Maui Ka'anapali Estate Washed Yellow Caturra

Beans: Maui Ka'anapali Estate Washed Yellow Caturra
Varietal: Yellow Caturra
Elevation: 100-600 masl
Process: Washed
Retailer: Burman Coffee Traders
Pre-Roast Weight: 231 grams
Roast Attempt: 59th
Roast Date/Time: November 7, 2021, 1030 CST

Two of the beans I bought from Burman were significantly more expensive per pound than anything I've purchased before, due to their locations.  This was the less expensive of the two - I'm trying to feel as confident as possible with the island coffees before I take the risk of screwing up a $25/pound coffee... more on that when we get to it later.  Earlier in the morning when I roasted these, I tried the second half of the Dominican beans using the same approach I had taken with the Haitian beans... and they just came out medium-dark again.  So with these beans, which I expected to be even softer due to their extremely low altitude, I tried to take an even gentler approach - P4 heat the entire time, with no increase.

I started the timer on 20:00 with manual control.  The heat, as noted, was on P4, 75% power to the heating element.

Chamber Temperature

19:00 - 80
18:00 - 111
17:00 - 143
16:00 - 174
15:00 - 197
14:00 - 219
13:00 - 235
12:00 - 222

This was comparable to the temperatures on the Haitian roast, so, so far so good.  I increased the drum speed at 11:30 with yellowing either happening or close.

Exhaust Temperature

12:00 - 179
11:00 - 260
10:00 - 296
9:00 - 318
8:00 - 330
7:00 - 341
6:00 - 348
5:00 - 356
4:00 - 361
3:00 - 366
2:00 - 370
1:00 - 377

As you can probably tell, the heat curve got pretty shallow near the end of the roast.  With no audible first crack and time threatening to defeat me, I gave in and raised the heat to P5 at 2:30 to try and push the beans over the finish line.  Even then, though, this was apparently one of those batches that does not give you much of an audible crack.  A few pops could be heard starting around 1:45, and especially 1:30, but there was never a clear, robust crack to be heard.  I lowered the heat back to P4 with 0:45 left and then just let the beans go all the way to the full 20:00 given that the crack wasn't entirely clear.  The A temp went all the way to 393 in the first 20 seconds of cooling, and there was a fair bit of smoke and chaff embers flying around - this was a pretty chaffy bean.

Complete Roast Time: 20:00
Post-Roast Weight: 195 grams
Loss Percentage: 15.6%

More than I really wanted, of course, but given the amount of chaff it seemed like these could still be a rich medium.  They certainly didn't look anywhere near as dark as the Dominican beans.

Maui Ka'anapali Estate Washed Yellow Caturra

These were the beans on Tuesday morning, two days off roast.  The color still looked promising enough for a medium, and the aroma was rich but not bitter.  However, once I ground to 5/6 medium-coarse, the ground beans had a moderately darker appearance.  I brewed 30 grams of ground coffee with 500 grams of water to produce just slightly under 16 fluid ounces of brewed coffee.

TASTING NOTES: The immediate hit was a darker, roastier flavor - not super bitter or unpleasant but very much that dark chocolate kind of note.  Underneath that was a lot of nuttiness.  The body was fairly creamy, such that I was almost put in the mind of something like a high-cacao drinking chocolate.  There was very little acidity to be detected and limited fruit as well; maybe a soft melon note, at most.

VERDICT: This isn't really how I like my coffee but I think as a product it actually came out fairly well - the roast wasn't overwhelming, but rather interacted with a bean that was never going to produce the kind of brightness I enjoy to generate a very drinkable cup.  Between the chocolate and the nuttiness, it's a little bit like a liquid peanut butter cup!  A bit of cream would probably only heighten this feeling, and I think a lot of people would enjoy that cup of coffee.