Honduras as Espresso Base

twiztedwords

Playing with Honduras for an espresso blend base, which is atypical anyway. I'm finding that it's very finicky and the grind has to be adjusted often. Also, the shots, even back to back with same weight, time, etc., do not taste consistent.

Anyone have any ideas on how to balance/counter this inconsistency?

p.s. the roast has had time to settle

UNM

my only experience with Honduras was the finca el filo Cup Of Excellence beans. I found them to be really easy to roast and very forgiving.

FreshCoffee2

I have to qualify my reply with notice that I have only ever used good quality hondo's. We dont know what grade hondo you are using....how it was roasted, or the type of roasting equipment used...... However with the hondos that i have used from time to time in the past, on my own high end professional roasting equipment, I have always found them to be really nice well balanced coffees representative of the area from which they come. I have never had a problem with inconsistency from coffee to coffee (in the cup), with any beans from the same roast batch whether they be a hondo or anything else, and I would expect inconsistency from cup to cup to be due to some other factor. I guess I should qualify this by also stating it would depend on the type of roasting set up and roasting technique you use. Inexpensive / base model roasting set ups offering little control, and the use of low grade beans, can produce very inconsistent results, as can variable brewing techniques. There are lots of variables, and the name of the game is to try and control them. As an espresso base for home use?........why not? Its great coffee. But as a base in commercial sell blends, the grades of hondo I am used to would be a little expensive and I prefer to offer them as high quality SO's for a better margin. So really depends on your individual circumstance. Hope that helps.

mycuppa

And just to add to A.'s good reply. Somebody wrote something on the internet (I have'nt got time to find it right now) a few years ago saying Honduran's make excellent choice as Espresso beans because they have a tendency for lower-acid compared to their Central American neighbors. Of course, everyone reads that sort of statement and rushes out to procure the currently available Hondos and start roasting away. Very few people look deeper to understand or even challenge what that author wrote - people completely miss the fact of the way the bean may have been prepared (farmed and processed), the varietal, roast method/style and what in fact the original author may have used with the Hondo in their espresso batch. As I've stated elsewhere a few times - beans are beans - even beans from the same origin and supplier (Kuda Mas as an example) can be quite different. Seek first to understand acidity and how it is presented in your roast and brew/extraction. Then look at what levels of acidity work best for your own personal palate and equipment and once you understand these factors and variables involved, the world of single origins and blending makes a whole lot more sense. Jumping into origins without the learning about characteristics such as acidity, etc. is like reading a book backwards.

askthecoffeeguy

I'm drinking Honduras Cup of Excellence Fernando Fernandez at the moment - has beautiful balanced acidity in harmony with the fruit - I'd say it's medium bodied in terms of acidity but the main thing is its delicious !

twiztedwords

mycuppa wrote:

Seek first to understand acidity and how it is presented in your roast and brew/extraction. Then look at what levels of acidity work best for your own personal palate and equipment and once you understand these factors and variables involved, the world of single origins and blending makes a whole lot more sense. Jumping into origins without the learning about characteristics such as acidity, etc. is like reading a book backwards.

Thank you!