MarkPrince Moderator Joined: 19 Dec 2001 Posts: 5,462 Location: Vancouver, BC Expertise: Professional
Espresso: KvdW Speedster Grinder: Compak K10 WBC Vac Pot: A bit too many Drip: Clive Coffee Drip Stand Roaster: Hario Glass Retro Roaster
Posted Thu Jun 27, 2002, 11:03pm Subject: My "Go To" Blend (or Fall Back Blend)
I usually do a ton of experimenting with blends to try and hone my fairly poor blending, cupping, and coffee sensory abilities (a cupper I ain't), but every once in a while I "fall back" or "go to" an old standby that I hit on about a year or two ago, and always come back to. Here it is (note some interchangeables)
25% Chocolate style bean, be it Maui Moka (sigh), Yemen Mocha, that amazing (and gone) Jacmel Mme Alix crop, or similar - chocolate has to be the primary note. Roasted to Full City
25% Medium Bright coffee - like a Guat Antigua (my old standby). Roasted to Full City Plus / Light French
25% Java Old Government estate - roasted to full city.
15% Monsooned Malabar Roasted to full city
10% Kaapi Royale Robusta roasted to a very light french.
I get heaps and heaps and heaps of luscious crema with this blend, and the mix of beans seems almost perfect to my palate. I roast the 25% portions in an Alp (or the Hottop), and the Malabar and Kaapi in a HWP.
This blend has been mondo good to me over the years. Finding the suitable chocolate is hard (and when I used Maui Moka, I had to roast it all in the HWP - the bean is too small for the Alp or HT). It has to be a "serious impact" chocolate bean.
Thanks for the link, but I already read it. After reading this article and your posts in alt.coffee about that coffee (that's what Terry M suggested on the bag ;-) I feel priviledged that Terry M gave me some to try.
But my question was more about your "all gone" statement. Is there going to be future crops? Or were you saying that your supply is all gone? ;-)
MarkPrince Moderator Joined: 19 Dec 2001 Posts: 5,462 Location: Vancouver, BC Expertise: Professional
Espresso: KvdW Speedster Grinder: Compak K10 WBC Vac Pot: A bit too many Drip: Clive Coffee Drip Stand Roaster: Hario Glass Retro Roaster
Posted Fri Jun 28, 2002, 10:04pm Subject: Re: My "Go To" Blend (or Fall Back Blend)
Oops, sorry for the confusion.
There was something special about that Mme Alix crop and the way it was picked and sorted. It looked (in green) like a complete mishmash of bean types, even more so than your typical Yemen does. Sorting and finishing was all over the map. They were still "learning" how to sort etc with that crop.
The thing is, this learning created an amazing bean batch that as a "single bean", was one of the few I've immensely enjoyed as espresso (normally you have to blend for espresso - the mishmash of sorting and finishes on the Mme Alix crop was almost like a "blend" in its own)
I bought 5lbs of the next year's crop (which came available around Christmas and January), and well, it's not the same. It's more even, better finished, and as a single bean in coffee brewing, it's great. But no longer so as a single bean espresso.
Posted Sat Jun 29, 2002, 2:09pm Subject: Re: My "Go To" Blend (or Fall Back Blend)
CoffeeKid Said:
I usually do a ton of experimenting with blends to try and hone my fairly poor blending, cupping, and coffee sensory abilities (a cupper I ain't), but every once in a while I "fall back" or "go to" an old standby that I hit on about a year or two ago, and always come back to. Here it is (note some interchangeables)
I haven't been doing this for as long but my fallback, lazy(I cheat a little) blend is 2/3 SweetMarias Monkey Blend and 1/3 Sumatran (Lately Lake Tawar). I'll occasionally throw in a tiny bit of a bright bean but most times it's just those 2.
jim_schulman Senior Member Joined: 19 Dec 2001 Posts: 3,772 Location: Chicago Expertise: I live coffee
Posted Sat Jun 29, 2002, 3:56pm Subject: Re: My "Go To" Blend (or Fall Back Blend)
coffeebeing Said:
I haven't been doing this for as long but my fallback, lazy(I cheat a little) blend is 2/3 SweetMarias Monkey Blend and 1/3 Sumatran (Lately Lake Tawar). I'll occasionally throw in a tiny bit of a bright bean but most times it's just those 2.
Yeah. I don't have a go to blend, but I do have a "lazy" one -- 50% Mocha Kadir roasted to a dry full city for balanced chocolate & berry + 50 % Malabar Gold roasted to a slightly oily full city for the kick. I've been making it since I was a roasting newbie, and it still stands up quite well.
A "lazy version of Mark's go to" would be the old Berkeley roaster standby, an antigua/mandheling preblend, mixed with Malabar Gold.
Exactly, the two beans roast at the same rate, so they can be premixed. The big advantage of that is you can use any proportion you like. I like roughly 1/3 antigua 2/3 Sumatra, but vary that according to the specific greens I have. It's a good base for a milk drink blend because of it's very assertive roast flavors.
I discovered years ago, mixing bags of storebought coffee, that the two beans have a flavor synergy. I've heard since then that Peets', Starbucks and almost all roasters who got their start with Peets have a version, and that it goes back to their early days.
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