Haiti Baptiste High Altitude CAB Co-op

Beans: Haiti Baptiste High Altitude CAB Co-op
Varietals: Typica, Bourbon, Caturra, Catimor
Elevation: 900-1300 masl
Process: Washed
Retailer: Burman Coffee Traders
Pre-Roast Weight: 229 grams
Roast Attempt: 57th
Roast Date/Time: October 30, 2021, 1500 CDT

It's funny to see beans grown at 900-1300 meters above sea level be described as "high altitude," but that's island coffee for you.  Most Hawaiian coffee, for example, is grown at more like 900-1300 feet above sea level!  Anyway, this was another origin that I simply could not resist and indeed had been circling for a while ever since I discovered that there was still a coffee export business out of Haiti.  Haiti was at one point a massive producer of the crop, as were many French colonies - in the 1780s, half the world's coffee was grown there!  But, of course, that relied a lot on slave labor, and so when Haiti revolted and became independent in the early 1800s, coffee production entered a dry spell.  It has gone back and forth since then, with periods of significant growth; at the current moment, production is comparatively low, but somewhat on the upswing as the farmers adjust to the demand for specialty coffee with organic and fair-trade provenance.  Haiti is one of the world's poorest countries, and quite frankly as an American I feel some degree of civic responsibility to put a little money into their economy if I can.  I just hope the coffee turns out good enough that I'll want to keep doing that.

After my experience with the DR coffee, I decided to try the Ethiopian washed process trick with the other island coffees I had purchased - so I pushed the timer out to 20:00 and started the roaster on the P4 setting, 75% power to the heating element.  Manual control, of course.

Chamber Temperature

19:00 - 78
18:00 - 111
17:00 - 143
16:00 - 172
15:00 - 195
14:00 - 215
13:00 - 231
12:00 - 221

With the timer starting at 20:00, the exhaust vent opened at 12:30 instead of the usual 10:30.  Unlike usual, the beans had not clearly yellowed yet - which certainly isn't surprising with so much less heat.  Compare the 13:00 chamber temperature, seven minutes into the roast, to the 11:00 temperature on the DR roast (282) - more than 50 degrees of difference!  I decided to call the yellowing stage at 11:30 and increased the drum speed - this was probably a bit before the beans were truly yellow, but I thought it was important to add some energy to the system at this point.

Exhaust Temperature

12:00 - 177
11:00 - 257
10:00 - 294
9:00 - 314
8:00 - 329
7:00 - 339
6:00 - 347
5:00 - 354
4:00 - 363
3:00 - 374

I think it's pretty interesting the way the exhaust temperature curve rises even when the heating element is pumping less heat into the system than usual.  For instance, the B temp was below 200 degrees at the 10:00, 9:00, and 8:00 marks before starting to rise again.  Presumably the A temp keeps rising because of the increased agitation of the hot air from the drum speed increase, plus the beans themselves giving off heat as they warm up, which is pretty cool.

At 5:40 the A temp hit 350 and I increased the heat to P5, 100% power to the heating element, to go for that launch into first crack.  This really never seems to work as a "launch" - there were quite a few staggered pops before full first crack really began at 3:15 - but I still like that increased heat to take the beans over the finish line.  Unlike with the Ethiopians, I just left it at P5 rather than dropping it back to P4 when first crack started - while I wanted to prevent a darker roast, I did not need these beans to be light roasted and indeed was shooting for a solid medium.  First crack lasted roughly a minute; I sent the beans to cool at 2:15 with the A temp at 383.  It spiked to 390 in the first 20 seconds of cooling, then dropped.

Complete Roast Time: 17:45
Post-Roast Weight: 197 grams
Loss Percentage: 14.0%

Now that is what I wanted to see, and the beans definitely had a lighter appearance.  Should be a very good spot to get a balance between the origin character and the roast notes.  It's interesting to note that the peak temperature on this roast was the same as the DR roast and the time was 30 seconds longer - and if the reported elevations are accurate, these were lower-altitude beans and thus theoretically less durable.  And yet they clearly had so much less of a loss factor - obviously that early exposure to the P4 heat, compared to the DR beans being on P5 heat from 18:00 to 10:30 (with both getting P5 heat for the last 3:15 or so), makes a substantial difference.  Which I guess shouldn't be surprising.  I've tended to focus more on the heat during the last few minutes of the roast, and you look at the final temperatures and they end up in the same spot... but as I mentioned above, the beans are clearly generating their own heat in response to the heat they're taking in from the system, and so the more they get early, the more they might react in response, even if it doesn't push the entire system temperature any further in total.  I don't know, I'm mostly guessing here and should probably make an effort to learn more about the science (although with the relatively limited amount of control on a fairly inexpensive home roaster like the Behmor it feels somewhat excessive).

Haiti Baptiste High Altitude CAB Co-op

These were the beans on Monday, two days off roast.  The color was almost leaning closer to medium-light; the aroma had an interesting spiciness and sweetness that really did not remind me of any beans I've smelled before.  I brewed 30 grams of beans (ground to 5/6 medium-coarse) with 500 grams of water in the V60, generating just under 16 fluid ounces of brewed coffee.

TASTING NOTES: The acidity was unsurprisingly mild, with a malic character that made me think of cherry and then dried fruit; as the cup cooled, this leaned a little more towards apple.  There was a bit of a plummy note as well.  Behind the fruit, there was an almond nuttiness and some hints of allspice.  The body was on the thinner side, but not overly watery.

VERDICT: This was a very pleasant cup of coffee, living up to the reputation of good island coffees with its mild acidity while still providing a number of flavors.  Although I understand why people like darker roasted coffees, this is why I really don't.  The roasting suggestions for this batch mentioned taking it to the edge of second crack to get dark chocolate flavors... sure, but you're gonna get that out of nearly any coffee you do that with!  If the beans aren't high quality enough to get decent flavors at first crack, fine, but most coffee tastes the same at a darker roast.  Personally, if I'm going to the trouble of procuring a wide range of origins, I want to taste those origins.  If I'd roasted this for another minute or two, it would have tasted exactly like the DR beans.  Instead, I got to taste Haitian coffee.  Again, to each their own, but this is what's special about coffee to me and as a roaster it's what I strive to highlight.