Coffee Appreciation

Interesting. Mirrors our experience when I tried a few in the shop here, good as espresso but a tad underwhelming and over-roasted as filter through the EK. Would certainly be interested to try a lighter roast!

I sense that this is likely to divide opinion.

I like YB as your roasts are dark enough to make satisfying coffee with a domestic grinder and French press, whilst remaining very clean and smooth.

Moving to a lighter style wouldn't appeal to me.

Dude that’s a really nice offer, thank you! But I’m not in London, I’m in deepest Devon.
I’ll go and find a Waitrose and try the beans @JB recommended.
Unfortunately being self employed and income fluctuating means I can’t always buy fancy food stuff and support my local roaster.
‘slumming it’ with coffee from Waitrose = middle-class problems.

I'm with @ChasnotRobert on this. I hand grind your beans for french press and am not sure that the lighter roast would suit that method.

Whereabouts in Devon? Am in the process of moving down there (PL2) so A) happy to bring some at some stage and B) keen to hear who said local roasters are. (Also self employed - erk!)

Cool, I’m in Totnes. I’ll PM you with some tips.

I would be interested, I tend to avoid anything described as having chocolate flavours, as to me that normally indicates a coffee darker roasted than I prefer.

Interesting.
I run your espresso blend through a Super Jolly and a Classic and would be happy to compare too if helpful.

I'd always go for a lighter roast/flavour profile as that's what I like. Obviously I don't have an EK at home but will always try to get the brighter flavours by buying those type of beans and adjusting volume/grind etc.

Ditto.

Interesting to hear about the Monmouth approach though, of going with more darker roasted coffee but less extraction for a different flavour. Might try that next time I've ended up with something darker than I'd like and want to salvage it.

Sadly not with our current output; we have 8 coffees on rotation right now and we use approx half a kilo of each for filter service in the shop each week, so doing a separate roast level isn't going to turn over quickly enough for optimum freshness.

Good to hear you had a similar experience. I didn't expect the EK to make such a difference, I'm pretty resistant to hype!

Also @jdp

Cool. It's definitely horses for courses, there's a roaster out there for everybody and the light roast market is well served, hence my hesitance.

Cool, the espresso blend won't be changing as that will all be ground on the espresso grinder. It's richness and body all the way with that one.

Worth a go, dose it up, grind it coarser and you'll reduce some of the roastiness. You won't salvage much juicy delicate flavour but it will be an improvement.

Also @Aroogah

Yep, this is the popular opinion amongst our regulars and we definitely are not keen on moving away from what they enjoy. As I've mentioned, there are plenty of roasters doing the very light thing and I don't think we need to be another one, but this machine has opened a door to a new dimension and I've got to go and explore. The aim will be to keep our style whilst exploiting all this new-found clarity and it's going to effect our roasting, brewing and most importantly our coffee purchasing. It's pretty big stuff, but I'm going to need feedback from people who like you who already enjoy what we're doing.

I'm trying to make time to come down to Totnes again this year (had a glorious weekend there last summer). When I do, beans-a-plenty will come.

Really enjoyed The Hairy Barista when I went. No innuendo.

Ah, I read your OP as using the EK43 for espresso. My bad.

this machine has opened a door to a new dimension and I've got to go and explore

That's how you got to where you go to, right?

Things evolve, I get that. It will be interesting to see where it takes you.

That's how you got to where you go to, right?

I like that.

Cool, Give me a shout if you make it. I’m always up for a bike ride.
The Hairy Barista is good, he’s a nice guy. You should check out The Almond Thief bakery at Dartington too. They do good coffee and pastries, etc. PM meet if you need any tips for your next visit.

Probably preaching to the more knowledgable here but...

This is potentially to do with the consistency of the EK, and the fines it produces. The uneven particle size of other grinders will give a wider variety of flavour notes, whereas the EK won't produce as many fines. Have you tried using something as tiresome as the Kruve to get consistent particle size from each grinder as see if that makes a difference? I'm just trying to throw out ideas, I'm only a basic technician so forgive me if this is obvious for you. scratches head

Yeah this is right, the EK is pretty surgical, great for cupping and fine tuning a roast (it'll ruthlessly expose every flaw) but I wouldn't use it to dial in a medium roast espresso for service. You should be able to get it tasting good for most filters by tweaking the recipe a bit but IMO there's nothing wrong with using a different grinder alongside it if it tastes better - right tool for each job etc.

Gah. Missed a letter.

"That's how you got to where you got to, right?"

I think you got the gist. :)

I like the first one.