Why Colombian roasters, roast the coffee different that roasters in the US?

[expat]

Hey Musicphan, depending on who the coffee is for we'll drop at FC, mid-roast, even right up to 2nd crack. The Colombians are very versatile and when we were first roasting, several years ago now, found them to be very forgiving for a newbie roaster. Our retail coffee would be a blend of these various roasts to give as much flavour up and down the flavour possibilities as possible. For our coffee shops we're more focused on a true single origin flavour and try to tailor that to what the shop wants, even to the individual baristas preference.

And to JohnD, I'd love to try some of your Ethiopian Gera. We too do some light roasts -- this kinda goes against what I said earlier but since they aren't fast roasts and we develop the flavours . . . - so we do a lot of Sidamo as you described, possibly getting a couple more minutes out of the roast. Never sour, never grassy, the flavours much as you described in your post. Throw in some jasmine at the front end and caramel at the back. This is done specifically for a coffee shop in Dublin that we're proud to say regularly gets the #1 rating, among 2,000+ restaurants on TripAdvisor. They rate so high because their staff is great, they've got good fare, and we'd like to think that our coffee contributes at least a bit to their rankings.

 

[Musicphan]

Thanks expat.. I've been working on extending my roasts so I was curios where in the roast cycle you were dropping if your getting those long of roasts. I was in St Louis a few week back from some importer supplied training... there were roasting 7-8 minutes roast on a Loring. I know they obviously roast differently with the hot air recirculation but that was super short IMO.

 

[JohnD18]

Hey Musicphan, depending on who the coffee is for we'll drop at FC, mid-roast, even right up to 2nd crack. The Colombians are very versatile and when we were first roasting, several years ago now, found them to be very forgiving for a newbie roaster. Our retail coffee would be a blend of these various roasts to give as much flavour up and down the flavour possibilities as possible. For our coffee shops we're more focused on a true single origin flavour and try to tailor that to what the shop wants, even to the individual baristas preference.

And to JohnD, I'd love to try some of your Ethiopian Gera. We too do some light roasts -- this kinda goes against what I said earlier but since they aren't fast roasts and we develop the flavours . . . - so we do a lot of Sidamo as you described, possibly getting a couple more minutes out of the roast. Never sour, never grassy, the flavours much as you described in your post. Throw in some jasmine at the front end and caramel at the back. This is done specifically for a coffee shop in Dublin that we're proud to say regularly gets the #1 rating, among 2,000+ restaurants on TripAdvisor. They rate so high because their staff is great, they've got good fare, and we'd like to think that our coffee contributes at least a bit to their rankings.

Is the Sidamo you talk about a natural? I have a natural Sidamo I roast and it has similar flavor characteristics.