Diedrich IR-5 Analysis by Doris Garrido
I have been talking a lot about this coffee since we cupped the first sample. I am not a huge beer fan, but if you can Imagine a coffee that taste like beer, we have it here at The Crown, it is on the Royal Crown Jewel menu, I get to roast it, and I am hoping we can brew it on a nitro cold brew!
As you can read in its name: galaxy hops mossto fermented honey, was made to have this quality beer taste using nothing less than a Gesha cultivar from Colombia.
If that is not enough to incentivize curiosity, I will start my analysis by sharing some of the tasting notes I got for this coffee: Rosemary, ginger, cloves, coriander seeds, mint, lavender, eucalyptus, and rose water! If you want to try something different, this is it.
As this is the gesha cultivar with this kind of process, I decided to go gentle on my 5.5lb. batch. I charged it at 400F and started adding gas little by little, from 30% to 70% and 100% and left it there for about 3 minutes, then I started lowering from 70% to 30% just before the color change. With this gas movement I was able to get 4:46 minutes in drying and just past 4 minutes in Maillard. I started the air flow with 50% but decided to go all the way with 100%, to push all the smoke away, but also to help my rate of rise drop from 40/60 seconds at color change to 12/60 seconds at first crack. I noticed that in the middle of post-crack development rate of rise was not lowering and trying to rise instead, and I took the decision of kill the burners at around 40 seconds and watch it lowering to 0 and drop the coffee right there. My end temperature marked 379.1 F with 1:31 seconds of post-crack time.
With 10:20 final roast time, I am proud of the results in this roast. I was so excited on the cupping table that I texted our marketing team right away to communicate my wish of having this coffee on the next Cata Latina cupping table. I want everybody to taste it and I will keep talking about it, because you may like hops or not but as a person who was doing wine before it is undeniable the methodical work of the coffee maker Edwin Noreña.
Espresso Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano
Another infused lot from Edwin Noreña, this coffee is appropriately named galaxy hops. And what an out of this world coffee it is. A Gesha? With hops? Feels like Edwin is just showing off, no? Grandiose and vivacious, this coffee is saying a lot and loudly. The Crown team pointed out notes of ginger, pine, eucalyptus floral and lavender, tangerine, cedar and coriander. A bouquet bomb of florals and hops Edwin did not go a subtle route on this one. Let’s see what this turns into on espresso…
Recipe 1:
In 17
Out 34
Time 25 s
After playing around with dosage from 18 to 16.5g. I decided to utilize the 1:2 coffee to water ratio and keep the dosage at nice medium of 17g. This shot was very syrupy, and the lavender was present along with some ginger, candy apple and mandarin. It had some nuanced flavors of watermelon, lime and cedar to accompany the florals. It was an interesting shot but maybe not as approachable as I would like. Given the sour faces of the baristas on bar who I had try this – it was maybe better to take the approachable route. I will say, this paired with milk tasted like a light lavender cappuccino. I went with upping the water to coffee ratio.
Recipe 2:
In 17g
Out 38
Time 27
I think we have the sweet spot. This was approachable but distinct. With the lavender balanced out with the citrus and woodsy cedar and pine notes we have a winner. There is still a little limey punch to this one. I will say, this coffee is extremely prone to channeling and puck breakage. It is ironic it needs a gentle hand considering how loud it is. This coffee is not for the weak hearted – if you are looking for a floral stand out coffee, this is the one!
