Burundi Monge Murambi Hill

Beans: Burundi Monge Murambi Hill
Varietal: Bourbon
Elevation: 2000 masl
Process: Washed
Retailer: Sweet Maria's
Pre-Roast Weight: 234 grams
Roast Attempt: 34th
Roast Date/Time: June 20, 2021, 1130 CDT

I recently moved back to the Chicago area, and this put a bit of a slowdown on my roasting.  For one thing, the first time I tried to roast in my new apartment, I set off the smoke detector - not the first time that's happened to me, of course (see the last entry!), and realistically probably avoidable going forward... but it made my wife skittish about me roasting in the apartment, and so I had to find somewhere else to do it.  For this roast, at least, that somewhere turned out to be my in-laws' kitchen.

One thing I've noticed both times I've tried roasting in Chicago so far is that the temperatures seem to be slightly lower on a time basis.  I assume that must be something to do with the exact amount of power available via the wall outlets here as opposed to Kansas; in any event, it hasn't made a HUGE difference so far, but it's at least something to note.

For this roast, I broke out a bag of green coffee I hadn't opened yet - one from Burundi that had sounded particularly good to me when I ordered it (which at this point is something like three months ago).  I've found Burundi to be a pretty reliable origin - as I've probably said before, East Africa in general has become my favorite region going away, but there is some distinction country to country.  Because Burundian farmers are required to grow exclusively Bourbon coffee by their government, and because Burundi is not a very large country, you would expect a reasonably consistent product from farm to farm, all other things being more or less equal.

As usual, I ran a manual roast using the one-pound setting - 18:00 on the clock - with 100% power (P5) to the heating element to start.

Chamber Temperature

16:00 - 141
14:00 - 222
13:00 - 251
12:00 - 276
11:00 - 298
10:00 - 278

Comparing those temperatures to a previous Burundi roast from Kansas, for instance, the system did appear to run a little bit cooler - although not so much so that I felt any particular concern.  In that instance, the 11:00 temp (the last reading I take before the exhaust opens and the chamber temp drops) was 309.  11 degrees off isn't nothing, but I don't think it's that much.

Yellowing occurred around 10:30 on the clock (7:30 into the roast), which is the usual time - more proof that the difference in temperature readings isn't making a big difference in the actual roast process.  Indeed, one potential concern with long term use of a roaster like this is that the thermistor gets caked over with roast debris and gives less accurate (presumably lower) readings.  Hopefully that's not what's happening here - I like to think I keep the machine pretty clean - but something to keep an eye on.  Anyway, when the yellowing stage arrived, I increased the drum speed and lowered the heat to 75% power (P4).

Exhaust Temperature

10:00 - 208
9:00 - 287
8:00 - 325
7:00 - 347
6:00 - 361
5:00 - 372

Once again, the temperature readings did not climb as quickly as they did in a previous example of Burundian roasting, which reached 361 by the 7:00 mark and 377 by 6:00.  First crack that time started pretty early - 7:15 on the timer - whereas for this roast it didn't begin until about 5:05, nearly 13 minutes into the roast.  That's about as long as I've seen a bean take to hit first crack, which does add some support to the idea that the power is simply a little lower.  That might not be a bad thing, though - extending that period leading into first crack might help develop some of the flavors.  As long as the beans still finish!

I waited 60 seconds, by which point the crack was pretty clearly tapered off, and then sent the roaster into the cooling cycle.  The A temp pushed into the low 380s about 30 seconds into cooling, then began to drop.  I slowed the drum just after starting the cooling cycle, and opened the roaster door after 90 seconds as usual to accelerate the removal of the very hot air from the chamber.

Complete Roast Time: 13:55
Post-Roast Weight: 204 grams
Loss Percentage: 12.8%

That's pretty much exactly the loss percentage I'm looking for when we're talking a medium-light roast, and exactly the kind of roast I wanted for this origin.  The beans were definitely done and didn't get overroasted even though I was in a new roasting environment, which is always a good start.

Burundi Monge Murambi Hill

These were the beans on Wednesday, three days off roast. Notably, they retained a significant amount of skin on a lot of the individual beans; this was a pretty chaffy batch, so I'm not shocked that some of it remained, and I've seen East African beans do this before.  The mix of bean colorations looked pretty good for a medium-light.  I ground the beans in my usual Capresso grinder on a 5/6 medium-coarse setting, then brewed 60 grams of ground coffee in a Chemex, using 1 liter of water for about a 1:16.7 ratio which I have found successful over the years.  I forgot to keep track of the final brewed product but it usually comes out around 32 fluid ounces.

TASTING NOTES: I was actually a bit surprised by these beans.  As I mentioned above, Burundi tends to be a somewhat consistent origin for various reasons, but these did not necessarily have the classic Burundian profile.  My notes for the last batch mentioned clove and star anise, and I usually expect to find a spice note in Burundian coffees, but that didn't happen here.  The acidity made me think of peach, and there was a very strong note of honey that dominated the flavor profile.  I've had one coffee before where that happened, but that was an Ethiopian where I'm more inclined to expect a wide possible range of flavors.  There was also a slightly buttery mouthfeel going on that gave the entire thing a sort of biscuits-and-jam vibe.

VERDICT: Whether or not it was exactly what I was expecting, this was a delicious coffee and very distinctive.  I will be looking forward to the other half-pound of it that I have to roast - it might actually be interesting to try and push the roast just slightly further into medium to see if I can get a little more caramelization to highlight that baked-good concept, but on the other hand there's no real reason to mess with success.