Blue Eyed Babe Whole Bean Ethiopian Coffee

Into The Beans

We’ve been interested in roasting coffee at Matchbook for a long, long time – and we finally started playing around with our Diedrich roaster in the fall. Once you understand the roasting process (which may come a little easier having worked in distilleries for the best part of the last decade) – it’s kind of simple, but also pretty difficult – the flavors change incredibly quickly during the browning of the beans (the Maillard reaction) and you have to be very attentive to the heat and airflow going through the drum and into the beans – if they get too hot too quickly they won’t develop into the flavors you’re looking for, if they take too long to develop you can lose flavor and moisture resulting in a caffeine-depleted bean that is void of character.

‘Blue eyed babe’ came about when Leslie asked our coffee broker if they had a blueberry/fruity forward bean that they could send us — they had two bags left of this naturally processed Ethiopia Natural GERA Estate GR1 which was exactly what we were looking for.

Through a bit of trial and error we finally were able to get the recipe down which started with the ‘charge’ or ‘bean’ temperature. This is the temp at which the green coffee beans are dropped into the drum and begin their journey – 395°F seemed to be the sweet spot. Once the beans dropped we watched as the temperature dropped to around 170°F and then steadily started to rise – at this point we had a ratio of 20/50 air flow to heat going into and through the drum. The heat is roasting the beans and the airflow is maintaining consistency and ensuring the beans don’t brown too quickly/in one specific spot. Once we got to 350°F we decreased the heat to 40% to start to slow the roast down and let the Maillard reaction work its magic. At 375°F (first crack) we cranked the airflow to 100% and the heat down to 40°F while we let the beans develop for a minimum of 2 minutes development time. We dropped the beans into the cooling bin at 410°F maintaining a light-medium roast while still preserving the fruity elements we were looking for.

Blue eyed babe is our first coffee release – perfect for pour overs, French press and filter coffee. We hope you enjoy and please let us know what you think!

Notes

Type: Single Origin

Notes: Wild Blueberry, Passion Fruit, Juicy Peach, White Wine, Cocoa

Origin: Ethiopia

Region: Djimma

Farm: Gera Estate

Elevation: 1880m

Varietal: Ethiopian Heirloom

Process: Anaerobic Natural

Roast: Medium

Size: 200g

Whole Bean

The GERA Estate is located in the Djimma region of Ethiopia at altitudes over 2,000 meters above sea level. This altitude combined with the nitrogen-rich plants and natural fertilizers used on the estate provide excellent growing conditions for specialty coffee. No chemical fertilizers or insecticides are used; production at GERA focuses on sustainability and good working conditions for its employees. The GERA Estate provides housing, childcare and education, clean drinking water, electricity, healthcare, and recreational facilities for all of its employees free of charge.

Ethiopian:

• charge at 395°F

• 20/50 air to heat

• @ 350°F 20/40

• @ 375°F 100/30

• Drop at 410°F after at least 2 minutes of development

Cheers!

Kurt Nolting, Head Roaster