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!

Nicaragua 5 de Junio Green Coffee Beans Test

I'm sitting here sipping a flat-white made with the organic green Nicaragua 5 de Junio beans that came in the Seven Bridges Cooperative green bean sampler pack.

The label on the bag recommends these beans for Medium to Full City.

I roasted the beans using my iRoast-2 home coffee bean roaster using the following profile:

• 385F for 7 minutes
• 430F for 2 minutes
• 465 F for 2 minutes

The roasted beans are mid-to dark brown, and the color is consistent through the bean, meaning a Full City roast.

The beans produce above average crema. The espresso liquor has distinctive bitter overtones.

These beans are quite comparable to the Colombian Popayan beans I previously tested in that they produce excellent crema and exhibit bitterness as the overriding taste, though these beans are not as distinctive in flavor in the way the Popayan beans are.

Roasting Green Colombia Popayan Beans

Latest up for my iRoast-2 tests of the green coffee beans I purchased at Amazon.com in the Seven Bridges Cooperative green coffee bean sampler pack were the Colombian Popayan beans.

I’ve settled for using the one roasting profile now:

• 385F for 7 minutes
• 430F for 2 minutes
• 465 F for 2 minutes

This profile seems to work perfectly in achieving a “Full City” roast. Not too light, not too dark, and evenly consistent in color to the center of the bean.

You’ve got to prefer your coffee bitter to like these beans. I have actually bought roasted Colombia Popayan beans in the past, from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters I think. For my taste, they are a little on the bitter side. However, they sure do generate good crema; definitely above average. So they probably make a good target as a blend with something that is not as bitter but not as good at producing crema. For example, the delicious Bolivian Cenaproc beans which I wrote up in a previous post: Roasting Green Bolivian Cenaproc beans.

So to sum up:

• The above roasting profile seems to work very well for achieving a “full city roast” using the iRoast-2.
• If you prefer bitter highlights in your espresso coffee , then the Colombian Popayan beans are for you.
• These beans produce above-average crema
• These beans might be a great bean to blend with sweeter-tasting beans that don’t produce crema as well, such as Bolivian Cenaproc beans.

Happy home roasting! I’m having a lot of fun, learning to master my iRoast-2 and getting to try such a wide range of coffee flavors from around the world.

Green Bolivian Cenaproc Beans

Latest up for my tests were Bolivian Cenaproc beans. Once again, these are organic green coffee beans, shade grown and certified USDA organic supplied by the Seven Bridges Cooperative in their green bean sampler pack.

The green beans have a very distinctive earthy smell. As far as size goes, they are what you probably consider your normal coffee bean size, unlike the previous beans I have tested which were all small beans. I used the roasting profile that is saved to slot #3 on my iRoaster 2, which is:

• 385F for 7 minutes
• 430F for 2 minutes
• 465 F for 2 minutes

Note: All roasting profiles using the iRoast 2 end with a 4 minute cooling cycle.

The color of the roasted beans was indicative of a medium roast. When ground the color of the ground beans was consistent with the external color of the beans. The roast could be classified as a "Full City Roast".

Crema production is average. I noted that if you didn't use beans that were freshly ground then crema production was poor.

However, flavor is superb! This is my favorite so far in terms of taste, and in taste tests with friends who have not liked many of the roasts I have tried on them from Seattle suppliers, this one gets a thumbs up as not being bitter.

I'm almost at the end of these beans, so keep an eye out for my next update; there are still several varieties left in the sampler pack.

All the equipment you need to going with making superb espresso coffee drinks for a fraction of the price you will pay at a coffee shop can be viewed and purchased online here at my Coffee Store.

The easiest way to be notified of a new post is to subscribe to my blog feed

Brazil Poco Fundo Green Coffee Beans

As reported in my previous post, I was about to roast some Brazilian Poco Fundo green coffee beans. I used the following profile, which is saved as #3 in my i-Roast 2:

• 385F for 7 minutes
• 430F for 2 minutes
• 465 F for 2 minutes

The roasting profile seemed to work out very well for these beans, which are on the small size. The color was medium to dark-medium. The beans when ground were the same color as the exterior color of the beans, meaning I had pulled off the perfect "Full City" roast.

The beans produced acceptable crema, though less than was produced by the previous beans I was testing, Timor Maubesse beans. The flavor was on the sweet side, and they made a very pleasant espresso-based drink. (Try my favorite, a flat white). If I had to choose between this, the Poco Fundo from Brazil and the Timor Maubesse from Timor, I would prefer the Maubesse.

Next up are Bolivian Cenaproc beans. Once again, organic green coffe beans, shad grown and certified USDA organic.

Roasting Green Timor Maubesse Coffee Beans

Roasting the green Timor Maubesse coffee beans that came in the Seven Bridges Cooperative sampler pack was a learning experience.

If you've been reading these posts about roasting green coffee beans at home using an i-Roaster 2, then you will know that I started out with Seattle's Vivace Roasteria's "Dolce" blend beans. The Timor Maubesse beans are a lot smaller than the beans in the Dolce blend. Actually, they are sort of tiny.

In the first roast I actually blended 50/50 Dolce and Timor Maubesse beans and roasted at 385F for 7mins, 430F for 3.5mins, and 465F for 2.5 minutes.

It turned out to be one of my favorite blends ever! So sweet tasting! Good crema production too.

The second roast I used just the Timor Maubesse beans and set out to use the same roast profile. Luckily I kept an eye on things as by time it was at the end of 1.5 minutes for the final step the beans were pretty dark, so I stopped the roaster. (By the way, to interrupt a roasting profile and start the cool cycle, just press the "Roast" button").

The outcome was definitely a "dark roast". The flavor of the beans on their own wasn't as pleasant as when blended with the "Dolce" beans. And crema production was only average to poor. Unfortunately there weren't any more beans for me to test whether this less-than agreeable outcome was due to over-roasting the beans or not.

So on to the next bean variety. These are Brazil Poco Fundo, fair trade certified, and USDA certified organic green beans. Once again the beans are on the smaller size so in the roast I just finished, but haven't yet tried, I used the following profile which I have saved as roasting profile 3 on my i-Roaster:

• 385F for 7 minutes
• 430F for 2 minutes
• 465 F for 2 minutes

The roast turned out at a mid-brown color. The label on the package states the beans are recommended for medium to full city roasts. I'll let you know what the flavor is like and what the crema production is like soon. Oh, and as I put them in my Bean Vac I took a whiff of course, and noticed that the aroma had a distinct tobacco overtone!

Get a sampler pack of organic fair-trade green coffee beans from Seven Bridges Cooperative

Get your own i-Roast 2 from Amazon.com

Home Roasting Profile - Latest

I'm going to have to start numbering these posts as I search for the perfect roasting profile for my green beans and iRoast 2.

The last roast actually turned out too light. The color of the ground beans was slightly lighter than the exterior color, and we're aiming at getting the same color inside and out for a start. Also, not so much crema was produced. But the taste is pretty good though. The profile, using green "Dolce" blend from Vivace in Seattle was:

• 6 minutes at 385F
• 3.5 minutes at 450F
• 2.5 minutes at 465F

My latest roast is actually something quite different altogether. For a start, it's a blend of half a cup of the Dolce beans and half a cup of green Timor Maubesse beans from Seven Bridges Cooperative. The Timorese beans are a lot smaller than the beans in the Dolce blend. They have quite a musty smell. They are shade grown fair trade certified beans, and the label recommends them for light to espresso roast. Obviously since I've blended them with the Dolce beans, it will be a few days before I try a pure roast of the Timor Maubesse beans by themselves. The roasting profile for this blend that I just completed was:

• 7 minutes at 385F
• 3.5 minutes at 450F
• 2.5 minutes at 465

The color of the roasted beans is fairly dark, perhaps somewhere between the medium-brown color of a "full city" roast and the dark brown of a French/espresso roast.

Sometime soon I will do a post on recording and storing a roasting profile with the i-Roast 2. I have to say it has taken a while for me to master it. It's not hard once you know how, but it's not easy when you don't since there are just two buttons on the front of the machine that are used for all the functions delivered with the roaster!

Get your own i-Roast 2 and start having fun and saving money!

Get organic fair-trade green coffee beans from Seven Bridges Cooperative