Loring S15 Falcon Analysis by Chris Kornman and Doris Garrido
Doris & I worked last week on a 5.5lb roast profile on the 15kg Loring using a number of Colombian coffees of various processing methods. Our results were really pleasing, and we decided to try and roast this delightful natural coffee from Addisu Kidane against that baseline. By the time we’d begun analysis on the coffee we’d already tasted it a number of times as a sample roast; this would be our chance to dial it in for espresso service, its eventual destination here at The Crown.
Doris took the controls and manually charged the drum at just under 370F, waiting until the turning point to add heat. The coffee dipped a little lower than the profile we’d saved, and to compensate for this Doris added a little extra 10% burner power to the initial setting.
Otherwise, the coffee was very well behaved in the roaster. As the Maillard phase began to draw to a close, incremental burner reductions brought us eventually down to the minimum 20% setting, just before first crack. The anticipatory gas adjustments paid dividends, as our low heat delta remained very steady and the coffee progressed predictably. Doris dropped the batch at the profile’s intended end temperature of 407F, yielding about 75 seconds of development. At a 54 internal ColorTrack, the coffee is a little lighter than our usual espresso profile, and our next steps for this coffee when it officially enters production (aside from scaling up to a larger roast batch) will be to extend the post crack development by another 15-20 seconds, ideally without raising the end temperature, in order to achieve a slightly more developed roast for bar service.
That said, the coffee cupped admirably. I found the profile vibrant, bright, and clean, with a lot of bold fruit character: black cherry and boysenberry met plum and currant, maybe a dash of sweet melon, and a refreshing fresh peppermint leaf note that delicately lilted in the backdrop. I’m really looking forward to dialing this roast in for espresso service, I feel like it’s going to be a refreshingly easy coffee to work with.
