Home Roaster Camp July 2009...next Camp is September 26!

On Saturday July 25th, 2009, Josh Housh facilitated a "home roasters dream camp" at our warehouse in Oakland. Each participant was asked to roast two different coffees to a City+ level so we could compare and contrast cup quality from different roasting methods. Each sample was logged and assigned a random number so we could do a "blind" cupping. The results were very intriguing and we've compiled a detailed list of photos and notes about the results. It was a fun-filled day of roasters sharing stories and profile ideas with each participant getting a chance to try different machines and the group roasting two batches on the 12 kilo Probat. A list of all participants are below. Thanks so much to the wonderful folks who attended the first camp, you really did a great job and hopefully this data will be useful to many other home roasters out there.

For this first camp we instructed the participants to roast light, to a City + roast, so we could reveal the coffee flavors without a strong overlay of roast taste. In retrospect, we should have asked for a darker roast, because I found that most people slightly underroasted the coffee and got to City, not City + (the Roast Level column below is what people felt they had roasted to). So the low cupping scores and comments have as much to do with the under-developed roast flavor as with the roast machine itself. That said, I was really impressed with the fact that no coffees (aside from 2 batches) were mis-roasted, meaning they were not scorched or tipped. A couple are heavily roasted, and one lot was actually NOT roasted, because it did not really reach first crack. And some of the best roasts came from a Poppery! I photographed each batch on the copy stand with a macro lens and cupped every coffee. The photographs and comments are below. Please note that under a strong light, the roasted coffee looks very contrasty and patchy. Under normal room lighting, these coffees would look more even and darker. So here are the images and comments. Click on the thumbnail for the larger image.
- Tom

We are planning to have another camp on September 26th (it is already full - sorry!) and are planning to get the widest possible cross-section of different roaster types - folks who using a Freshroast, modified Popcorn Popper, Nesco, Gene Cafe, and stovetop methods. These camps are helping Sweet Maria's critically examine the different results from the home roasting machines we sell or that people create themselves. This page has images from the camp and a roster of participants.

Image #	Image	Sample #	Roast Level	Roaster	Person	Coffee	Notes	Score
1		4	City+	BehmorP1	John	Peru San Ignacio Cajamarca	Sweet, thin, grainy pasty bready - not bad roast but too light.	84.5
2		6	City+	Poppery	Dustin	Peru San Ignacio Cajamarca	Acids are balanced, good roast level, bittersweet, dry	85.5
3		8	FC	BehmorP4	John T.	Peru San Ignacio Cajamarca	Astringent and dry, too light	83.5
4		11	City+	BehmorP1	Greg	Peru San Ignacio Cajamarca	Mild cup, soft acids, sweet, nuts	84.5
5		12	Vienna	Iroast	Janice	Peru San Ignacio Cajamarca	Very roasty, but still retains acidity	83.5
6		14	FC+	Iroast	Janice	Peru San Ignacio Cajamarca	Mild, tannic, sweet but a little odd in finish - 1.06% TDS	84.5
7		20	City+	BehmorP3	Greg	Peru San Ignacio Cajamarca	Baked roast taste, thin body	83
8		22	City+	Poppery	Chuck	Peru San Ignacio Cajamarca	Very drinkable, balanced, milk chocolate, good roast level	86.5
9		25	City+	Iroast	Mike	Peru San Ignacio Cajamarca	Good roast level like sample 22, finish a bit thin	86
10		26	City+	BehmorP1	John T.	Peru San Ignacio Cajamarca	Far too light, astringent	82.5
11		27	City+	BehmorP1	Bonie	Peru San Ignacio Cajamarca	An off bean? Some taint in  the cup. Too light	81
12		28	City+	BehmorP2	Bonnie	Peru San Ignacio Cajamarca	Sweet and dry, more rustic than others, not bad, light	84
13		31	City+	Hottop 14 min	Steve	Peru San Ignacio Cajamarca	Sweet and balanced, more floral than others	86
14		32	City+	Probat	Josh	Peru San Ignacio Cajamarca	Very balanced sweetness, soft acidity, round mouthfeel 1.33% TDS	86.5
15		35	City+	Poppery	Mark	Peru San Ignacio Cajamarca	Thin, but still sweet	83.5
Image #		Sample #	Roast Level	Roaster	Person	Coffee	Notes	Score
1		1	City+	Poppery	Chuck	Indonesia Flores Manggarai	Sweet, very nice body, balanced, short finish	86.5
2		7	FC	BehmorP1	John T.	Indonesia Flores Manggarai	thin acidity, underdeveloped roast taste	84.5
3		9	City+	BehmorP3	Greg	Indonesia Flores Manggarai	Malty, grainy sweet, butter, wafer cookie	84.5
4		10	City+	BehmorP1	Bonnie	Indonesia Flores Manggarai	balanced, less sweet but nice body	85
5		13	City+	Poppery	Dustin	Indonesia Flores Manggarai	odd rustic, like baggy, not seen in others, tight	84
6		15	City+	Poppery	Mark O.	Indonesia Flores Manggarai	average, mild, sweet	84
7		16	City+_	Hottop	Steve	Indonesia Flores Manggarai	sour-sweet, thing, too light	83
8		17	City+	BehmorP1	Greg	Indonesia Flores Manggarai	rustic, thin, sour, baked, too light	82
9		18	City+	Probat	Josh	Indonesia Flores Manggarai	darker roast than others, body, balance, mild	85.5
10		19	Vienna	Iroast	Janice	Indonesia Flores Manggarai	dark roast, burned, carbony, uneven	79
11		21	City+	BehmorP4	John T.	Indonesia Flores Manggarai	vanilla, cereal sweetness, light	84
12		23	City	Iroast	Mike	Indonesia Flores Manggarai	very cereal like and grainy, not roasted, really 1.52% TDS	79
13		24	City+	Behmor	John	Indonesia Flores Manggarai	Vanilla and butter, light, sweet but too thin, light	84.5
14		33	City+	BehmorP2	Bonnie	Indonesia Flores Manggarai	Sweet butter, a bit thin, too light but nice also	85.5