Welcome to the second installment of bean review. I thought for this one it would be fun to go in the exact opposite direction as last time. So rather than a small bag of specialty beans, I’ll be covering a Costco bag of dark roast. This is Sumatra by Café William.
Roaster: Café William (Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada)
Origin: Indonesia
Texture: Full-bodied
Roast profile: Medium-dark*
Roaster’s notes: Wild, leathery, earthy
*This is according to the bag. In my experience these are firmly in the dark or even very dark category. They’re dark in colour, have oil on the beans, zero acidity, and lots of roast flavour. They’re not the absolute darkest I’ve had, but they’re definitely up there.
Espresso:
It was a bit tricky for me to get these good in espresso at first, but I’ve found doing a ristretto style shot was the best bet here. Pretty much anything more than a 1:1.5 just got way too bitter, but really that 1:1 is where the flavour is at its best. Plus with the heavy-bodied mouthfeel, it really lends itself in that direction. I’m not the biggest fan of ristretto usually but with these beans it wasn’t too bad. Definitely not my preference, but if I only had these beans and an espresso machine, I’d be sticking with ristretto every time.
Filter:
These beans have pretty much become exclusively a filter bean. I’ve found a coarse grind to be best here, as it tends to hide some of the bitterness. I also never go above 85°C on my kettle with these beans. When I do my typical switch recipe, I cut down the immersion time a little bit too. I’m basically doing whatever I can to cut back on the extraction a bit and not pull all the bitterness out of the grounds.
Overall, not my favourite beans truthfully. I’m sure there’s some people who like them, and they don’t make a terrible milk drink actually, but for black coffee and straight espresso, I’d probably pass on these in future. I’ve had worse coffee, but there’s so much better out there, I don’t see the point in getting these again. If I was a big ristretto fan, or only making milk drinks, I’d probably have a bag of these all the time, as that’s really where I think it shines, but for me, it’s a no.
::: spoiler Previous episodes Episode 1 :::
5 Comments
freddo@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 4d
Nice review.
01189998819991197253@infosec.pub · 2 pts · 4d
I used to like darks quite a bit, and Sumatra was one of my favourites. Once I started with espresso, though, I started leaning towards medium and med/dark. I wanted Sumatra in that med/dark, so I started roasting my own coffee, and let me tell you, Sumatra is a dark roast coffee. Anything less, and it tastes like dirt or earth (very not pleasant). It might say med/dark, but the way you describe it, it's dark lol
kettuli@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 4d
Even espresso is best with the lightest of roasts, give it a shot if you’re not sure.
BurntWits@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 3d
I’ve been really enjoying medium roast espresso lately. I haven’t tried light or ultra light yet but I want to. Probably my next bag of beans.
01189998819991197253@infosec.pub · 1 pts · 3d
Espresso is traditionally medium(ish) roast, ground to espresso fine. I've pulled shots from light to midnight, and I, personally, prefer mediums. Technically, I just don't like the acidity that comes with lights. If I could have the same flavour explosion of lights without all that activity, they would be my preference, so I know what you mean :)