Yirgacheffe is renowned for its bright floral aroma and citric acidity, and is typically regarded as a representative of light roasting. But when the roaster got distracted for a moment and the bean temperature surged to 197°C, entering the mid-to-late stage of second crack, this batch of Yirgacheffe became an experiment in dark roasting. After dark roasting, the beans are darker in color and smoother on the surface, and the aroma after grinding shifts from intense to charred and bitter. How does it perform after drip brewing? In its youth it is charming and lively, but later it becomes simple and clear, with a lingering charred bitterness. This article uses this accident as an opportunity to discuss the feasibility of dark roasting Ethiopian beans, common misconceptions in blending, and why people still tend to prefer light-roasted Ethiopian beans.
When roasting coffee beans, you need to stay focused; otherwise, you may zone out and find that while roasting a new batch of Yirgacheffe coffee beans, the coffee roaster's temperature gauge reads 197, meaning the coffee beans have already entered the mid-to-late stage of second crack.
So there we had this dark-roasted Yirgacheffe coffee bean, which looked darker and smoother than light-roasted coffee beans; after grinding it into coffee powder and smelling it, the rich aroma of medium-roasted Yirgacheffe coffee powder had turned into something somewhat charred and bitter.
After drip brewing the dark-roasted Yirgacheffe coffee beans, it turned out to be not bad. At seventeen or eighteen, Yirgacheffe coffee beans are very charming, full of youthful natural vitality; by twenty-four or twenty-five, the flavor becomes simple and clear, and a hint of charred bitterness becomes very lingering.
Life is like that—even if you work very hard, in the end it is mostly bitter.
But then again, many people have some misconceptions about medium-dark roasting and Yirgacheffe or Ethiopian beans. First, when using them in blends, they think that as long as Ethiopian beans are roasted, they can fill in the floral and fruity acidity of the blend. In fact, whether it is Ethiopian beans or some other beans, they may perform well in some ways, but that aroma will not be floral and fruity acidity. Second, some believe that African beans do not necessarily have to be dark roasted. There is some truth to this, but in actual practice, why do people unanimously light-roast Ethiopian beans? Here we must mention what is pursued in coffee roasting: finding the balance point as much as possible, so that the coffee beans can fully express their aroma without becoming charred. Because of grading reasons, Ethiopian beans include quite a few small-sized beans, which, in terms of heat conduction, are more likely to scorch. So as a roaster, of course, you should avoid taking that risk as much as possible, and this is also what brings out the citric acidity of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe.
As for whether Ethiopian beans can be dark roasted? Of course they can, provided you know why you are dark roasting them.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
