I-Roast Flavor vs. Professional Roasts
GreggG
about a dozen roasts. So far, I can't even come close to acheiving a
flavor as good as the coffees I've ordered from online shops such as
Terroir, Pele Plantations, etc. I'm using the best beans I can find,
including beans from Terroir, whose roasts I really enjoy.
So at the risk of sounding blasphemous, is home roasting even worth the
effort? I'm all for trying the various taste profiles, finding the
ones I like best, but so far all I can produce is sub-par coffee. I've
under-roasted a few, and burnt a few, trying to find the right level.
I think I'm roasting into the early 2nd crack, but it's really
difficult to tell any difference between 1st and 2nd, and just the
sound of beans hitting the side of the glass. So I'm going by color,
mainly, and matching the color to the roasted beans sent by the
companies above. But it doesn't taste nearly as good. And I certainly
don't notice any "freshness" benefit.
Since I'm not a professional taster, I'll try to explain the tastes.
In general, they're on the bitter side, with a bit of a sourness that
lingers for a long time. No smoothness at all. Not much "weight" to
them either. I could be under-roasting, but if I go much longer, the
beans start to taste burnt (seems to go straight from under-roasted to
burnt).
For my Sumatra Mandheling, I'm warming at about 330 degrees (chamber
temp) for 3 minutes, kicking it up to 370 for another 3 minutes, and
then up to 410 until the roast looks done (about 4 minutes). I've
tried extending and shortening the warm-up phases, but without much
difference in taste. The roasted and grinded beans look fairly uniform
in color, but the smell is also lacking. Even after letting the beans
rest a day or so in a canning jar, the aroma isn't very interesting
when I open it.
So my question is this: Am I doing something wrong, or is home
roasting more about the experience than the flavor? If it's a learning
curve issue, and I'll eventually match or exceed the professionally
roasted products, then I'll keep trying. If not, I'll just go back to
ordering my coffee online. After hearing all the difficulties others
are experiencing, I'm thinking that it may be the former rather than
the latter.