Espresso Blends

[eldub]

I spent some time today pulling shots and developing potential blends for our shop's espresso offerings. I was happy to find out that my initial recipe yielded a pretty darn good shot with lots-o crema. The blend in question was comprised of some brazilian, guatemalan, sumatran and mexican robusta. It was amazing to see what a difference grind and length of time pulling the shot can make on the final product. Hope to perfect the blend ratios shortly. This one is called Crema Love.

We also experimented with a blend featuring ethiopian sidamo that had promise. But that one is still pretty far from being perfected.

Anyone have any espresso recipes you would care to share? Feel free to post them here.

lw

 

[CanadianBrian]

Hello Scott;
I see that you are using a robusta in your blend. I know that it helps with the crema but do you not find that it is a harder sell for the specialty market when we educate that robusta is for the cheap blends and we only sell high quality arabica? Just wondering how you or anyone else handles this question.
Also glad to hear that things are going well for you. Any new updates? How are wholesale sales going?
Brian

 

[eldub]

Hey, Brian.

This espresso tastes great and has wonderful crema. The blend in question is comprised of 10% high-quality robusta. I don't feel the need to advertise the exact make-up unless asked. At that point, I'm happy to let the potential customer know that I've sourced a decent robusta that contributes to the crema and actually tastes pretty good on its own. I tell them that this particular blend is made in the European style and that many European espresso blends contain more than 10% robusta.

 

[expat]

Try 80% Sumatra + 20% Robusta. We call it Buzz Bomb. The Lovely & Talented Roast Mistress would have to tell you exactly how she does it but here's what some folks had to say (BTW these 'mystery tasters' are all folks who have not had any problem telling me flat out "that tastes like $*&#" or "I wouldn't let my dog drink that" so I trust their feedback to be honest, not back scratching):

[Brewed in a high-end home espresso machine] “Very dark, almost chocolatey with a strong taste in the back of your mouth. It was exactly the right distance from tasting ‘burnt’ if that makes sense. A bit more and it wouldn’t have been nice for me but it was just right. Tastes a bit like the coffeeholics version of ‘death by chocolate’! I’m looking forward to the buzz and will write about that later!!”
–Mystery Taster #1


[Made in a French press] “Buzz Bomb is fabulous, one of my favorites. Dave thinks it’s the best yet. We had the first pot with Tony & Brid. We loved it instantly. Great strength, great tastes, great finish. Brid said it was quite strong but full of flavor.”
–Mystery Taster #2


[Made in a heavy-duty commercial espresso machine at a top-end Galway coffee bar/connoisseur food hall and restaurant] “We all tried your coffee this morning with a very good reaction. The people who wouldn’t be big coffee drinkers struggled with it, but those of us that take our coffee seriously liked it. I found as well as the initial chocolate hit you got a very fruity aftertaste that was quite pleasant. Sometimes with that fruit you get an unpleasant tang but not with this blend. As for the caffeine buzz it really was noticeable, I wouldn’t drink it at night.”
–Mystery Taster #3

And we recently got this unsolicited critique: “Yep, it rocks…. Buzz Bomb! Day 2…. Proves that day 1 was no mistake…. Buzz bomb is yum….”

Give it a whirl Eldub (or anyone else out there) and let us know how it works for you.

 

[CoffeeJunky]

Try 80% Sumatra + 20% Robusta. We call it Buzz Bomb. The Lovely & Talented Roast Mistress would have to tell you exactly how she does it but here's what some folks had to say (BTW these 'mystery tasters' are all folks who have not had any problem telling me flat out "that tastes like $*&#" or "I wouldn't let my dog drink that" so I trust their feedback to be honest, not back scratching):

[Brewed in a high-end home espresso machine] “Very dark, almost chocolatey with a strong taste in the back of your mouth. It was exactly the right distance from tasting ‘burnt’ if that makes sense. A bit more and it wouldn’t have been nice for me but it was just right. Tastes a bit like the coffeeholics version of ‘death by chocolate’! I’m looking forward to the buzz and will write about that later!!”
–Mystery Taster #1


[Made in a French press] “Buzz Bomb is fabulous, one of my favorites. Dave thinks it’s the best yet. We had the first pot with Tony & Brid. We loved it instantly. Great strength, great tastes, great finish. Brid said it was quite strong but full of flavor.”
–Mystery Taster #2


[Made in a heavy-duty commercial espresso machine at a top-end Galway coffee bar/connoisseur food hall and restaurant] “We all tried your coffee this morning with a very good reaction. The people who wouldn’t be big coffee drinkers struggled with it, but those of us that take our coffee seriously liked it. I found as well as the initial chocolate hit you got a very fruity aftertaste that was quite pleasant. Sometimes with that fruit you get an unpleasant tang but not with this blend. As for the caffeine buzz it really was noticeable, I wouldn’t drink it at night.”
–Mystery Taster #3

And we recently got this unsolicited critique: “Yep, it rocks…. Buzz Bomb! Day 2…. Proves that day 1 was no mistake…. Buzz bomb is yum….”

Give it a whirl Eldub (or anyone else out there) and let us know how it works for you.

Interesting post here.... I always thought recipes for Espresso was secretly guarded information for some very high profile companies.
I am still a baby at this and love reading all of about it..... Thank you very much .....

 

[expat]

Generally yes, I think most folks hold their recipes pretty close to their chest. I'm not really sure why though. Maybe someone could enlighten me on that. But if I like to frequent coffee shop A and coffee shop B has the same recipe I'm still going to coffee shop A. We're creatures of habit.

By the way, I totally forgot to give attribution to the 80/20 recipe. It's not mine. If you look at HasBean.co.uk you'll find that as the old recipe for Breakfast Bomb which is the one I use for my Buzz Bomb. And you can read the new recipe too -- 50% Sumatra / 30% Nicaragua A / 20% Nicaguara B -- and many others as well. I don't think it has hurt his business one bit. Another to look at is Java Republic.ie, you can see (if they're still doing it) all their recipes. They even post how much per year of each coffee they buy.

Then at the end of the day I think I could give 10 roasters the same recipe, all from the same bag of beans, and you'd have 10 different tasting coffees (kind of like that recipe you got from your mom because it was the favorurite thing of yours that she made, but even though you follow the recipe to the letter you've never been able to get it to taste quite like hers --- same thing here). That's where the secret and skill and art is -- how it is roasted, how it is blended. My 80/20 blend might be made up of beans roasted to three or four different levels and then blended so that you get the melange of all those flavours in one cup. Or it might not be. I doubt it tastes exactly like HasBean's did, but I bet you'd say they were both a really good cup of coffee.

And finally . . . . I'm here to learn, hopefully from some seasoned and savvy roasters. I have, and I appreciate what they've shared. I think I'd be remiss then if I didn't at least try to contribute what I could.

 

[Bozo]

Hi eldub
I would like to try out your blend. I have a Behmor, have sent RoasterThing over 250 espresso blends, not posted yet, now over 325. The ones I've tried has a comment, if from places like HappyMugCoffee.com and others, they are listed. Hope to hear from you and to try your blend, Bozo

 

[eldub]

Cool. Do you want roasted or green beans?

 

[Jonkay79]

Verve coffee roasters has a great espresso blend I love! It is called "The Sermon"

 

[Jonkay79]

They are in California

 

[DirtyDave]

So difficult to make sense of.
Country of origin "might" give you the direction of the cup, but not the specifics.
Type of roaster, type of profile, age of beans, etc, etc.
I could roast a Rwanda, Panama, Timor blend that would taste nothing like your blend of the same origins.
I guess that's why they call it art.

 

[eldub]

Good to see you around, Dave.

I'ma try the Buzz Bomb, expat. Thanks for the suggestion.

I have a retail customer picking up ten pounds of a Bolivian/Mexican Robusta blend this morning. (85/15) Dude likes his jolt in da morning.

 

[expat]

The more we make that blend the lighter we roast the Sumatra . . . and the more people seem to like it. So give that a go.