Roast #1 "Tabaconas Valley"

Today my first kilo of green beans arrived, I spent a few days researching which bean was going to be my first, it's hard to know what you are looking for when you are stumbling around the web, but when I saw these beans I was fairly certain they'd be a good starting place.

These beans are from North Peru, in the Tabaconas Valley, due to deforestation in the area there are few places left for native wildlife to live, many of these birds and other creatures have now migrated to the coffee plantations. So not only on top of the already excellent ethical attributes of the plantation itself this coffee also has environmental benefits that are high above a standard "eco-friendly" coffee.

Onto the roasting..

125g Green Beans

I decided to start with 125grams, I used an enamel pan, hopefully soon to be replaced with a cast iron one. I pre-heated the pan on a low heat, next time this will be done on an even lower flame.

After a minute and a half I tipped in the beans and was surprised as to how quickly they began to brown. I realised it was to hot quickly, but was able to pick out the first few beans to be burnt.

"The First Crack"

I only learnt this term yesterday, the first crack is the first time you could stop roasting, this will give a very mild roast. It sounds like popcorn popping rather than a cracking noise.

It's at this point the smoke starts also, which is why I had a window open and the extractor on.

The smoke had a wonderful smell, less of coffee than you'd expect, more of roasting nuts. It's the kind of smell you might expect more at a christmas market than through a kitchen window of a city centre flat.

I decided to end my roast at 12 minutes, somewhere in the middle of the 10 - 14 minute suggestions I had seen online in blogs and youtube videos. I followed advice and removed the beans from the pan as quickly as possible and placed them in a sieve above the sink to cool and could toss and shake to remove the chaff.

After 2 minutes sitting in the sieve I put the beans in a bowl and tossed with my fingers to remove more of the chaff.

I'll now leave for 2-3 days before grinding and brewing. I'll be sure to report the flavour!