Reading about cupping and attending a few cuppings with experts hasn't given me the confidence to do any of it myself. In a cupping company I am primarily concerned about avoiding someone else's mucus on my spoon.
Still it would be handy if I could do something like it to taste my own roasts right after roasting.
Presently I take 10g of beans right after cooling down from the roaster, grind it (always the same grind setting on the same grinder) and measure it using the Tonino. It gives me a number that tells me how much darker / lighter this roast is than another one in similar circumstances.
The grinds then sit on the table for a few hours before I throw them out. Sometimes they yield a mesmerizing coffee perfume and sometimes hardly any smell comes off. This also helps predict how the espresso will be a week later, especially if I save three different samples of roasts done in quick succession. If one seems dead to my nose, the other sends out plain 'coffee' aroma and the third practically sings a song to the senses, I can tell that this third will probably be the most expressive one in the cup a week later.
Still it would be nice to be able to tell more a little sooner.
To try this, I dusted off a french press that I have had in a closet for about 6 years:
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I used the 10g of grinds, added 200ml of water at 85ºC, waited 3 minutes, pushed and poured 100ml of coffee in a cappuccino cup.
The coffee tasted soft and sweet (Costa Rica, FC @ 200ºC, development 21%, weight loss 15%, volume gain 40%, drop temp 218ºC, Tonino#93).
Next week I will know if this correlates in any way to the espresso result and I can do the same procedure every time after I've tested 10g of grinds, maybe changing the procedure a little, one variable at a time, to figure out what will make the grinds speak to me most about their taste in the near future.
Marko, a friend, writes me:
Still it would be handy if I could do something like it to taste my own roasts right after roasting.
Presently I take 10g of beans right after cooling down from the roaster, grind it (always the same grind setting on the same grinder) and measure it using the Tonino. It gives me a number that tells me how much darker / lighter this roast is than another one in similar circumstances.
The grinds then sit on the table for a few hours before I throw them out. Sometimes they yield a mesmerizing coffee perfume and sometimes hardly any smell comes off. This also helps predict how the espresso will be a week later, especially if I save three different samples of roasts done in quick succession. If one seems dead to my nose, the other sends out plain 'coffee' aroma and the third practically sings a song to the senses, I can tell that this third will probably be the most expressive one in the cup a week later.
Still it would be nice to be able to tell more a little sooner.
To try this, I dusted off a french press that I have had in a closet for about 6 years:
The coffee tasted soft and sweet (Costa Rica, FC @ 200ºC, development 21%, weight loss 15%, volume gain 40%, drop temp 218ºC, Tonino#93).
Next week I will know if this correlates in any way to the espresso result and I can do the same procedure every time after I've tested 10g of grinds, maybe changing the procedure a little, one variable at a time, to figure out what will make the grinds speak to me most about their taste in the near future.
Marko, a friend, writes me:
I would respect the protocol and wait before any tasting at least one full day and then still let the ground coffee sit for a defined period degassing (at least 1h). I found the CO2 of too fresh beans would disturb my taste buds too much. (I think your 85C are way too cool and you should use water closer to 91-93C) and, for another, ensure that the roast is developed enough. An underdeveloped roast should disclose itself in being unable to reach 19-20% extraction with any brew parameters.