Central African blend.

[Sparky]

I just roasted up 400 gms of a trial pre-blend consisting of 200gms Rwandan Cyangugu, 100gm Tanzanian Arumeru Estate and 100gm Malawi Pamwamba. The roast went for 20 min and was stopped short of 2nd crack (Id estimate just about right on 2nd crack). For this roast I slowed the initial heating phase after it had hit 130 C until it reached 150 C then sped it back up again, trying to give it a bean drying time. When it entered 1st crack at about 13 min, it was a very uniform looking roast. When pulled, the beans looked nearly identical in colour, and you wouldnt spot it as being a blend. There are some small wrinkly beans and some large fat beans, but the colour is remarkably uniform at somewhere between CS 9 and CS 10 and final roast weight was 335 gm, a 16.25% weight loss.

This looks like a great roast and it contains some great beans. I cant wait to taste it....

Cheers,

Mark.

[Dimal]

Re: Central African blend.

Mmmm,

Certainly sounds interesting Mark, cant wait to read your cupping impressions.....

Mal.

[Rolley]

Re: Central African blend.

Yummo to the max.. Im looking forward to hearing how you go on that one too.. sounds like a nice combo and damn good roast.

[Corretto]

Re: Central African blend.


So how did this turn out Mark????


Belinda

[Sparky]

Re: Central African blend.


Not as well as Id hoped. The three beans seem to be too similar and the blend was missing some complementary flavours and could have done with a thicker mouthfeel. Still, live and learn.

[muppet_man67]

Re: Central African blend.

I did a similar blend recently equal parts Zambia Lupili Estate, Malawi Pamwamba and Rwanda cyanagu. I was also a little dissapointed. Very earthy with no fruit notes although when I down dosed it brought out some acidity. No bitterness though and very deep and chocolaty in milk. A little one dimensional.

[Corretto]

Re: Central African blend.


That is a bummer. I did one of these preblends for the pickup this weekend :-(

hmmmmm.

[Corretto]

Re: Central African blend.


Actually this didnt turn out too bad.

My roast got away from me a bit due to having the temp probe too low for my 600 gram roast (which gave low temp readings).

The result was a 14 minute rolling SC roast with some beans under roasted, which needed to be picked out.

But this obviously made the roast taste sharper and hence gives it more bite.

Good in milk with a nice chocy flavour. Reasonable as an espresso after 6 days, with smoothness and body with chocy/winey/strawberry notes.

No complaints when fed to the CSers on Saturday.


Belinda

[Flo]

Re: Central African blend.

Good in milk with a nice chocy flavour.  Reasonable as an espresso after 6 days, with smoothness and body with chocy/winey/strawberry notes.

Belinda

Hey Belinda. Did these "chocy/winey/strawberry" notes come through in the espresso or just in the cupped sample?

[Corretto]

Re: Central African blend.


Espresso Flo

very nice in milk too.

It still remains nice at 16 days. Not much left though :-)