Comments:
- I haven’t had a lot to say about my coffee recently
- Over the past few weeks, I’ve found myself compressing the intervals between pours, rushing through the process to taste the results of my efforts only to find myself frustrated at the outcome
- I stopped making tasting notes because I started to believe that all mugs from a given bag were tasting the same
- My process has become less about the exciting discovery of new flavours, and more about the grind (ho ho) which led to irritation and not feeling like I’m getting better at this
- So let’s reset, try something new
- Today, I’m back to the more savoury Scenery Mario Hervas beans
- Savoury beans, I find, are best balanced by pulling out as much sweetness as possible
- In my (still somewhat limited) experience, savoury aromas and flavours tend to have a multiplying effect on the undesirable bitter flavours
- Pulling out the sweetness helps to keep ‘em separated, allowing the savoury flavours to shine while mollifying the Darkness at the end, like the raisins and apples in a Turkish curry
- In order to maximise this effect, and to shake things up a bit, I’m going to have extended intervals between pours
- The idea is to let as much of the sweet water drain out as possible, so that I’m not piling water on top of water and keeping the grounds at maximum saturation, strangling the sweetness
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Roast dinner with a hint of apple sauce. Promising.
First Taste: Those apples are up front, although a bit subdued. A little dark on the finish, so perhaps the extended intervals separated things too much.
Second Taste: As it cools, the brightness is becoming more prominent and mingling longer with the body, creating a more balanced mug and a pleasant finish.
This is a decent mug and I feel like I’m onto something here.
Rating:
🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
On reflection, perhaps I put my intervals the wrong way around, and should have left a shorter gap between the first and second and a longer between the second and third.
This would allow a larger portion of the sweetened water to fall through before the body pour.
This is good! I have new things to try! I feel like I’m broken out of my rut and, for the first time in a while, I’m excited to be making coffee again.
Beans
- Roastery: Scenery
- Beans: Mario Hervas
- Roast: Light (2/7)
- primary aroma: sweet
Adjustments
- Coffee weight: 16g
- Grind Type: Slow Feed
- Water to bean Ratio: 16.0:1 (256g)
- Sweet to Acidity Ratio: 3:5
Method: Custom
- 1st Pour: 38.0g in 5s (total: 38.0g)
- 3 Strong Swirls
- Wait 40s
- 2nd Pour: 64.0g in 5s (total: 102.0g)
- Wait 30s
- 3rd Pour: 154.0g in 20s (total: 256.0g)
- Bed Clear: 02:45
Unchanged Settings
- Grind size: 1Zpresso QS @ 70 (777.78μm, Burr Distance: 52.5mm)
- Water temperature: 88°C (190.4°F)
- Filter paper: Hario V60 01 Brown
- Funnel warming water: 400mm @ 88°C (190.4°F)