Since we are kindly waiting on a bag of Yirg SOS from Terroir that may never materialize... we decided to go play with what was left of an old bag of the drip coffee roast we had lying around. It was roasted the 28th but has been open for sveral days so it barely had a little life left in it. Of course this blog would be delighted to have a hand picked bag brought down from the roastery, that's not likely to happen....
We decided to see if we could get some respectable pulls like we used to back when the Saturday afternoon coffee club was more of an event. We took some of Terroir's Yirgacheffe and pulled it through Ben's frankensteined home machine withPID and all fired up and ready to go. Here follows some of our results... reader be warned... notes are transcribed as is without editing. Sink shots were left out.
notes: Grounds smell wonderful. The note of ginger pops immediately with a hint of some cocoas.
Shot A: 16grams 175F 1oz
A boring 'nestle' cocoa. Aroma was like honey. Dull but drinkable hot. Bitter andyuck as it began to cool. Too hot and too short maybe?
Shot B: 16grams 174F 1oz
Apricots honey aroma. Nice like that venezuela cocoa bar while hot. Too sour as it begins to cool. Grind? Too short, not too hot? Sickly sweet and acetic.
Shot C: 16grams 173F 2oz
dull and tasteless. Temp too low but volume is right.
several shots occured between this and the next that were not worth noting.
Shot D: 16grams 175F 1.25oz
ginger becomes more prevalent. A little intense but very sweet and tasty as it cooled. Perfect for americano style. No cocoa? -Mouthwatering effect- Bit on the citrus side, volume too low but temp is right.
Shot E: 16grams 175F 2oz
Ginger cocoa and dried fruit. Aromatics on the nose pop. Creamy. About as good as it gets for this coffees age.
Summary: Given that this is in fact a drip roast pulled at odd temps, it was pretty nice. I think most people would go americano on this and enjoy the aroma andsugars in the cup. If you do get the idea to try this, shoot me an email and I can give you some pointers. You need a PID to play around with this kinda stuff and don't expect traditional espresso profiles. These low temp shots make great americanos but are a bit too different from a normal straight shot. We bounced around on this one a lot because it is a lot harder to nail these on a home setup than on the Synesso even with a PID!
Great fun to experiment when you have a little extra something. Sometimes you can hit on something you didn't expect.
Cheers
Jaime
