Coffee Cupping Results

Can you believe it’s been nearly 3 weeks since my last coffee share? I bet you’re wondering how that first roast tasted and I am here to tell you, it was pretty damn good. Since my last post, I’ve roasted another four batches using different settings and I am beginning to feel like I may have this coffee figured out. In this update, I’ll break down how the roast profile influences the final coffee taste.

Cupping your Coffee

Before diving into the roast profiles, it’s important to understand coffee cupping — the process behind experiencing the final product and evaluating its qualities. I like to use the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s (SCAA) process of which they outline here. In short, and for those who don’t want to venture this deep into coffee, cupping is the process of grinding a small amount of beans, pouring hot water over them and running through a series of tests at given times. These tests have you smelling and tasting the coffee at various stages in order to evaluate the taste using a rubric.

It may sound like a bit much, but cupping your freshly roasted coffee is key to figuring out if you liked the output of the roast. For me, I like to cup 24 hours after roasting, so I know the coffee has rested and degassed. I don’t go as far as scoring my coffee, but I am keen to jot down smells and tastes. As the coffee develops through the week, I append to my notes and capture the changes.

Measuring out the 8.25 grams for cupping

All ground up, slightly coarse

Water is poured in and the coffee sits for a few minutes undisturbed

Checking temperature along the way

Tasting Notes and Roast Influence

Being four roasts in, I’ve learned that a few degrees or even a couple seconds can really make a difference on the types of flavors you find within the coffee. I’ll quickly note each roast and summarize my thoughts overall.

Roast from oldest (left) to newest (right)

Roast One

For a number of factors, this roast felt like a failure, but turned out to be the best tasting so far

Despite the mistakes, roast one happened to be my favorite so far compared to my other roasts. The coffee was light and just a touch of sweetness with no real hints of any char flavor. I found this batch tasted best after resting for two days and really improved throughout the week.

Roast Two

Adjusted the heat profile after first crack (85%) and let the beans go further into the roast

For roast two, I went with my original plan to apply heat to the beans at 100% and lowering the temperature right after first crack. My thought process here was that I wanted to slow down the roast after first crack in order to develop more flavors to the bean. Unfortunately, I ended up charring some of the beans which killed off any of the fruit notes. This coffee didn’t taste bad as a pour over, but it lacked a lot of what I enjoyed in the first roast.

Knowing a darker roast could work well for an espresso, I decided to give that a shot. Similar to the first roast, I found that flavors developed more throughout the week. In the case of the espresso, my last shot with this roast ended up tasting the best. Rich, velvety crema with delicious notes of dark chocolate.

Roast Three

Lowered the heat profile (75%) for the entire roast and dropped early after first crack

I can only handle so much dark roast, so in roast three, I tried to get back to the lighter profile of roast one. Not having changed much in my profile, my goal was to drop before the bean temperature went too high. It turns out my fears got the best of me, because I dropped the beans at 372 degrees, nearly 6 degrees from roast one. In my nativity, I figured this wasn’t a big deal, but it had a big impact on taste. The coffee lacked any fruit or char and was extremely bland. Running it as espresso didn’t help and only resulted in a sour cup, even after being dialed in properly.

Roast Four

Charged 20 degrees higher and left the heat lower (75%) for the roast until it hit 380 degrees

At the time of writing, roast four is still resting, though it has been cupped. Looking back through the data and my tasting notes, I really tried to have this fall right between roast one and two. The only major parameter I changed in this roast was the charge temperature in order to see if that influenced how quickly I got to first crack.

After Thoughts

It’s been very interesting to see how three roasts of the same coffee could taste so widely different depending on the roast. The process has given me a greater appreciation for coffee overall and has me being more critical of the coffee I taste at other shops. As I gain more of an understanding of this bean, my intention is to finalize a roast profile and begin offering the output to friends. The sooner I can get through the remaining green coffee, the sooner I can start on my next bean project.