I'll be heading up June's RLT. We'll be roasting an incredible washed Ethiopian from Sweet Maria's, their Dereje Station from Sidama. I spoke with Dan earlier today and he continues to rave about the fruit this coffee contains. If you're a fan of clean, focused tropical fruit flavors, this looks to be a stellar coffee. My samples arrived a few hours ago, so I'll fire up a few roasts and see what I can get out of it.

Sounds like a great choice. Can't wait to give it a whirl!

TomC wrote:..We'll be roasting an incredible washed Ethiopian from Sweet Maria's, their Dereje Station from Sidama...

I grabbed a lb along with a lb of two of their Yemens. The Yemens I have had my eye on at the broker's still haven't shipped <audible groan...>.

By chance, I ordered a pound of this coffee on the 23rd (along with the Aricha!) Mind if I tag along on this?

I'll order some from SM soon. Should be fun. It'll be my first exploration with RLT, but I love the Ethiopians. I'll probably order a couple of pounds it the DP Yemenis as well.

I did notice SM has an Ethiopia DP gr 1 Yirgacheffe Aricha, very highly rated (93+), but not recommended for espresso. Yet, pretty good reviews for FC roast. Does anyone have experience with ordering coffees not recommended for espresso from sweet Maria's, to use for espresso roasting? The coffee sounds delightful, but I only roast for espresso. Do you think that this coffee is just better at roast levels of city +, which is generally too light a roast level for espresso?

I just ordered eight pounds of greens from Sweet Maria's. Looking forward to learning more good stuff

aaronotb wrote:By chance, I ordered a pound of this coffee on the 23rd (along with the Aricha!) Mind if I tag along on this?

Of course. It's open to everyone. (I bought the Aricha as well, just these two coffees)

SAB wrote:...I did notice SM has an Ethiopia DP gr 1 Yirgacheffe Aricha, very highly rated (93+), but not recommended for espresso. Yet, pretty good reviews for FC roast. Does anyone have experience with ordering coffees not recommended for espresso from sweet Maria's, to use for espresso roasting? The coffee sounds delightful, but I only roast for espresso. Do you think that this coffee is just better at roast levels of city +, which is generally too light a roast level for espresso?

Go by your palate. If you've already ordered it, see what you get out of it. It might open up with a bit of development and still dodge any ferment-y sourness or funkiness. And I've taken City roasts that were very light and made amazing espresso with the modified Strega, so to some extent it might depend on your gear.

If you've already ordered it, see what you get out of it.

I hadn't then, but I have, now. Since I was going to place an order with SM, I just thought I'd throw the question out there. I ordered a pound to give a try.

So, as before for organization sake, a recap of basic guidelines to help share profiles: roaster used and charge weight in the first part of the post at a minimum. All my profiles on my Quest M3 will contain the bean, roast date, charge weight and WL= weight loss (%), and sequential number of roast as I hone down on a profile I like (#2,#3) etc. in the title bar of my Artisan profiles.

I'm not overly dogmatic, folks are free to post however they deem fit, but for clarity sake I always add my follow up cupping notes/brewing notes by date to the post containing the profile images so that it's easily reviewed by others in one glance. I think it keeps these month long threads a bit easier to navigate and I ask that contributors do likewise. I don't really care where else you have your cupping results posted within the thread, I just ask that you add them into your profile post since there's often more than one. This becomes especially more beneficial when you've posted multiple profiles, it will help sort which cupping notes go with which roast.

It will help if experienced roasters share their approach to each profile, their goals and/or reasons why they ran their profiles the way they did. That's an easy way for newer folks to learn instead of having to inquire. Questions are great and encouraged, that's how we all improve. But at least leading with more information, it might help they shyer folks who are not as eager to ask questions. Personally I've found it cuts down the amount of PM's and serves as a resource down the road, so share as much as you know.

This coffee held no surprises during the roast, it roasts easily and typical for it's cultivar, elevation/density etc.


First profile- Standard washed high grown approach: moderately high charge temp with higher MET in reserve to power thru the drying phase just on the slightly fast side of normal, maintaining enough thermal energy to ramp to 1C a bit quicker. The balance then allows for a slightly stretched finish without stalling or baking a roast. A few snaps of 1C still happened as I dropped, but it had pretty much ran its full course. * I always note that my waveforms are not very reliable towards the finish if I'm sampling frequently, my ROR and all temps other than MET cave in quickly or appear to show staling,flat temps due to the proximity of the probes and tryer hole.

My modified Quest finishes all roasts quicker compared to a large commercial roast, which generally holds true for most roasters as you scale the size down. This is the longest I'd take a brewing roast as far as finishing, just shy of a minute +40 second period taking me into a City+ bordering on FC visual development, backed up by the significant weight loss. Generally, if I've hit my targets, an approach like this will yield fully developed roasts with balanced acidity, a hint of caramels in the sweetness, and not a heavy roast imprint. My temps will generally appear lower especially in the finishing temps than average.

Tasting Notes

• 5/30-36 hours rest, brewed 15:1 Kalita Wave 200°F-Dry Fragrance: Mild, Asian baking spice, cinnamon, still subtle and slightly grainy. Aroma: Slightly floral, restrained,cardamom. Acidity: Bright, crisp malic, lingering and well integrated. Flavor: Intense lychee and passion fruit mixed with lots of Mexican cinnamon, gobs of brown sugar sweetness. Finish: cools sweet with a buttery mouth coating richness but other flavors go flat rather quickly. Odd, because it starts slightly unbalanced,complex and thin, yet finishes with great body and a slippery mouth coating buttery richness that carries only a faint cinnamon flavor.

I'd give it an 89-90. It's good, likely needs another day of rest







Second profile- A bit inverted for contrast. I wanted a faster, shorter finish, which generally requires a slower drying phase or a gentler ramp so that I can still have a fully developed roast that lacks the graininess that I simply call "Cherrios" caused by too fast of a light roast where the center of the bean hasn't developed/dried properly/long enough.

In this case, I chose to stretch the drying phase and maintain the same ramp. This approach has served me well for years when I want light, bright but not sour fruits, sparkling acidity (even when it might not integrate throughout the cup) and the most preserved sugar sweetness. 45 seconds of development kept a very light cupping roast that visually just passes cinnamon into a light City roast. 1C was still finishing as I dropped the roast. You'll note an impressive difference in weight loss between these two profiles. I'll generally proceed with trimming the drying phase if I detect any flattening in the cup as long as I avoid the Cherrios.



Tasting Notes

• 5/31 15:1 198°F Kalita Wave. ~48 hours rest. This coffee is phenomenal. Far better, but I haven't re-checked the other profile, so it's not a fair comparison, but this is way out front. Dry Fragrance: Soft tea notes and sweet,yet subtle nutmeg and cardamom or similar baking spices. Aroma: Muted, slight floral, sweet jasmine. Flavor: Honeyed passionfruit, lots of honeydew, sweet tea, very,very sweet, the flavor list evolves thru many complex and well integrated waves, shifting thru exotic tropical fruits, honeyed tea and a very sweet background that doesn't fade. Acidity: Beautifully developed, balanced and crisp, well woven into the whole cup, this coffee is gulp-able. Finish lingers supported by a decent body, nothing oily or buttery, but persistent, slightly delicate. Overall impression is this the best Ethiopian out front by a wide margin. I'm getting more ripe honeydew melon than the passionfruit, but it's there as well as lychee. The incredible sweetness really jumps out on this one.

This is very easily a 92-93 point coffee in my opinion. I won't change much on the profile until I assess it throughout its resting period.


I didn't fire up the roaster till well after 11pm, so depending on the aromatics I may not brew them Thursday and wait till Friday. But I also ran a single profile of the DP Gr.1 Aricha and I might not be able to wait that long.

TomC wrote:...I don't really care where else you have your cupping results posted within the thread, I just ask that you add them into your profile post since there's often more than one. This becomes especially more beneficial when you've posted multiple profiles, it will help sort which cupping notes go with which roast.

...

Thanks, just makes a ton of sense.