I was searching the Home-Barista forums for information about roasting with the Hottop when I came across an interesting thread discussing a group activity where people buy and roast the same bean. I haven’t found any rules or even guidelines for the activity so for now, I’ll just assume that they will compare notes and analyses. Participants work with a different bean in January and February 2014. Everyone also buys the beans from the same source, a natural condition. I was curious so went to http://www.klatchroasting.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=GRE_COS_RIC_CER_PAL_RED_HON to look at the bean for January, Costa Rica Cerro Paldo. Here are some notes: The quote below is from the thread and it’s a comment by a user whose handle is boar-d-laze, very well expressed so I’m not going to try to paraphrase because the author’s own words will serve so much better. “Ken Davids consistently scores the Cerro Paldo bourbons above 90. Sometimes quite a bit more so. The coffee is high grown. Finca Cerro Paldo is 1850-1900m. There’s probably tons of information in English, but the best thing I could find on them was this short article in Spanish. “Red honey” means the fruit is dried with all of the pulp. “Yellow honey” means some of the fruit is removed before drying. The yellow honey process DOES result in a yellow appearing green bean. Yellow and red honeys will cup a little differently, but I’m pretty sure the roaster will treat them similarly. Just like their name, honeys are all about the sweetness. Well, nearly all. There are sweet fruits and flower notes to be had, but you’re going to have to work to not squash them.” It seems that this Red Honey variety requires a very delicate roasting profile. The author continues: “You want to start very gently or you’ll burn the sugars in the soft outer layer. You want to go through the drying phase — bread and rum aromas — gently. Pursue the Ramp fairly aggressively. You’re probably looking for a 1stCs in a drum at 9:00 – 10:00. In a fluid bed??? Gently through the Development stage, with plenty of air. I’m not sure what the max Development interval is in a drum roaster; but 4:30 is near the edge of the envelope to avoid flattening the coffee. Fluid bed? No opinion. “Plenty of air” in a drum so as not to season with smoke as you would, for instance, a West African. If you don’t want to go through the all the sample roasts required to work out a nailed-down profile from scratch, you could do worse than follow Boot’s advice — which happens to be the same as mine (not that I’m any sort of paragon). Low Charge temp; long Dry; long Development; C+, max.” As long as you don’t scorch the sugars in the beginning, and don’t overcook the bean at the end, you should get something very enjoyable. Bringing out the complexities will be challenging. Fast fluid-bed and slow Behmor results should be very interesting.”
Tortui 