Bullet Roast Profile Video: Espresso Monkey Blend

A video overview of our recent Bullet Roast Profile featuring our longstanding Espresso Monkey blend.

We chose one of our oldest blends for this next Bullet Roast ProfileRoast Profile refers to the relationship between time and temperature in coffee roasting, with the endpoint being the "degree of roast". Roast profiling is the active manipulation of..., the Sweet Maria’s EspressoA small coffee beverage, about 20 ml, prepared on an espresso machine where pressurized hot water extracted through compressed coffee.: In its most stripped-down, basic form, this is... Monkey Blend. This mix of Dry and Wet ProcessWet-processing starts by removing the outer skin of the coffee cherry with a machine called a pulper, then fermenting the remaining fruit (with green bean inside) in water... coffees from Africa and Latin America was blended for an espresso shot that’s bodied, bittersweetBittersweet is from the language of chocolate, and describes the co-presence of positive bittering compounds balanced by sweetness. It is directly related to caramelization, but has inputs from..., and with fruit flavors in the mix. It’s one of our longest running blends on our list, supported by ingredients from a few different parts of the world that allow us to move through fresh ingredients year round.

The three coffees currently in the blend are dry processDry process coffee is a method for taking the fruit from the tree to an exportable green bean. The whole intact coffee cherry is dried in the sun... EthiopiaEthiopia, formerly known as Abyssinia, or a coffee cultivar: Ethiopia, or more specifically the Empire under Haile Selassie,  was known as Abyssinia. The name is Latin, derived from..., dry process BrazilBrazil is a coffee giant . As Frank Sinatra sang, "they grow an awful lot of coffee in Brazil".: Brazil is a coffee giant . As Frank Sinatra..., and wet process GuatemalaGuatemalan coffee is considered a top quality coffee producer in Central America. Due to our proximity to Guatemala, some of the nicest coffees from this origin come to.... Being different densities and process methods, I wanted to try to keep from pushing through the roast too quickly, allowing the coffees to find some equilibrium in the drum. Though honestly, I’ve roasted Monkey hundreds of times and several different roasters, and find that it’s a pretty forgiving blend no matter the approach!

I hoped to hit the coffee with full power from the start, tapering down my heat settings, while simultniously increasing airflow, in order to slow the roast progression before hitting 1st CrackAn audible popping sound heard during roasting. In coffee, one refers to "first crack" and "second crack," which come from two different classes of chemical reactions.: An audible.... I was looking for 1st Crack time somewhere between 7 and 8 minutes, and shooting to hit 2nd Crack in the cooling tray somewhere between 10 and 12 minutes.

If you’ve read my other Bullet Roast profiles, it should be no surprise that my first go of it fell short of my goal. The roast progressed much faster than I’d hoped, reaching 1st Crack in less than 6 minutes, and rolling 2nd Crack less than 3 minutes more. To my eyes, the main culprit was too a charge temp (P9) for my desired 1 pound batch size.

Despite the fast roast, the espresso shots were really quite nice! Tom and I tasted long and short pulls at 24 hours rest, and then again with 7 days rest. Overall, we agreed that this roast represented what we hope to achieve with Monkey quite well. The shots were chocolatey and syrupy, with hints of dark fruits underneath.

Given my the way my first roast handled, I decided to drop my default heat setting from 9 to 8 on my second pass, which made all the difference. The initial ramp looks pretty close, but you start to see the 2nd roast drop behind by roughly 20F by minute 3. I altered my heat and airflow settings slightly as well, and wound up hitting 1st Crack at 7 minutes, and a finishSimilar to aftertaste, but it refers to the impression as the coffee leaves the palate. Aftertaste is the sensations gathered after the coffee has left the mouth. We... time of just over 10 minutes. My one misstep was pulling the roast a few degrees early, and while close, I did not reach 2nd Crack.

There wasn’t a huge difference in flavor from the first, but I found the shots held a little bit of fruitedIn some coffee taster’s lexicon, “fruity” means the coffee is tainted with fruit, and “fruited” means a coffee is graced by positive fruit notes. We don't exactly see... acidityAcidity is a positive flavor attribute in coffee, also referred to as brightness or liveliness. It adds a brilliance to the cup, whereas low acid coffees can seem... that was missing in the first roast. A bright shot could be good or bad, depending on who you are, and I will be clear that I found my 2.0 roast to be far from “bright”!

Check out the video of Tom and I discussing this roast of the Espresso Monkey blend and more.

Or, hop over to my Roast World profile to view or download the roast graph (you’ll have to be logged in for access).

Order the Aillio Bullet R1 roaster today and receive a free 10 lbs. of coffee free your choice of Ethiopia, El Salvador, or Brazil.

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Have a product or technical question? Contact us at [email protected].

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Ever since we started selling the Aillio Bullet R1 1 kg coffee roaster, there’s been a growing number of inquiries about sharing roast profiles for the coffees on our list. To be honest, it’s something we’ve longed to do for all our roasters, but the Bullet is special case.

The built in Roast Time software that the Bullet comes with makes plotting your roasts and sharing profiles incredibly easy. You can then upload any of your roasts to your personal profile in AIllio’s Roast World community, where Bullet users from all over the world can access your roasts, download your Aillio Bullet recipes for playback, and even modify the automated changes.

See our full list of Bullet roast profiles HERE.