“City+ to Full City+: Incredible sweetness, dark honey, blackberry, black tea notes, cooked fruits, mulling spice. Fantastic middle roasts. Great as espresso.” -Sweet Marias
The first sip is indeed sweet, and the blackberry and mulling spice come through easily. The body is smooth and juicy, with a light acidity. The finish is smooth with lingering notes of honey sweetness and black tea notes.
As it slowly cools, the blackberry notes are still strong, however the cooked fruit note is lighter, but it does still contribute to the sweetness of the cup. It is well balanced, with little acidity,and the fruit sweetness balances out with the black tea notes. The black tea notes have grown stronger, and the mulling spice are more prominent in the finish.
The overall sweetness of this roast is evident, however the blackberry and spice notes are what made it an enjoyable cup of coffee. The honey added a nice smoothness to the body, and the black tea notes helped balance against the sweetness. This roast was targeted at Full City, and I think it was pretty close, as it retained the fruit notes and sweetness. I can see why these beans would be good for espresso, where the spice and sweetness would be drawn out, so expect an update for that as well. 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 13:30 minutes and continued for about 1.0 minutes. Cooling was done in the Gene, down to 215 degrees, and then removed and cooled in a colander until room temperature.
Update: Made a moka pot with this roast, and the first sips are sweet, with some spice, and a black tea note in the finish, but it is still too hot to get any fruit notes. As it cools down, the dark honey is evident, and gives the body a nice smoothness. The cooked fruit notes do seem a little stronger than in the regular pour-over tasting, and they blend well with the spices. There is a light acidity, but it only really comes across in the finish, and doesn’t linger. Overall this roast makes for a sweet and lightly spiced espresso.