“City to FC: Thick honeyed sweetness, cherry, apricot, fresh herbaceous hints, syrupy mouth feel lending to lasting bitter sweetness.” -Sweet Marias
The first sip was sweet, but there was a nice herb note providing some bitterness to offset the sweetness. The body is definitely thick, and is very syrupy like. There is almost no acidity at the moment, and I definitely get a light apricot note on the finish. The finish is clean and does have a slight hint of bitterness, more like a light burned sugar sweetness.
Still at a medium temperature, the bitterness has increased a little, and the cherry note has surfaced, but it is very light. The cherry note is not too sweet either, it’s more like a hint of the cherry skin more than the fruit. The apricot notes are less noticeable, but do appear in the finish still. The body is more juicy than syrupy, and there is a hint of acidity now with the bitterness on the finish. The finish is smooth, and still has the apricot notes that intermingle with the bitter sweetness which lingers now.
I liked the light fruit notes on this batch. The apricot notes were light but noticeable, and carried through all the way to the finish. The cherry notes were very light, and more like cherry skin sweetness, but it did not last long, as the cup cooled. The sweetness was very syrupy to start, but seemed to loosen up as it cooled, but still maintained a juicy body. This roast was targeted at City+, and I think it was right in the sweet spot, as it retained the light fruit notes and had only a complementary bitterness. A darker roast would have lost the lighter notes and had a stronger bitter note. As for the roasting details, the roast was done in the Gene Cafe roaster, with a heat setting of 460 degrees, for 15 minutes. First crack started approximately around 12:30 minutes and continued for about 1.5 minutes. Cooling was done in the Gene, down to 215 degrees, and then removed and cooled in a colander until room temperature.
UPDATE: Tried this batch out in the moka pot, and it definitely retains the sweetness and syrupy mouthfeel. The cherry notes are up front pairing nicely with the herb notes, but the bitter notes are also lingering longer on the finish.