More about buying coffee beans...

I posted a little about buying green beans from Sweet Maria's. SM really makes it easy since they cup everything they sell and make those result available to the customer. Helps me feel I can rely on the descriptions they write (not a universal approach with coffee importers).

Even with detailed cupping notes it can be hard to choose what we are going to like. There are a lot of coffee flavor & aroma subtleties that are lost on me. But thanks to buying enough coffee that just didn't work for me, I have settled on a few personal guidelines-

• If it doesn't say something about "chocolate", I probably won't bother
• If the notes suggest a light roast, I won't bother
• If it makes reference to tea flavors, it will probably be lost on me, so I won't bother

The obsession with chocolate flavors (I'm talking dark chocolate here, not the too-sweet version that comes from Hershey's) is kind of a negative interpretation stemming from disappointment with coffee that doesn't mention chocolate. An exception is gesha coffees from Guatemala but I'll save that opinion for later.

As I said elsewhere here, 'if it doesn't read like a chocolate sundae, I'm not interested'. I've also concluded that acidy flavors (usually referred to as a 'bright' taste) aren't pleasing to me (the exception, again, is the gesha). That exception aside, avoiding bright or acidy flavors seems to work for me. And I believe that, more often than not, those cupping notes that tout chocolate are lower in acid. So it's a double-plus for me.

Those chocolate references most often involve a darker roast. In fact a darker roast is often required to bring out that flavor. But a darker roast can kill the 'bright' flavor that some coffee drinkers prize. So as a generalization I've decided that if the recommendation is for a light roast then there will probably be too much acid flavor for my taste.

Here's a description of something I enjoyed in the past...

Moka Kadir Blend

An underpinning of rich chocolate flavors come through in layers, accented by dried apricot and plum, pipe tobacco and sweet cedar smoke. Mouthfeel is so creamy, and roast tones delivery deep cocoa bass notes. Full City to Vienna. Great espresso. [The dry fragrance of Full City roasts has a strong rustic sweetness like palm and date sugar, along with smokey cocoa, sweet leather, and roasted nut. The wet aroma sticks close in-line with the aforementioned, developing complexity along the way, and more in the way of rustic bittersweetness, and interesting fruited accents. The cup is the culmination of all the intense aromatics, and more. Dense, thick body adds to the sense of "brooding" cup character here. Full City roasts have a grounding bittersweetness of molasses and chocolate syrup, and a smoky chocolate flavor in the finish. Espresso is where this blend really shows best, with an underpinning of rich chocolate flavors that come off in layers, high % cacao up front, roasted nibs in the middle, and an unsweetened baking cocoa flavor that lingers long into the finish. Dried fruits are fairly muted, but this version of Moka Kadir offers glimpses of dried apricot and plum, counterpoints to a sweet leather aroma, and top notes of pipe tobacco and sweet cedar smoke. This espresso delivers, with mouthfeel of Full City/Full City+ espressos is very creamy, a density matched by cocoa roast tone, and showing well on it's own, as well as offering a delicious espresso base for milk drinks. Cups best after at least 48 hours ... we like to wait even 3+ days with Full City+ roasts. ]

Avoiding tea flavors (that's not rigorous) is because those subtleties are lost on me. Plus I've tried liking tea but I find the high acidity is very unpleasant after the first 1/2 cup. Most would disagree with me but there it is.

Judging a dark roast vs. light roast is subjective and very much in the visual realm. The scale I was introduced to is below and is covered in Sweet Maria's article "Using Sight to Determine Degree of Roast".

Coincidentally, that article includes temperatures that Thompson Owen measured while roasting for that article. I found I could nearly duplicate those temps using the infrared data (Drum Temp). Hence my reliance on IR data even though readings can be inconsistent because the sensor is prone contamination. (Not all users have the same experience.)