Ethiopia Gera Telila

Beans: Ethiopia Gera Telila
Varietals: Ethiopian Heirloom
Elevation: 1900-2100 masl
Process: Washed
Retailer: Sweet Maria's
Pre-Roast Weight: 231 grams
Roast Attempt: 53rd
Roast Date/Time: October 10, 2021, 0800 CDT

The first attempt at following Sweet Maria's guide to light-roasting washed Ethiopians was something of a mixed bag, so I decided to try it again.  This time I increased the time before even starting the roast - although the Behmor only let me push it to a maximum of 20:30, so I started it at 20:00 even, giving me two extra minutes over normal (the same extra amount I had used during the Gera Genji Challa roast).  Once again I ran a manual roast and started the heat at P4, 75% power to the heating element.

Chamber Temperature

19:00 - 86
18:00 - 116
17:00 - 149
16:00 - 177
15:00 - 203
14:00 - 222
13:00 - 239
12:00 - 230

The yellowing phase hit at about 12:00, and I increased the drum speed.  The chamber temperature was a little hotter than it had been in the previous roast, possibly due to roasting earlier in the morning and having a little more available power.  I held off on changing the heat for the moment.

Exhaust Temperature

12:00 - 183
11:00 - 262
10:00 - 298
9:00 - 320
8:00 - 334
7:00 - 343
6:00 - 352
5:00 - 359
4:00 - 368
3:00 - 379

I increased the heat to P5, 100% power to the heating element, after the 6:00 reading of 352, trying to get that launch into first crack.  Since first crack didn't end up hitting until about 3:45, it's not clear how well that worked.  One interesting thing about these roasts has been that in spite of the fact that the chamber temperatures are substantially lower - this one dropped as low as 206 and even after I kicked the heat back up to P5 topped out just over 240 - it doesn't stop the exhaust temperatures for getting up where they need to be.  I'm not enough of a scientist to know what exactly it says about the way the system is conducting heat, but it's definitely saying something.  The heat curve gets pretty shallow as the roast approaches first crack, but this hasn't been uncommon lately and it's preferable to an alternative where the temperatures are racing upwards.  That said, I was once again surprised to see that what I assumed would be more delicate beans that would tap out early were not even starting to crack until 370 and thus riding the heat all the way to 390 or so by the time the cooling cycle started.  I've gotten light roasts with numbers like that but it did have me worried once again about whether the most delicate aromatics would be retained.  But if the beans aren't cracking, what am I supposed to do?

I dropped the heat back to P4 at 3:30, 15 seconds into first crack, to try and minimize the beans' exposure to the highest heat setting.  First crack lasted about a minute total, and I hit cool right at 2:45.  There were still a few beans popping as the cooling cycle began, so it wasn't the super clean taper you ostensibly want, but again, what am I really supposed to do about that?  The entrance to the crack wasn't as clear or robust as the Gera Genji Challa had been either; then again, consider that I hadn't felt entirely satisfied with how that one ended up.

Complete Roast Time: 17:15
Post-Roast Weight: 201 grams
Loss Percentage: 13.0%

That probably makes for more of a medium-light than a light, and once again the exterior of the beans themselves was actually darker than I might have expected.  This really is an unforgiving origin!

Ethiopia Gera Telila

These were the beans on Wednesday, three days off roast.  I was pleased to note that they had mostly settled to a lighter appearance, although isolated beans had gotten somewhat darker (I noticed a couple of tiny oil spots with some irritation).  The size of the beans themselves was moderately variable; the Sweet Maria's website mentions a 15-17 screen, which isn't a huge range (the numbers are measured in 64ths of an inch) but certainly means that the beans aren't 100% consistent in size.  I ground the beans to 5/6 medium-coarse; 30 grams with 500 grams of water in the V60 produced 16 fluid ounces of brewed coffee in just over three minutes.

TASTING NOTES: The flavor was clearly light, with a honeysuckle florality, a sweet-tart acidity with a slightly green tinge that made me think of fresh raspberries, some dried fruit hints, and a slight butteriness to the body.

VERDICT: Now that is what I wanted to happen!  Those delicate floral notes of honeysuckle hit right off the top and stayed with the cup the whole way down; indeed, the flavor did not change much at all as the cup cooled, which is probably the one thing I would actually knock it for.  But overall this was a beautiful cup - light and sweet, really no bitterness to speak of at all.  Bullseye!

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