Honduras El Filo CoE

UNM

Ok, just ordered my first CoE (Cup of Excellence) bean, the Honduras El Filo from beangreen.

As this is a relatively expensive bean, I want to hit the ground running so to speak and am after roasting tips on how to get the best out of it.
Any suggestions for how I should roast it (in a Hottop - drum roaster manual heat control)? Does it run away at any point?

Will be drinking black and happy to roast different batches for espresso/ristretto and for pourover to match the roast to brew method.

hiphipharar

UNM wrote:

. As this is a relatively expensive bean, I want to hit the ground running so to speak and am after roasting tips on how to get the best out of it. Any suggestions for how I should roast it (in a Hottop - drum roaster manual heat control)? Does it run away at any point? Will be drinking black and happy to roast different batches for espresso/ristretto and for pourover to match the roast to brew method.

I find Centros in general are fairly easy to roast and unlikely run away. Honduras is one of my favourite origins. I would roast a little more gently and lightly as you don't want to kill the characteristics that earned it a good cupping score. Try it first up using a manual brewing method . The HotTop would do the job nicely as you would only want to be roasting small batches at a time anyway

mycuppa

Hi Ewan, Yes, I roast this one every 6 weeks or so. I've still got 75kg of it remaining and have to say it's a great bean. It's very easy to roast, almost perfect in terms of mid-range bean behavior. I recall the roast from the 9/10/11 very clearly, it was without doubt one of the most perfect tracking profile roast's I've ever done. I would describe it's roast characteristic as needing some medium to high heat early on up to around 160, then back-off for an easy coast into FC, then hit the guns again midway just as FC is midway through (say 15 - 20 secs once FC is evident), give it some heat until about 200 and then ride is gently until around 209. It does not run away, being quite a dense bean with say 17-18 screen. Despite it being 2010 crop, it is delivered in vac-pac foil 15kg packages, preserving moisture and integrity. The Little One and myself were drinking it each morning for 2 weeks recently (from 9/10 batch) - always with milk. Lots of citrus and stone fruit, with a delightfully juicy lingering finish. Did'nt try it as a black, so not sure how it will fair. Good luck.

UNM

hiphipharrar wrote:

The HotTop would do the job nicely as you would only want to be roasting small batches at a time anyway

Bear in mind I came from a popper that would only do 160g at a time... 300g is quite big enough and I'm reckoning 175-200g would work fine, long as I am gentle with the heat.

mycuppa wrote:

I would describe it's roast characteristic as needing some medium to high heat early on up to around 160, then back-off for an easy coast into FC, then hit the guns again midway just as FC is midway through (say 15 - 20 secs once FC is evident), give it some heat until about 200 and then ride is gently until around 209. It does not run away, being quite a dense bean with say 17-18 screen. Despite it being 2010 crop, it is delivered in vac-pac foil 15kg packages, preserving moisture and integrity. The Little One and myself were drinking it each morning for 2 weeks recently (from 9/10 batch) - always with milk. Lots of citrus and stone fruit, with a delightfully juicy lingering finish. Did'nt try it as a black, so not sure how it will fair.

Excellent roasting tips. Will modify accordingly for my setup as lag on the hottop from any heat changes is a big factor, but I now have a handle on that (thanks to some practice harrar roasts - I owe ya one for those beans! They have been very helpful).

Brett_H

I've never bought really expensive beans save ones as treats for the wife. I'll be interested to read how you go UMN and whether you think the extra expense has been worth it. I've home roasted JBM for the wife and some chocolaty special reserves buy very infrequently and not without a great deal of care and concern. I prefer to roast bat home less expensive beans more frequently but coming up to Christmas holidays I may be tempted.

hiphipharar

mycuppa wrote:

It's very easy to roast, almost perfect in terms of mid-range bean behavior. I recall the roast from the 9/10/11 very clearly, it was without doubt one of the most perfect tracking profile roast's I've ever done. I would describe it's roast characteristic as needing some medium to high heat early on up to around 160, then back-off for an easy coast into FC, then hit the guns again midway just as FC is midway through (say 15 - 20 secs once FC is evident), give it some heat until about 200 and then ride is gently until around 209.

I did a roast of this using a similar profile a week ago and tried it this morning as a flat white. The shot was a little over extracted as I hadn't dialed the grinder properly but the result was absolutely gorgeous and confirms Honduras as one of my favourite regions. The only problem was that I pulled the roast just after the start of 2nd crack and the beans came out a bit darker than I would like - looked like it was over-roasted and I had ruined it as some beans looked scorched. The result in the cup was otherwise. I did another smaller batch yesterday in a Coff-Tech Baby roaster and the results were similarly dark. Commonsense suggests I should try a gentler ramp after FC and stop right on the snips of 2C. But then again, the first roast is great in the cup. It is now over 3 hours and I can still taste it. Excellent chocolatey flavours at first (as you might expect from beans from that part of the world at this roast depth) but all these other lovely lingering flavours that I can't describe. Some hint of fruitiness.