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Useful Links: • Definitions of terms and numbers • Roast Pictorial Guide • Flavor Quality Analysis graphs |
Sweet
Maria's offers a few pre-blended coffees for use as espresso and dark
roast. There are pros and cons to blending. We feel strongly that good
coffee does not need to be blended ... we want to discover the "origin
taste" in the cup, the singular essence of the place the coffee
is from. This is lost in blending. However, there are reasons to blend.
Here are some excerpts from our Blending
Article ... |
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Our blends are made with our best coffees. We don't treat blends as a way to get rid of older coffees, or ones we need to clear out! In many cases, our blend components are sourced just for the blend, based on test roasts and cupping. They are not all comprised of coffees on our green coffee offering list. While trying to present information about why not to blend, and why some roasters use blends as a way to reduce costs, to promote their name, and enforce customer loyalty, let me also add that many good small roasters are like us ... they are proud of their single farm, single origin offerings and they are proud of their blends! They too use great coffee in their blends. Whether a roaster adheres to the pre-roast or post-roast blend school, the cup cannot acheive excellence if average quality greens are used. |
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Our Blends: (You will need to read the reference page to interpret terms and numbers used below)
| Sweet
Maria's Moka Kadir Blend |
$46.48 |
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| As espresso: Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium / Balance, complexity, fruit | |||||||
| Sweet
Maria's Espresso Monkey Blend |
$41.50 |
| Sweet Maria's Classic Italian Espresso Blend | |||||||
| Country: | Brazil (multiple regions), Guatemala, India | Grade: | - | Region: | - | Mark: | - |
| Processing: | Dry-processed, Wet-processed | Crop: | All current-new crop | Appearance: | .5 d/300gr, 17 to 18 Screen | Varietal: | Arabica and Robusta |
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Dry Fragrance: | - | Notes: Espresso is a basic drink, not a fancy concoction. With a bit of dread that espresso is now being transformed into a wide range of drinks, from something squirted out of a dispenser at a gas station mini mart to a 8 ounce coffee that just happens to come from an espresso machine, we wanted to create a blend that was essentially espresso ...the rest is up to you. Espresso does not ask for much, but it demands that the basic requirements are met: You need a good fresh espresso blend, the right grind, the right amount of compacting of the grind into the filterbasket, and a machine that delivers adequately heated and pressurized water in a timely way. The result is 1 to 2 oz. of a aromatic, intense drink with a long, long aftertaste. Our contribution to your successful espresso-making is this fundamental espresso blend that you would find at a backstreet Italian espresso bar. It has excellent caramel, excellent body, great aromatics, and a strong, long aftertaste. This blend contains 12.5% Robusta which increases the caffeine content of the espresso slightly, and adds body and crema. Robusta also helps espresso to cut through in cappuccino, so this blend is recommended for milk drinks ...except Latte, which is simply the Big Gulp version of an espresso beverage and will hopefully fall out of fashion soon! Please note: on 11-1-03 I changed the lot/type of robusta. The new robusta is a premium Indian, has more chocolate, less wild flavors, with a nice clean chocolate-pungent aftertaste.- Tom | ||||
| Wet Aroma: | - | ||||||
| Brightness- Liveliness: | - | ||||||
| Body- Movement: | - | ||||||
| Flavor- Depth: | - | Roast: Full City+ to Vienna for Northern Italian Espresso. Also see our article on Blending for more about espresso. An important roast note: do not underroast this coffee: It should at least be roasted a few snaps into the 2nd crack. Robusta is terrible when it is underroasted. But conversely the Brazils will become ashy and began to bitter when roasted extremely dark. So try to stick to the Full City+ to Vienna window if possible, and rest the coffee 48+ hours after roasting. If you notice a tingly "baking soda effect" in your mouth, then the coffee could use more rest. | |||||
| Finish- Conclusion: | - | ||||||
| Score: | - | Compare to: Traditional Italian Espresso -this blend was developed cross-cupping green samples brought from Italy | |||||
| As espresso: Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium to Bold / Balance | |||||||
| Sweet
Maria's Classic Italian Espresso Blend |
$4.80 |
$9.12 |
$20.88 |
$39.84 |
$73.92 |
| Sweet
Maria's Liquid Amber Espresso Blend |
$5.30 |
$10.07 |
$23.06 |
$43.99 |
$81.62 |
| Sweet
Maria's Decaf Espresso Donkey Blend |
$5.60 |
$10.64 |
$24.36 |
$46.48 |
$86.24 |
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Ethiopian, East African |
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84/86
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Notes: This is my favorite blend designed to endure the rigors of dark roasting, and produce excellent pungent tastes, attractive bittersweet/carbony flavors, and great body. Body is so important to a darker roast. Extended roasts incinerate body, and a thin cup of burned water IS NOT what French Roast coffee is about! You do not want to fully burn up all the sugars, you want some degree of bittersweet, overlayed on the carbony charcoal tones of the burned woody structure of the bean itself. You want something still volumnous, and something sharp that stings you a bit down the center of the tongue. Well, at least if you do want these things, then we share common ground, and you might like my blend. Please note that we made changes to improve the blend on 7/20/01. I have changed the percentages and added a new coffee that became available that really enhances the chocolatiness in the Vienna stage, and the pungency in the darker French stage |
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86
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90
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85.5
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| Compare to: Watch out Peets, I got your number!. This was cupped as a dark roast, cupping numbers omitted. Also see our article on Blending for more about the subject. | |||||||
| $41.50 |
| Sweet Maria's Puro Scuro Blend (Italian; Pure Dark) | |||||||
| Country: | All Indonesians and Africans | Grade: | Tops |
Region: Mark: |
Asst |
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| Processing: | Wet-, Semi- and Dry-Processed | Crop: | new /current crop(s) |
Appearance: Varietal: |
.4 d/300gr, 16-19 Screen Asst |
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| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3.6 | Notes: We have been working on this blend for a very long time. It started with a lucky accident about a year ago. I was working with some premium Sumatras and a combination of Yemen and Ethiopian coffees toward a Mohka-Java blend. But I didn't want it to be all bass note, all deep end. It is the problem with some blends intended for darker roast levels - there is a big "hole" in the cup profile, and that hole is located in the medium/bright range of the cup. I stumbled across a combination of coffees (no, I am keeping this one a secret!) that could do all this, and offer some nice aromatics to a darker roasted blend. Another key factor: I also wanted a blend that had a darkly sweet finish, not ashy, not carbony. With this blend I wanted to prove that I am not anti-darkroast. The problem is, too many dark roasts are simply burned. Roast this as intended and I think you will find the cup decription and the name to be fitting! Oh, the name? I wanted to call it Barnabas Blend (from my favorite '60s TV show Dark Shadows) but Puro Scuro has a better ring to it, and says a lot about the cup: Pure Dark, in Italian. So the sole remnant of the Dark Shadows theme is our motif for the coffee, a bat. Overall, this blend boasts exceptional depth - yes it is one deep cup ... what we call "good coffee to brood by." The blend leaves a lingering, graceful finish on the pallate. The target roast range is from Full City+ with a few snaps of 2nd crack, to a Light French roast. In between those two, is a Vienna roast where this blend excels. My favorite is a roast stopped about 20-30 seconds after the first sound of 2nd crack. (Don't think that roasting it to darker French stage makes it more intense; it is most intense at a Full City+, but don't go lighter becase it has odd baked flavors at the City+ stage). There is some variability in the cup results based on how long it is rested, how it is brewed and (mostly) because this blend involves a healthy proportion of dry-processed coffees. If you want every batch to be exactly the same, don't buy this coffee. If you like to taste a range of flavors, and enjoy complex shifts in character, then you will enjoy the Puro Scuro. The cup has intense sage and anise herbiness, with lingering dried apricot notes. Alternately, I get intense spiciness in the cup; clove with jasmine hints, over a darker tobaccoy flavor. There is a sweet mollasses note in the aromatics that reemerges in the finish. I think it makes excellent espresso too; a rare but accurately-named "dual-use blend." | |||||
| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 4.2 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8.4 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 9.3 | ||||||
| Body - Movement (1-5) | 4 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.7 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 0 | Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium to Bold intensity / Darkly sweet | |||||
| add 50 | 50 | Roast: Full City+ to Light French, with Vienna being ideal. That will be about 10-30 seconds after the first sign of 2nd crack, depending on the roaster. Here's what that looks like. The ideal final roast temperature is in the 450-465 farenhiet range. Now some of the "darkly sweet, non-ashy" cup results depends on the person doing the roasting: you can't burn this to a crisp and expect it to be sweet because it will simply taste like charcoal-soaked hot water. Here's what that looks like. But if you keep the roast within the target "window" between Full City+ and Light French, I think you'll find the cupping description to be quite accurate. Rest it a day and enjoy. Brewed coffee tip: best in a French Press! Espresso tip: allow 2 days rest. | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 88.2 | Compare to: Overall, a deep flavor profile found in Indonesians, with the complexity of Yemen and Harar, and a sweet aromatic brighter note punctuating the cup. | |||||
| Sweet
Maria's Puro Scuro Blend |
$5.40 |
$10.26 |
$23.49 |
$44.82 |
$83.16 |
Tom's Sample Cupping Log | Moisture Content Readings This page is authored
by Thompson Owen and Sweet Maria's Coffee, Inc. and is not to be
copied or reproduced without permission
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