Sweet Maria's Strange Beasts Espresso Blend

"Strange Beasts" bands together an unlikely coffee alliance that achieves a classic-toned espresso that leans heavily on balanced bittersweet flavors, and silky texture that's creamy and thick. We had excellent results at Full City roast level, and I wouldn't think twice about taking Strange Beasts to a rolling 2nd Crack if you enjoy the intensity of dark roasts. Like the king of the monsters, Godzilla, it can take the heat! It's versatile too, showing intense, long-lasting flavors with different throughputs (we enjoyed both our 1:1 ratio - 1:2 ratio shots). Deep cocoa flavors weigh heavily on the palate, thoroughly impressing a flavor of bittersweet bean to bar chocolate on the tongue. The flavors were very intense in this context, chalk full of cocoa roast notes, burnt sugars, and a very long finish. Notes of malt and date syrups add some sweetness to the deep-toned flavors, followed by pastry-like hints, bran muffin, and chocolate-covered almonds. The flavor profile branches out to modest fruit accents of raisin, dried fig, plum sauce, and a malty-sweet note of old fashioned date bread with a touch of molasses. Really though, it's the deep bittersweet intensity that holds this blend together, a key element that can be further developed with darker roasting. Longer shots that extracted closer to 30 grams of espresso over 30-35 seconds were still velvety in texture, and drew out the flavors of sweet breads drizzled in salty-sweet blackstrap molasses. We used a small amount of Monsoon coffee in Strange Beasts, which can settle to one part of your bag. Make sure to give it a quick shake/stir to evenly distribute before weighing out your roast batch.