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!

My Ethiopian Beans

I just received and roasted the beans I ordered from Sweet Maria's! I got two kinds of beans from Ethiopia, both dry processed, and both super delicious.

The first bean I roasted was the Grade 3 Yirga Cheffe. I roasted a pound at a City Roast and another pound at a Full City roast. A City Roast is were you stop the beans right after the end of the first "crack" and is in general the lightest roast you can make a coffee. The Full City roast is a bit trickier because you stop roasting the coffee right before the second "crack" starts. This at times is hard to tell and takes some practice but the Yirga Cheffe at Full City was most definitely my favorite out of the two. The City had an amazing peanut butter aroma and tasted pretty good too, though it could not compete with the body and aftertaste of the Full City Roast.

The second bean I tried from Ethiopia was the Bench Maji Biftu. This bean I roasted at a Full City + roast, which is basically stopping the roast at 2 or 3 cracks into the second "crack." This made it a bolder roast than the Yirga Cheffe and I was blown away with how strong the body was in my cup. I might try the other pound I got of this coffee at a City + roast next time I roast just to see the difference, but at a Full City + it was still pretty tasty and kind of fruity.

My Ethiopian coffee experience overall was pretty good. I loved both beans and will definitely be ordering them again from Sweet Maria's. Here are some pics! Peace!

*Edit: Added pics.