What are we having today?

Today it's Honduras Comayagua Nueva Alianza (Comayagua is the place; Nueva Alianza is the co-op or farm that supplied the beans). I roasted this batch to about City+ (C+) which is a little darker roast than the minimum (and I think I could have gone a little darker).

As a generalization, beans are considered 'roasted' anytime after first crack (1C). A roast which is stopped just after 1C is called City roast (C). And City roast denotes the start of the color pallet which runs from City (the lightest shade) and gets progressively darker as it moves thru C+, Full City (FC), FC+, Vienna (V) to French Roast (FR). So each roast level (C -> C+ -> FC -> FC+ -> V -> FR) is darker than the preceding level. At some point around FC+ the roasted beans start showing signs of oil on their surface. After FR the beans are pretty much history in terms of drink-ability and are likely to burst into flame inside the roaster if the roast continues.

There are 2 ways to watch the progress of the roast on my Aillio Bullet. A small window in the door of the roaster with an LED light shining in from the outside. That LED light is in the 'cool' part of the light spectrum (the blue end) which tends to not reflect off the brown color of the beans since brown is more toward the red end of the spectrum. That color distortion throws off the color check through the window, so the Bullet's designer added something called a 'tryer'- a tiny little scoop to 'try' a few beans... scoop up a few beans as they crash around inside the roaster. That way the operator can get a better color-check of the progress.

The roast isn't finished after 1C, however, till the person roasting thinks the aroma and color of the beans look like what's desired. I rely on the Cupping Notes (not all suppliers make that effort) for guidance of how dark to take the roast. In this case the Comayagua Notes looked like this:

"Sweet citrus flavors and herbal green tea in light roasts, dried fruit character, burned sugar, caramel and rich chocolate roast tones with deeper roast development. City to Full City+. Good espresso."

The highlighted part of the Notes tells you why I bought these greens ("... it sounds like a chocolate sundae"). And  my interpretation is that "deeper roast development" means I have to go to a fairly dark roast- something around FC to FC+. That means the IR sensor (if it's been recently cleaned!) has to get to over 445°F and I also must stay out of 2C.

Staying out of 2C can prove difficult since it's really hard to hear and, having heard 2C, it's already too late. So it's a balancing act (and I'm only marginally confident about getting it right!). That's where  roasting software comes into play (RoasTime; supplied free by Aillio who makes the Bullet).

In this case I got it pretty close to right since I stopped the roast too soon at 439°F (C+) vs. 445°F (FC). We still managed to enjoy some really nice coffee flavors.

The roast of the Comayagua went ok. The screenshot above shows what I see as the roast advances (the resolution of this screenshot is poor on a small tablet or phone but I can't seem to affect that- mea culpa!). The green wiggly line is the second-to-second change in Bean Temp, and Bean Temp is the smooth green line.

All-in-all this Comayagua was a great cup of coffee that might have been better if Bean Temp had been allowed to go a few degrees higher. Next time!