Roasted and Green Beans
Submitted by oncidiumfan on Mon, 2013/02/25 - 17:52.
in
These are from a neighbor who said they were this year's crop. They've got a bit more moisture in them and take a bit more bouncing of my popcorn popper and a bit more time than last season's market greens. Green on the right; roasted on the left. They work better in an Aeropress than the market beans.
Low quality
Those beans don't look very good. Also there is no excuse for coffee from this season to not be dry, it only takes 3-4 days to completely dry in full sun. Try getting some better beans.
I won't be buying more
I'm waiting for beans from two different fincas to finish processing -- and they're people who drink what they grow. Fred next door is bringing in a quintal for the house and I saw the other beans in parchment. I'm also going to try the local roasters since I know where Soprexcca keeps its roasting machine and there's another roaster nearby (and I know of two other roasters in town or close to it). Haven't begun to see where I could get Matagalpa beans.
These are better than the 20 cordoba a pound beans in the market, which I don't buy (lots of black beans in those). The 28 to 30 cordoba a pound better market beans are smaller than these, but completely dry (last seasons) and have a nice hazelnut taste overtone. Soprexcca has a grading chart in the coffee shop, which put the better market beans at second or third grade. The peaberries in the market coffee tend to roast just fine; most of the peaberries in this batch tend to show that they were picked green by not roasting fully.
After sorting, these particular beans came out okay in the Aeropress (mix of market beans and these this morning, just those yesterday).
Don't know where you are, but we've been having night rains from time to time and sometimes enough condensation from fog that the roof is dripping a bit in the mornings. If I were going to buy more of these, I would dry them, but roasting the rest today will take care of any problems with moisture, too.
My impression is that the prettiest beans, if they score high in cupping and competitions, go to the speciality markets and the auctions. I don't know if Fred next door bothers with the competitions. I got hints in his ground coffee that properly handled in a good year, his coffee might be quite nice.
The better market beans make drinkable coffee, as did these beans after sorting. If I can find a really good coffee, friends of mine and I will probably split a quintal. Otherwise, I'll buy a couple of pounds at a time from where I can. Soprexcca won't sell green beans (I asked) and I think friends asked Selva Negra if they would and they also don't. There's a grower who also operates a roaster in town -- haven't asked there yet.
Matagalpa, I don't even know if the market has green coffee. My impression is that most people drink Folgers or instant here, including the woman who had these beans for sale.
Someone buying less than a quintal -- probably isn't worth it to the grower. Fred said he'd give me ten pounds out of his household quintal.
Rebecca Brown
Try picking out the ugly ones before you roast them then
See how much difference the flavor is. Ever had a bad red bean in your gallo pinto? Same principal.
There are about 4 or 5 in the pic of the green beans I would sling out, not bad from local beans. Watch for mold on the damp ones (darker spots or patches). Maybe worth drying them off a bit more.
I'm tossing a number that don't roast properly
If they're cinnamon in the middle of a darker roast, they go out. Also, the black beans go out. I did some preliminary culling, too, before roasting.
I've got about a cup left -- two roaster loads in the hot air popper. Did three half cup runs today. Probably will finish the batch tomorrow after I get the smaller container emptied, so they're not going to sit around. They did well in the Aeropress.
Rebecca Brown