors away who drinks flat white, described it as nutty......brazil nut. Not a bad effort we thought.
For me it is half a long black, = 30 ml + 50 ml 65 deg water.
And yes i do respect the contributions of Kevin and Mal. :-)

[daledugahole]

KJM... (& Mal!) Good tip. I've just roasted as you suggested a 1c and a 2c batch of the PNG Mt Ambra. Smells great out of the behmor. I'm a bit surprised, as there isn't a huge change in bean colour between the two roasts. I'm guessing only one gradient on the CS chart (not that I have one). Looking forward to tasting. Cheers!