Norman and Stean visited

Earlier this week, two coffee pals came over to chat and work. Norman, a Q-grader working at coffee trader Douqué group brought three sample roasts with him. He had roasted these in three very different ways, aiming for an identical roast color. For his sample roasts he uses a vintage 5 group Probat gas heated sample roaster and operating these is largely intuitive with only rudimentary electronics involved and each of the groups has its own quirks to live and work with.

Stean and Norman also tasted my current Guatemala Las Delicias roast of beans grown and harvested by Manolo Muralles and they liked it a lot, which I am very happy about considering Norman's status as Q grader.

Norman sent me his notes which I gladly post here (translation below):
De Las Delicias was... delicieus, als een luxe praline ;-)
Best zacht en macadamia qua boterig mondgevoel en hazelnotig qua flavor. Goede balans met aciditeit ook. Salted caramel. Niet té Braziliaans (pinda)notig dus. 
The Las Delicias was... delicious, like a deluxe praline ;-)
Quite soft with a macadamia buttery mouthfeel and a hazelnut flavour. Well balanced with some acidity.
Salted caramel. All in all not too Brazilian (peanut)nuttery.

We used my Tonino device to measure each of the three samples and sure enough, they were exactly the same at Tonino # 105. That's some spot-on sample roasting there Norman!

Tastewise the results were very diverse so this illustrates that while color measurement is an invaluable control point in the overal process management if one wants to check the process for consistency, the other variables have to be taken into account as well: duration of roast, roast profile (steep Rate of Ris at start or finish etc), airflow, moisture and material weight loss, end temperature, total "Area Under Curve".

Stean is from Kenya and currently he is a roaster based in Amsterdam. He brought along one of his recent roasts, a Rwanda Nyamasheke roasted ten days ago to Tonino #101, just fractionally lighter than what I usually aim for. The 'dense, sweet and red fruit notes' promised on the label are there in the cup indeed!



Stean's Beans' Rwanda in the cup





Reacties

Bob zei…
Leuke post Frans!

Populaire posts van deze blog

Tiny Cheap Fluid Bed Roaster by Tije and Jan

Finished Pavoni & Fuji PXG4 pid: Probe Inside the Ring

TC4+ boards and Arduino controlled roaster by Matthias Gerstgrasser