Yemen Mokha Sharasi

I'm back from my school/work hiatus! Sorry it's been a while, but I'm looking forward to blogging weekly about my roast and being more consistent with my updates. My first roast this summer was with some lovely Yemen beans I got from Sweet Maria's.

The Yemen Mokha Sharasi were dry processed and Sweet Maria's recommended I roast them in between a City + to a Full City +. I decided to do a Full City + since I was just getting back into the groove of things and stopping the roast after the first couple cracks into the 2nd crack is the easiest way to do so in my opinion. I used my trusty old Behmor 1600, P1 profile with the A program.  I should've used the B program, but oh well I just did some time adjusting on the fly. The total duration for the roast was 20 minutes flat. The 1st crack for me started around 17:15 seconds and ended around 18 minutes. The roast hurried onto the 2nd crack around 19:50 so I just stopped the roast at 20 minutes. Overall the roast seemed a bit off to me. Usually the first crack comes sooner, but maybe it was the beans, or because I hadn't used my roaster in a while and it needed time to warm up. The chaff on these beans are a pain to clean up, like most dry processed beans, but at the end of the day, totally worth it for the taste.

Using these beans throughout the week to keep me alive, I brewed them with my Chemex, V60 and even tried it as espresso with my Rancilio Silvia. My favorite by far was with the Chemex. The aroma was very sweet, like fruity sweet. The flavor was like a strong dried apricot that was delicious to gulp down every morning. Acidity was pretty low. The finish wasn't all that great, just a bland chocolate taste, which probably had to do with my roast, not the bean itself. Overall it was a pretty good cup of coffee. I really enjoyed the apricot flavor and would definitely buy/roast it again.

Looking back, I would probably try a Full City roast next time I roast these beans to see if I could get a better finish with the coffee. Other than that I was pretty satisfied with my cups of coffee for the week. Hope everyone has a great week and next week I'll be roasting some Ethiopian Yirga Cheffe!

Ethiopia Tchembe Natural

Happy Brew Year everyone! I hope everyone had wonderful holidays and the new year is going as planned. I had a great holidays and got some extra cash to spend on some green coffee beans! Woohoo! My first roasting adventure of the year was with some Ethiopian beans I got from Roastmasters.

First the roast. I roasted the green beans on my Behmor 1600 on P2. The first crack came and went but the second crack never came. If my eye is right, I would say it was a Full City roast, maybe a City +. The fragrance was amazing. I smelled cherries and some hints of chocolate in the fragrance and couldn't wait to brew myself a cup!

I ended up brewing myself two cups the first morning of tried the bean because I loved it so much. My first cup was with my Chemex. I boiled up my water, put my beans through the grinder and let the Chemex do the rest. As I inhaled the aroma, I could smell some raspberry and cherry too again. The first sip I took was a fruity delight that had a pretty heavy body to it. The aftertaste was pretty light, which was a nice transition after the heavy body. The cup was so delicious that I basically gulped it down and decided to make another cup with my Aeropress to see how it differed. I used my favorite Aeropress method, inverted, and never looked back. The Aeropress gave the cup a little less heavier body with the same amount of fruitiness. The aftertaste was still pretty light, I even tasted some wine notes afterwards too. Overall, a tasty cup of coffee that I highly recommend, if you're feeling like a good Ethiopian bean.

Hopefully I'll be able to get some more green beans soon! Most likely I'll be going with East Asia this next time around. Until then though, enjoy your cups of coffee and may the beans be with you!