On the initial tasting, going out darker than this dark roast wasn't bad, but the coffee lost some of the distinctiveness.
The dark roast is on the lighter side of a dark roast and in some ways reminds me of an Earl Grey tea. Smoky aromatics, fruity aftertaste, heavy body. This is my favorite one of the set.
The medium roast doesn't have the issue of drying the mouth out, smoother, a little more intensity on the fruit notes and overall perceived sweetness. Expression of distinct flavor notes is still mild, but overall intensity of the coffee is good. This is something that I can sell.
In production test batches, the light roast I'd selected is mild and sweet, but it dries the mouth out, especially as the coffee cools. This is a bit lighter than I typically go for even a cupping roast. The main problem is that distinguishing flavor characteristics are understated enough that I don't think the roast is worth what I'd need to charge for it, so I won't be putting the light roast on the shelf. Slighly tart, a bit of melon, pleasant aroma.
Tasting production test roasts of the new coffee from El Salvador. The initial test set covered a very broad range from very light to very dark and the coffee performed decently across the whole range, so I think home roasters can pretty much do whatever they want with this and are likely to not go too far wrong. They should just do whatever generally aligns with their preferences.
Today's coffee tasting was a new coffee from El Salvador. Natural process, Pacamara from a farm that my sister has visited. This performed pretty well across the whole range so I'm going to do production test batches of a light, a medium, and a dark roast, brew full pots of those, and decide what I'll sell based on how those perform.
Today's junk mail was of a religious nature. It wanted me to imagine a world with no healthcare and no medicine and tried to spin that dystopian nightmare in which I would have died several times over by now as a hopeful vision of the future. Sorry, but if I wanted the be fed that kind of shit I'd become a Republican.
My supplier would have taken the extra coffee back if this didn't work out, but it's easier for everybody if I don't have to do that.
Production test batch using the new coffee from Nicaragua as a French Roast turned out good. I wasn't planning on roasting the coffee like that, but a warehouse mis-pick means I have twice as much of that coffee as I ordered so being able to use it for something that I sell a lot of will help me use the excess in a reasonable amount of time.
Author of Typica software for coffee roasters.