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Could you please pm me about how you proved that?
One of the very cheap coffees I've roasted got a great review from Caffeine few issues back. I think it proves the point that coffee doesn't have to be expensive to win at cuppings and get great reviews.
There are a number of roasters doing darker roasts using same green beans as their single origin offers, but it helps to shift older crops quicker when new crops come in, and they are good. It's a common practice.
DoktorPepe-
I mean this in the nicest way possible.
A single review of a cheap coffee by caffeine magazine does not prove anything. I commend you for doing a good job, and it's good that people enjoyed it. That is one opinion (by caffeine no less).
Of course people shift older coffee by roasting it darker and shoving it in a blend, and just because this is common practice, doesn't make it good. In an ideal world we'd always have fresh coffee and not be sacrificing it's subtleties by blending it.
This is touching upon the biggest challenge in specialty, that of the defect named "bag" which I'm sure you are aware of.
I have also enjoyed darker roasted coffees in the past, but nothing comes close to beautiful high scoring delicate and lightly roasted coffees, this is pretty strongly reflected by cupping scores. CoE is a good reference for this.
Lukemdfree
Thanks for your response, and you're probably right. I still don't really see the need to recommend something cheap and cheerful when real specialty coffee is actually not expensive.
Of course light roasted coffee doesn't have to be expensive and good quality, but when it comes to being scientific about roasting, there is definitely a small band of profiles that works for each coffee. You can't just roast a nice 90 point kenyan to second crack and expect it to work.
Could you please pm me about how you proved that?