This was brewed with a local roast near me called Reunion coffee roasters. The roast was Bullet Espresso, a medium-dark espresso roast. It was allright, nothing mind blowing.
Recently I discovered Burukudu, which is also a local roaster located within walking distance of my condo. I bought a bag of their 42 “Pete’s perfect” espresso blend… it’s gassing off right now (just shy of a week old), but dang, the aroma is mind blowing!! Can’t wait to crack open the bag next week and brew something yummy! According to the shop keeper, this guy Pete learned the recipe for this blend from his father. And it’s a family secret that’s passed on from generation to generation.
Bullet was OK, nothing special. I think their biggest issue is that they are more of a “mainstream” roaster, i.e. their beans are not really fresh… and they only have a best before date.
I cracked open my bag of 42 today, roasted on Jan 3, 2024, so done degassing. Wow. It tasted OK with a standard Breville basket, but then I tried it with the IMS Big Bang basket… mind blown! Such a beautiful aroma! I feel like I need to tweak the recipe a bit more, but so far it’s one of the tastiest espressos I’ve had. Taste profile is reminiscent of “classical” Italian espresso, but with the aroma and taste notes (caramel/chocolate) of lighter roasts. I’m loving it so far!
That sounds amazing (the 42)! Italian roast and Italian espresso is what got me into espressos, and I love them deeply. I’ve since move all over the world, in terms of coffees, and I’ve generally settled on medium and medium/light roasts, instead of the darker Italian. Nevertheless, I still find myself going back to Italian roasts every so often. Actually, I just roasted an Italian roast today, and I can’t wait to try it once it degasses enough. In your opinion, is the 42 worth the $20?
It’s a pretty standard price in Toronto for a bag this size. If you’re local, you may be able to get a better deal if you visit the store in person. It’s a very nice lounge with 80-90s music (on vinyl!) and a friendly vibe.
It’s definitely not expensive, and is very reasonable for decent to good roasts. I didn’t mean to sound as though I was implying it was excessively priced (I wasn’t implying that). Sorry about that. I only meant to ask if it was worth the price for the quality. For example, sbux, to me, isn’t worth the price tag (even though it’s not expensive), because I don’t like their coffee. That sort of thing. The vibe sounds amazing!
Oh, I think it’s worth the price, as long as you manage expectations of what you’re buying. This is by no means a fancy/experimental light/medium roast (like deMello, another Toronto-area roaster) with lots of complex notes and flavours… the “42” is definitely a classic Italian base with a good aroma to it. It’s a post-roast blend, and it seems to me like at least 2, maybe 3 different roasts. 2/3 dark, with 1/3 medium/light beans, just based off casual observation.
Ooh! I love those types of blends, they’re so interesting! I did multi-roast blends, and they were some of the most interesting roasts I’ve ever done. It just takes so much longer to roast, since I have to basically roast several singles to make the blend. When it gets warmer, I plan on making more of them. I started saving up for the 42, and I will add deMello Roasters to the list, too. They seem very good, too. Any specific roast that you would recommend?
I like fruity notes, but not acidic notes. They usually come hand in hand, though, so I take what I can get haha I’ll add that to the list. I do tend to like Ethiopian coffees. Thanks!
I tasted the Italian roast today, and it was amazing. It’s not 100% degassed, yet, which is to be expected for a darker roast 3 days out. I’ll wait a couple more days before I try again.
Nothing yet this weekend, only dissapointing aeropress presses(not too bad just tired of it). I ordered a Flair pro 2 but it will not be delivered until Monday. Keep reloading the track and trace but still stuck somewhere in a warehouse frustratingly close by…
I just finished an aeropress. It wasn’t disappointing, but not the best. It was preground sedamo I received for Christmas. Bummed that it was preground, but I do like sedamo. As for the Flair tracking, I would be doing the exact same thing you’re doing with the constant refreshes. I would even be tempted to call the shipping company and ask if them if I can just pick it up at their warehouse. I hope it gets to you soon and that it’s more than everything you ever hoped it would be!
I thought about that, but I fear my espresso grinder would get clogged or overly dirty. It’s a pain to disassemble and clean. I’ve been using it for pour over and aeropress, and it’s good enough for being free to me.
Ran out of beans and my partner brought home Blue Bottle beans and I had very low expectations given the bag was from a big box store. Sacrilege. But actually the cappuccino I made tasted pretty close to their taste in store so I’m impressed at the consistency.
I like blue bottle, when they’re on sale. I don’t feel that their (black coffee / plain espresso) flavor warrants the non-sale price tag. BUT!! The fact that they exist adds another layer of options to our brethren, and I love that. I know several people who absolutely love blue bottle. Nothing wrong with that!
I’m brewing some cxffeeblack Uwacu - it’s a 72 hour anaerobic fermentation processed coffee from Rwanda. Tasting notes are sweet tarts, fruity pebble ceral milk, and watermelon jolly rancher, but to me it’s just floral and fruity. I’ve been trying my hand at iced lattes lately - a doubleshot over ice with a healthy amount of whole milk, but this coffee goes well as a hot Caffè Americano, or straight latte. It’s perfect jet black as a pour over as well.
Really, anything from cxffeeblack is phenomenal - Once this bag goes, I’ll pick up their Guji Mane.
I also have some of the Onyx echelon subscription coffee - which was a bit of a splurge/reward for a promotion in December. So far it’s been great… but I’m getting a bit tired of only pour over coffee (thus the lattes above).
I have a blend of Brazil, Guatemala, and Ethiopia that I received as a gift. The bag says it’s a medium roast, but it’s definitely on the darker side. It’s nice and rich with milk, but I’m not getting any floral notes from the Ethiopian part of the blend. That being said, I find 3-way blends generally interesting, and some of the best espresso I’ve had were from a blend of African + Central American + South American coffees!
I’ve recently decided to take a tour of my local roasters’ espresso blends. The first two candidates have been:
4th Level Roasters’ Espresso Blend. Not terrible, but $18/lb, darker than I prefer, and “robusta forward” in that great body but unfortunate tire-fire flavor sort of way, so I’m glad I only went for an 8oz bag and I don’t think I’ll get it again.
Nate’s Coffee’s Nate’s Espresso Blend which is $15/lb, and delicious. Balanced, not too dark, good mouthfeel. I’m having to dial a bit, it’s pulling a slow shot at my usual starting settings, but even the slow ones were tasty and they’re just getting better as I dial the grind out toward a 30ish second shot.
That’s what I need to do. I usually get my bags online, but there are some awesome roasters in and around my areas of travel. Nates looks amazing, by the way, and I might just order a couple bags.
Possible extra bonus of local roasters: Nate’s (and, AFIK, not uncommon with roasters that run a coffeeshop storefront) has a deal where you get a drip, coldbrew, or $2 credit on a fancier drink when you buy a pound at their brick and mortar. Their relative location makes it a nice early afternoon break for me to go pick up.
I'm putting the Bali Island through the Robot and the Colombia is for a pour-over. Havn't tried the Malawi, yet, but happy mug doesn't usually let me down.
Bali blue moon is one of my favorites. I don’t like happy mug, though. Their quality is ok, I received a rock in one of my bags once, and the owner is kind of a dick who doxxes his customers on his blog. His employees, however, have always been awesome.
Yeah, I found it on their blog and thought it was strange. Then saw some people complaining about it on Reddit back in the day, and it came together in my head that that’s what he was doing. Not cool at all.
As for the rock, I found it accidentally. I dropped the bag on the counter and a few beans and a rock fell out. So glad I dropped the bag haha
Agreed. This is why I stopped using them, but I won’t shun anyone else for using them. We each have different tolerances for these types of behavior, and, for me, it surpassed the tolerance.
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