Adjust Your Roasting Profile for Ambient Temperature

My recent series on roasting green coffee beans at home took place during the winter months here in Southern California. I take my iRoast-2 home roaster outside onto the patio since if I use it inside it sets off the smoke detectors! You can buy a venting attachment but I don't have a range hood that vents to the outside, so that's a no-go for me.

Anyhow, with the arrival of warmer spring weather I noticed a big difference in the darkness of the beans using the same profile I have favored throughout the winter. The roasts have resulted in very dark beans, akin to French roast. The beans are also sweating oil which also is indicative of a dark roast.

So if you're like me and roasting outside, take into acount the ambient temperature when you're roasting. Small differences in the temperature makes a big difference to the outcome of the roast using the very same profile.

Happy roasting at home and saving money!

Ethiopia Natural Harrar Green Coffee Beans Roasting Test

May I start out with "Yum!" These are really delicious beans, great for roasting as a "city roast" and making delicious espresso-based coffee drinks.

The beans are organic green coffee beans supplied by Seven Bridges Cooperative. The label recommends the beans for Vienna to Espresso roasting. I roasted the beans in two separate batches using the following customized profiles saved on my iRoast-2 home roaster:

Custom Roasting Profile #3
385F for 7 minutes
430F for 2 minutes
465 F for 2 minutes

Custom Roasting Profile #4
385F at 6 minutes
430F for 3.5 minutes
465F for 2 minutes

Obviously the second profile will result in a darker roast. I preferred the light roast, however (#3), although both were very satisfactory.

The coffee was superb on all counts: excellent crema and fantastic well-balanced flavor. The espresso was slightly bitter and acidic and very pleasant to drink. The flavor combined well with milk in a flat-white making for one of my favorites supplied in the sampler pack.

I have only one bag left in the sampler pack so I am getting ready to order larger bags of my favorite beans that I have identified over the course of this roasting coffee beans at home series. In taking a sneak peak for these beans at Seven Bridges storefront at Amazon.com, however, I found that they weren't currently offering these beans. Boo hoo! I also noticed that the sampler pack I have been working with noted only 2 left in stock!

Anyhow, keep a look out for these magnificent beans. Let's hope they show up again.

Roasting Peru Norte Organic Green Coffee Beans

The Peru Norte beans supplied as part of the sampler pack from Seven Bridges Cooperative are recommended on the label as being suited to medium to dark French roast. I roasted the beans using profile 4 in my iRoast-2.

The beans produced less than good crema which broke up quickly. The flavor of the espresso was strongly acidic, and when used as the base for an espresso drink with milk the flavor had no highlights to recommend it.

I'll leave this one to those who use filter-drip coffee-makers.

Seven Bridges Cooperative has the following comments on its website about the Peru Norte beans:

Certified organic, shade grown, and Fair Trade. This coffee is very high grown in northern Peru, where many of the the organic coffee growers have been certified organic for over 2 decades. Grown from heirloom arabica typica cultivars which require a heavy shade cover to thrive. This area is also home to many rare birds such as the critically endangered White-winged Guan and the Peruvian Plantcutter. Bird guano is used in the coffee plantation as organic fertilizer. A wonderful South American coffee: a soft acidity, a very smooth medium body, a pleasing sweetness, and finishing with a subtle smokey flavor. Well suited to medium and dark roasts.