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A Blended Coffee out of the USA

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  • here is a basic video to demonstrate how i like to extract this coffee; you will note that i am grinding slightly coarser to allow a faster flow rate; this fades out the tea like (camomile) tannins that are present if the flow rate is too restricted. i really dont like anything that tastes like tea in my coffee.

    i have used a 20g dose with 6 bar of pre-infusion and the resultant brew weight is 37g - i was seeking about 40g but pulled the cup fractionally too early


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    [video width=425 height=344 type=vimeo]336250258


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  • I was just browsing Gardelli and noticed they have a Bolivian coffee now.

    https://shop.gardellicoffee.com/coffees/422-el-arcangel-honey-lot-bolivia
  • Superb! if there is some left when i get down on coffee i will definitely order some - i see coffee collective sold most of the bolivian last week i think

    i just ordered this earlier today:

    https://shop.squaremilecoffee.com/products/magwila-espresso

    i have had the blackburn estate coffees from tanzania before and really enjoyed them, so hopefully this one is every bit as good if not better.
  • Yes, at Coffee Collective I was only able to order the Fincas Los Rodriguez, and Espresso #1 which is blend of Columbian and Bolivian coffee.
    On the way now.
  • hi pawel

    im very interested to hear your thoughts on that blend as i wish i had added it to my order now. i suspect it will be a winner

    following on from yesterday i have dropped the dose down from 20g to 19g and tightened the grind to maintain the same flow rate as the puck was pushing up against the shower screen a bit and damaging the puck on some shots



    it seems better now and the taste in the cup is a bit less over powering, a bit more balanced. better all round i think with a more consistent pour as the puck is being looked after better

    the basket is our 18-20g IMS as i find it very flexible and it can accommodate up to 24g if it is a very fine grind

    r.

    Attached files

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  • I’ve just received this lot from April roasters. So far I’ve only tried the Colombian, and am really enjoying it, very lively. Can’t wait to work my way through the rest.


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  • Thanks for posting Geoff. The more roast reviews the better.
  • Tasting notes Mzungu project
    Hello Reiss and team

    Just to share with you my experience of the Gardelli mzungu so far.
    I have to admit I struggle a bit.
    I grind it with an ETZ light.
    I received the beans now a week ago. They had 10 days since roast. Kept them frozen, and I grind them frozen.
    The coffee is beautifully roasted, the perfumes jump at you even when you open the bag.
    I have tried various Pi, from 3.5 to 5, starting with those that you had mentioned Reiss (i.e. 4b PI, 18g, fine grind).
    18g , first drop in 2/3 s each time, never more.
    Flow rate 1g/s with light variations.
    Crema looks normal, light colored, similar to your pictures. The volume of the crema is significantly inferior to the volumes of crema I get on average, though.
    I end up with a coffee that retains too much acidity to my taste, and I cannot tame it. The grind settings affect the flow as they always do, i.e. finer means lower flow rates. But I have found that this does not tame the acidity, funnily enough, almost the contrary. The extractions I liked best were the fastest ones, (although I never managed to extract with 2g/s...)

    Any recommendation ? Should I try even higher PI and grind even finer ?
    It might be that this coffee remains acidic (did it, in your experience ?), but it is really on the higher range of acidity, I have to admit. I usually go for medium roasts, but I cannot shake the impression that I am not making the best out of that Mzungu project...

    Cheers

    Nico
  • hi nico!

    thanks for posting

    if you want to reduce the acidity further then increase the pre-infusion pressure - step it up all the way to 6 bar - this will increase the brew temperature

    you may need to grind finer in response to the higher pre-infusion pressure, but try it at the same grind setting first

    if you just find the coffee too intense, too much flavour, too much body, etc, then drop the dose in 1g increments until you arrive at a less intense experience

    let us know

    kind regards

    reiss.
  • Espresso #1, highly recommended.
    It is bit darker roast then the other Bolivian coffees you tested. Still on the lighter side if we talk about espresso blends. This is really delicious blend, and also pretty easy to brew.
    I use 17,5 g in VST, I get 36-38 g of coffee. Preinfusion (standard 3,5 bar) around 7 seconds, then roughly 25 seconds of espresso brewing.

    What is inside the blend?
    66% Nolberto, Colombia
    34% Buena Vista Natural, Bolivia

    Espresso has beautiful rich floral aroma and very fresh acidity of grapes. Superb. Worth trying, when still available.


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  • thanks for posting Pawel. i think they have obtained excellent bolivian coffees too and strongly encourage any londinium owner who enjoys a light roast to try them

    i am now onto a tanzanian coffee from square mile and that is incredible too. ill take some photos and post about it soon

    best

    reiss.
  • The next coffee is Square Mile's Magwila from Tanzania. I purchased this coffee on the basis that i have roasted Blackburn Estate from Tanzania before and liked it




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    Coffee in my experience falls into three categories; dud, good but intolerant of poor preparation, and good and tolerant of poor preparation

    I like this coffee because the very first shot i pulled using the parameters i was using from the previous coffee gave a pleasing espresso, albeit one that would obviously benefit from refining the dose and grind

    Furthermore, the flavour notes on the label were instantly recognised, which is often not the case in my experience

    I now use an 18g dose for this coffee as the 19g dose was slightly too intense for my taste

    I would recommend this coffee too if the flavour notes appeal as that is exactly what you will get in the cup

    reiss.

    Attached files

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  • the next coffee up is one of three that my brother brought back from melbourne last week:


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    19g dose works well. im running 6 bar PI, but i suspect it is too much - it is knocking the stuffing out of it a little i think as very little acidity is exhibited

    i will try dialling it back to 5 bar PI tomorrow

    a super coffee though, these guys really know what they are doing and once again the flavour notes on the pack are accurate

    reiss.
  • so i dialled it back to 5 bar of PI and it is an improvement and i will try it at 4 bar next

    i set the grinder just fractionally more coarse and lifted the dose to 20g

    this coffee is a speciality coffee, but it has very low acidity, which i appreciate

    i have learnt that this coffee needs to be run tight, verging on over-extraction

    if you open it up and let it run fast and hot it tastes really poor; unrecognisable as the same coffee in fact

    i would highly recommend this coffee to anyone in NZ and Australia, and further afield if you are willing to pay a bit more for delivery

    it is exactly as described on the packet, which doesnt happen very often; it has strong base notes of dark chocolate, with some middle notes of dried fig layered on top of that, and then light notes of lime jelly swirling around elusively on top

    a great coffee but run it tight. i had perhaps a 25s wait for the first drip to fall in the cup, the brew weight was 31.1g and it probably took 50s to fall into the cup

    reiss.
  • so after going down in 1 bar increments to 3 bar and deciding the taste was deteriorating i settled on the following as the best yet

    5 bar PI
    20g dose
    20s for first drip to fall into the cup
    45s for 27g of espresso to fall into the cup

    250g of this coffee was gifted to me, but it illustrates the point that you need to buy at least 500g of any coffee you buy and i recommend 1Kg, otherwise just as you start to get a feel for the optimum brew parameters you will find you are getting to the bottom of the bag and the game is up

    i would recommend this coffee if you like low acidity roasts - the predominant flavour here is cocoa nib and the high dose and brew temp help to accentuate this characteristic

    reiss.
  • with the last of the beans i went for:

    5.5 bar PI

    19.8g dose (was hoping for 20g but that is all the beans that remained)
    20s of PI to the first drip
    40s for 30g of espresso to fall in the cup

    it is a really unusual coffee, but in a good way, and proves once again that you can not be formulaic in your approach to the 'correct' espresso extraction for any given coffee: let your taste buds guide you. it has very low acidity (as many Panaminian coffees do) and you would expect it to taste better at lower PI pressure settings, but that just isnt the case

    i ran out of coffee, but i prefer the PI at 5.5 bar or greater as the high extraction brings out the graininess that a high cocoa chocolate gives you and weirdly it doesnt taste burnt or woody

    it also works best with a high dose and short brew volumes so you are really playing to the rich cocoa notes

    next!
  • the next coffee i was gifted is from colombia

    i am not a fan of colombian (or honduran) coffee, but credit where it is due, this is a fine example of a colombian coffee


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    kind regards

    reiss.
  • and now i am into the third and final coffee:




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    Attached files

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  • i dialled this kenyan back from an initial pre infusion pressure of 5.5 to 3.5 bar and it was much better

    i ran out of coffee before i fully optimised it, but i would expect the optimum pre-infusion pressure is somewhere just above 3.5bar, perhaps 3.7 or 3.8

    all three of these coffees from melbourne roasters were first class and i would recommend all of them unreservedly

    next we'll get back to the square mile coffee as that is worthy of more detailed coverage too

    reiss.

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    good roaster, poor coffee. when you are setting a kafatek max grinder finer than setting '1' and you are not even close to choking the machine this is your indicator that the coffee you are using is of poor quality. bear in mind that this coffee was less than a week post roast and the only 'crema' that was generated from it is due to the gassing off of the carbon dioxide post roast - once that had floated off it was clear that there was very little in the way of lipids in the coffee, which is where the magic is; that is where the flavour comes from




  • arrived monday this week. i have only opened the Ateng Super and it is the best coffee from indonesia that i have ever tasted. no notes of decaying jungle floor present here; a light clean roast with vibrancy. i highly recommend this coffee and look forward to opening the next one when this one is finished

    reiss.

    Attached files

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  • I picked up some of the Panama Finca Hartmann posted by Reiss a few weeks ago. One shot so far, but the first was really wonderful. Full of character, flavors as described, creamy mouthfeel, delicious. A first shot shouldn’t taste this good! I’m not sure I’ll mess with it further.

    I’m using a 2014 L1, starting with 17 g with 27sec to 36g. I pre infused fir 3 sec at 1.5 bar, then lifted the lever to just before catch point for higher pressure pre infusion until it dropped.

    Attached files

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  • Geoff Roberts post=15847 wrote: I picked up some of the Panama Finca Hartmann posted by Reiss a few weeks ago. One shot so far, but the first was really wonderful. Full of character, flavors as described, creamy mouthfeel, delicious. A first shot shouldn’t taste this good! I’m not sure I’ll mess with it further.

    I’m using a 2014 L1, starting with 17 g with 27sec to 36g. I pre infused fir 3 sec at 1.5 bar, then lifted the lever to just before catch point for higher pressure pre infusion until it dropped.

    From Australian roaster Industry Beans


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  • Reiss, i'm so excited i found this post! very curious to hear your thoughts on this espresso blend!

    https://rubycoffeeroasters.com/collections/coffee/products/creamery-seasonal-blend
  • hi dan

    thank you for posting

    i put it in the cart and went to the checkout, but it seems they dont ship to new zealand unfortunately

    kind regards

    reiss.
  • oh no! that is annoying. i can try to pick up an extra bag and ship to you on my next order?
  • hi dan

    great idea. please drop me a PM or email so i can reimburse you for the coffee and carriage charges

    kind regards

    reiss.
  • I have a suggestion of some North Italian style blends from Espresso Vivace (https://espressovivace.com)

    Espresso Vita
    Espresso Dolce

    There's quite a bit of information on extraction based on modern machines, but not a lever; so I thought it might make for a good translation. That, and I really like the coffee.

    All the best

    Adrian
  • ok adrian
    i shall order some tomorrow
    thank you for the suggestion
    reiss.


  • its not going to be possible unfortunately.

    Attached files

    Screenshot2020-04-25at01.04.48.pdf (2.9 MB) 
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