Today's Roast: Organic Peruvian Fair Trade

Earlier today I posted Sweet Maria's Roast Curve for City to City+. I modified to go a little darker, and here's the curve I came up with:

Stage	Temp	Duration
Stage 1	350F	2:00
Stage 2	400F	3:15
Stage 3	460F	4:45
Total		10:00

The idea is to extend both phase two and phase three slightly to get up to Full City and beyond. I experimented with this roast curve today using some FT Organic Peruvian that my buddy Mike tossed my way. I decided to take this roast to Full City Plus.

The first crack came at -4:25 (which means it was 5:35 seconds into the 10-minute roast). The second crack started at -2:19 and at about -1:52 it was really crackling. The profile calls for 10 minutes but I had to stop the roast at -1:00, which is when I hit the first puff. This is a bit confusing to me, because the curve is only 30 seconds longer than the one Sweet Maria uses to go to City Plus.

The First Puff

I don't know how much I talked about taking a roast to the first puff, but it's a favorite roast of mine. I have never heard anyone else talk about the first puff, and maybe it's unique to my roasting environment, but the first puff is something that's hard to overlook. I cannot believe others would fail to mention this phenomenon.

This is the way the first puff unfolds. The beans roast well into the 2nd crack, when all of the sudden a visible puff of smoke comes out of the roaster. This is often accompanied by what seems like a small explosion. This evening's first puff, for example, blew the top off of my roaster, which is not unusual at this stage. The top of the roaster (not the small chaff lid but the larger lid closing off the bean chamber) loosens enough to allow a lot of chaff and sometimes even an overeager bean to pop out. Smoke puffs out the top, chaff blows all over the place, and, if you forgot to turn on the overhead fan, the smoke alarms all go off. The chaff makes a mess, the smoke stinks, and the noise of the smoke alarm, the roaster, and (eventually) the overhead fan all make quite a racket.

It's so cool.

Today's roast did not set off the smoke alarm, but I did get the lid blown off my roaster, chaff went flying, and of course there was the smoke. The chaff is less of a problem now that I figured out how to set up my roaster: first an old apron over the stove, then a wicker pot holder goes on top of the (turned off) burners to provide a stable base for the roaster, and then the roaster on top. And of course an oven mitt or two nearby, so that if the lid blows off I can just screw it back on again. (I need the mitt because that lid gets noticeably hot!)

The beans came out the way I like them, a rich brown color with (eventually) a generous amount of oily spots. I just love the look of that roast, and it provides a nice full flavor. Mike and Rich often complain that the organics have an unpleasant aftertaste but I don't usually notice that in this roast. And the beans have not been burned, so you don't get that bitter aftertaste that so many dark roasts have.

In today's cup I talked about trying out a new roast profile for 1/2 batches, but today is Friday and tonight's roast will be for Saturday and Sunday. Sunday night I'll do another cup, but of something that Mike and Rich like, so that on Tuesday I can share the second pot from Sunday's roast with them. Neither of them like this bean, so it's ideal for the week-end. And I am experimenting with the roast curve here, not the bean, so I don't really want to use a good bean here.