Ethiopian Gambella Sundried - Crunch

[Yelta]

I've bought Ethiopian Gambella in the past and will buy it again, certainly ticks my boxes.

I don't find sorting through 725 grams of green beans once a week an onerous task, takes me all of a couple of minutes. I check my greens just prior to roasting, in 10 years I've found a few stones, no big deal, people seem to get a bit precious about this type of thing, it's a natural product, as such there is always the off chance of a surprise, when it comes to roasting coffee, vigilance and attention to detail is imperative, this applies from weighing out the greens right through to cooling and bagging, if your not a stickler for detail you WILL have problems.

As far as the Gambella is concerned have a read through this thread http://coffeesnobs.com.au/cup-tastin...undried-2.html
it goes back quite a way, not many negative comments there.

As a last comment @ $11 kg it's a bloody bargain.

[wattgn]

I just don't buy it any more. Why punish an innocent grinder?

[simonsk8r]

Ah wow, yeah I've never once found a stone.. only thing I've found is some threads from the bag the greenies come in. Sometimes I spot them preroast, other times they have fun in the roaster XD

[Arcade]

Coming in late I realise but may help others. I must be the unlucky one but I get at least 1 stone per 2.5kg bag, if not more. I always sift through the green beans as I add them to my canister, prior to roasting. They're easy to spot and it doesn't slow me down too much.

I only discovered it after it jammed up my Vario. Luckily being a belt-drive and with a plastic spur gear, it just chewed the belt. Easy replacement and the burrs were fine.

Still my favourite SO to date.

[DesigningByCoffee]

Must admit - I love the gambella but have found this years batch a little rough … guess that's the price you pay for a natural product!

[greenman]

I have been using Gambella in my blends for years, the odd nasty is by far outweighed by the intensity of flavours it adds in the cup, for the price they are little gems!!!

[wattgn]

This bean has dead old rotten beans mixed in with the good stuff. I haven't found any rocks but these old beans make a noticeable crunch when they go through. So far it hasn't done any damage but I will probably get some Kenya AA next time.

[trentski]

Picked out a stone post roast in my last batch. Only my second in 4. or 5 years of roasting. Grinder found my first one and I found this one when bagging.

[DesigningByCoffee]

I use one of these from Bunnings for my cooling tray, which is great for the small stuff as the holes are a little larger than a mesh colander. Then my de-stoner works for the larger

[Dimal]

A small grading screen works well for this.
Use it in a similar way that a prospector might do, except gold nuggets might be hard to find...

Mal.

[Justin_Boyle]

I don't personally sort but if you do it post roast all you'd need to do is put your roast in a bucket and shake it a while. The heavy items will fall to the bottom. Scoop the coffee off the top and eventually you will have a small layer on the bottom where you could quite quickly sort through carefully to take foreign matter out. Anything foreign that doesn't sink to the bottom will likely be light weight and not dense/hard enough to be a problem to your grinder.

[chokkidog]

Sorting is a bit harder on 10kg batches......something you wouldn't ordinarily do but for a home roaster, why not? The other x factor with any bean is, of course, the roast. There is many a step betwixt the cherry ripening on the tree and putting the coffee to one's lips as a brew; nailing a roast is just as important as any of the other processes and can render a bean delicious, average or awful.

[readeral]

Fwiw, I roasted some of this up before Christmas and wasn't all that impressed. I subsequently spent a few hours cleaning up my greens, pulling out the sour, black, badly berry borered beans etc. (incl. 10 or so stones in the 2.5kg, and some metallic object) it improved the taste and ease of roast significantly. Others may disagree, but I pulled out 10% obviously defective beans, so it had a significant impact. Much more delicious and clean afterwards. I've saved the remaining 2.5kg I left unsorted for seasoning my (one day to arrive) Aillio, and sought some other Ethiopian, happy to pay that 10% more to avoid needing to sort on my own.

[GrahamK]

Totally agree with CD regarding the Yemen Bani Ismail, real dodgy looking beans and quite tiny some of them, but still my favourite to date as well.

GrahamK

[chokkidog]

I smashed the object with a hammer. It looks like an old dead coffee bean. This coffee is possibly just not a clean well prepared product. The product contains beans that are black and shrivelled as well. Fortunately it tastes good in the cup.

Kenyan AA is a different coffee but is immaculately prepared.

No, it's not a matter of quality per se, it's more the difference between washed (Kenyan) and dry processed beans (Gambella). there will always be a tendency towards the feral with dry process, but this is what makes it unique and sometimes outstanding. My favourite all time coffee was a feral dry process coffee from Yemen, back in 2010/11.... the Bani Ismail, it was hard to drink as drinking coffee whilst smiling involuntarily is difficult at the best of times.