Peru El Diamante Roger Chilcon

Beans: Peru El Diamante Roger Chilcon
Varietals: Red and Yellow Caturra
Elevation: 1900 masl
Process: Washed
Retailer: Sweet Maria's
Pre-Roast Weight: 233 grams
Roast Attempt: 89th
Roast Date/Time: May 29, 2022, 1430 CDT

Not surprisingly, I have come to cultivate particular preferences for coffee origins as I've gotten more and more into it.  I'm sure I've mentioned before that East Africa tends to be my preferred region in a general sense, but I also have preferred national origins within regions.  Colombia and Brazil are probably the two most known and popular origins in South America, but my personal favorite based on experience tends to be Peru.  It's an interesting origin in some respects because you would assume high altitude from the Andes = big acidity, and yet Peruvian coffees (as I've experienced them anyway) are often quite sweet and creamy.  The Sweet Maria's description of this one sounded particularly good, so I had to order it.

As usual, I started the roaster on manual control, P5 setting (100% power to the heating element), and with 20:00 on the timer.

Chamber Temperature

19:00 - 89
18:00 - 129
17:00 - 167
16:00 - 203
15:00 - 230
14:00 - 253
13:00 - 273
12:00 - 253

When the vent opened at 12:30 I increased the drum speed and lowered the heat to P4 (75% power).  Yellowing phase was reached by about 11:30.

Exhaust Temperature

12:00 - 188
11:00 - 267
10:00 - 302
9:00 - 320
8:00 - 332
7:00 - 341
6:00 - 347
5:00 - 352
4:00 - 356
3:00 - 361
2:00 - 363

Significant acridity was first notable in the exhaust around 5:45, as the temperature neared 350. By 4:45 it was stronger, and by 3:45 it had that distinct note of smokiness indicating first crack is imminent.  The first snaps started around 3:00, but a robust first crack never began, so I had to play it by ear - or I guess not by ear.  The temperature was hardly soaring, so I let the roast roll a little bit since I wasn't trying to get these beans out of there with the lightest possible roast.  By 1:30 on the timer it had been long enough since the snaps started, and even with the A temp only in the mid-360s there was no point in pushing it too hard.  I sent the roast to cool; A temp peaked at a mere 368.

Complete Roast Time: 18:30
Post-Roast Weight: 201 grams
Loss Percentage: 13.7%

Pretty good for a medium, or ought to be.

Peru El Diamante Roger Chilcon

These were the beans on Wednesday morning, three days off roast.  The color wasn't quite the even medium brown you'd hope for, but then this is just a home roaster.  I brewed 32 grams of beans in the V60 with 533 grams of water to produce about 16.5 fluid ounces of brewed coffee.

TASTING NOTES: There was a sizeable hit of acidity up front, but it was pretty malic - almost like a sip of apple cider.  The body was a little thinner than I might have expected, suggesting tea with a mildly vegetal character. There was some cranberry bittering and notes of clove spice.

VERDICT: It wasn't the creamy, chocolatey cup I sometimes get out of Peru, but this was still solid - the apple and spice notes have quite a comforting character in their own way and there was certainly nothing unpleasant on the palate (vegetal notes can be iffy but those worked fine in the overall mix here).  I always like to end up with a decent result when the roast doesn't go quite how I was expecting!

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