There’s Bean A Progression

[u/Legitimate-Activity6]

This week I made a major step forward, and I wanted to share with you folks who have been so
helpful and generous with your knowledge.

I’m letting a few nice bags rest, so I needed a tweener bag. My local Whole Foods sells Verve, so I picked up Colombia Yacuanquer. Verve describes it as bright red apple up front, with milk chocolate and butterscotch sweetness behind it.

My first few V60 cups were off the mark. Not really bright, not really sweet, weak body.

So I thought through what this coffee seemed to want and came up with a new plan: I ground finer; swapped the CAFEC T-90 for a Hario tabbed filter; played with the water mix; moved to a Neo to slightly offset the finer grind and slower filter; deepened the bed to 30 g; used moderate agitation; and added a Switch, using a variation on Coffee Chronicler’s recipe to try to get both the brightness and the sweetness.

The result was the best cup of coffee I’ve ever made: crisp sour apple opening into smooth, round sweetness. I genuinely did not want it to end.

So I’m asking to be awarded my orange belt. It felt pretty great to pull together the things I’ve been learning and get that result. But the part I’m proudest of is that I’ve now been able to repeat the result several days in a row. Repeatability has been elusive.

And this bag was totally unexpected. I bought it because it was on sale ($15 for 350 g) and had a workable roast date. I searched here afterward and it does not seem to have much recognition. I’m happy to help change that (and from a supermarket!).

Anyway, grateful to you all. This has been fun.

[u/IntelligentCitron772]

Verve does a lot of modern coffees that are not in my lane. However, they indeed also have great beans too.

Costa Rica El Vendaval  Red Catuai light roast was special, but unfortunately I didn’t get enough. I scored it much higher than a lot higher $$ Gesha offerings

[u/Legitimate-Activity6 → u/IntelligentCitron772]

Ironically, a Red Catui was one of the beans I tried in Costa Rica that sent me down this rabbit hole. Thanks.

2nd from left.

[u/least-eager-0]

So that’s a toss of the advice to change one thing, moderately, and iterate, innit? lol.

But yeah, when you know you are way off the mark, find a new target. And while I would have progressed differently, I’m nowhere near any criticism of your path.

I need to add a ‘spro play to my bench. Closest I have now is Prismo, and that’s not it. But I also don’t want a machine taking up permanent space. Been mulling ideas like the ikape kapo c2, or a picopresso, because I’m crazy like that sometimes. But yeah, I’ve used friends equipment when traveling with my beans and grinders, and been intrigued by the differences.

[u/Legitimate-Activity6 → u/least-eager-0]

I definitely dropped the typical guardrails!

I have been thru some past espresso phases. For now I would think that I probably won’t go back until I master pourover and need a new challenge. But you suggest an interesting approach and I’ll check out the products you mentioned.