Diedrich IR5 & Loring S15 Falcon Analysis by Doris Garrido
Machine: Diedrich & Loring
Batch Size:4.5 and 18 lbs.
Years ago, I met Edith Meza at a cupping table. We engaged in a fascinating conversation about wine fermentation. At that time, I was switching from the wine industry to coffee, and starting my learning of coffee, figuring out how these two worlds connected. With Edith we found common ground. I ended up trying to show her a winery, the fermentation tanks and tools they use to manage and control fermentation, but it wasn’t possible at the time. Instead, she shared the work she was doing on microbiology and how she was applying it to the coffees we were tasting right there. That day our conversation started with her honey process and has continued until today. Every year has its own challenges, but she manages to overcome them, and her tasty coffees captures the hard work she puts into them.
My first roast on the Diedrich came up, fruity, juicy, and smooth with some botanicals and herbal notes. I felt like I needed to push the Maillard a bit further to get more caramelization time. For my second roast on the Loring, I used 18 pounds aiming to stretch caramelization. Cupping revealed a tangy mango and stone fruit acidity, a buttery-sweet and velvety mouthfeel, and milky caramel finish. And then I tasted Isabella Vitaliano’s roast on the Ikawa. It was super clean, had a bright but gentle acidity, and a smooth caramel flavor with hits of honey.
Looking back at my first Diedrich roast, I realize that even though I used a low charge and a soak, the roast went fast. The short Maillard kind of overpowered the coffee's natural sweetness, which I noticed in the herbal finish and by looking at the short yellowing phase.
So, for the Loring I tweaked things. I dried the beans a bit faster, used lower charge and skipped the soak and slowed down earlier. Gradually reduce the power from 100% (That I started it from the beginning) to 60% just after marking the color change.
This slowed down the rate of change to spend more time in caramelization, leading to first crack at 11 degrees in 1 minute (ROR), with the beans hitting 394.3F while running at 30% power (reducing from 60 to 30% in between caramelization and first crack).
Isabella’s Ikawa roast showed me that I can push development further without losing the stone fruit acidity. Her roast was incredibly clean and balanced. Going forward I’m going to focus on extending the Maillard by stretching yellowing and development.
