What's in the cup?

Today it was Veracruz Finca la Laja (honey processed) from Mexico. I bought these beans from Coffee Bean Corral and I'm very pleased with what I tasted this morning. What caught my eye was-

This honey processed coffee is a blend from two farms: Finca La Laja and Finca El Mirador. After depulping, the coffee was dried slowly on covered raised beds for 20 days. This coffee is supremely sweet with a mild orange citric acidity, chocolate and sugar cane flavor profile, and a big creamy body. It is very clean and consistent.

By now it's no surprise that the words 'chocolate' and 'sugar cane' are what grabbed me. And that is also code for a roast that has to be fairly dark since that's what accentuates those flavors. So that was the roast plan: take the roast to above about 440°F which should yield a Full City roast.

But I got surprised as the roast progressed. Normally I hit fist crack (1C) at around 395°F-400°F. But with these beans, a recent harvest lot, I was around 405°F-408°F before I heard the sounds of 1C. What's more I didn't see Full City color till I hit 450°F. Typically I hit FC at about 441°F.

Another surprise happened after I finished the roast. Normally I see a 15% weight loss during a roast, maybe as high as 16%. But with these beans I saw 18% weight loss. I have to speculate (cuz I'm not certain!) that it has to do with the beans not being as dry as expected. This is usually tested at the mill during the drying process and reported as 11%-12% moisture content, so maybe it was higher than 'usual'.

Alternately it could be the processing. These beans were processed using the 'honey process'. No, it has nothing to do with adding honey to the beans. I Googled it and found this on trianoncoffee.com-

Pulped natural or honey process is a method in which the fresh coffee cherries are de-pulped, but allowed to dry without washing. Some of the fruit is still there, but not nearly as much as in the natural process. Most of the cherry is gone, but the remaining golden, sticky mucilage is reminiscent of honey, which is where the process gets it name.

One benefit to producers is that honey processing uses less water. Allowing the fruit to dry on the bean means that it can be physically removed during milling rather than being washed off as is typical of washed coffees.

Unexpected numbers aside, the flavor was there and I was not the least bit disappointed in the cup.

Here's a look at the chart that features the newly resolved heat management issue (yay!).