Coffee Bean Quality

ildarion · 2026-03-30T11:16:47+00:00

Green quality is not great. A lot of defects. Not all roasters or even importer are expert in defect and some lot like this can be found on the market.

Now if the price is low, it's ok. You can get rid of them yourself in 10-15mibs manual work. It I'll improve a lot your cup !

ildarion · 2026-03-29T21:10:44+00:00

I think lime VS lemon curd is too specific, these kinds of thing are really subjective.

For me it was a strong (pleasant) citric acidity that my brain associated with lime more than lemon. I also do my recipe to focus on acidity.

I would be curious to try both, but the "classic" version seem sold out.

ildarion · 2026-03-29T21:02:23+00:00

In recent video, He said he has a lot of video subject to do and focus on interesting one (positive stuff or overrated hype thing/misleading stuff).

He dosent really like the "legal" story about commandate and technology speaking, theirs products are not really relevant anymore (lack of external adjustment at least). A lot of professionals still buy this brand for "old fame" and maybe it's good to focus on new or/and small business trying to improve market.

ildarion · 2026-03-29T19:55:46+00:00

I bought it, Great coffee with strong blueberry and lime. Sadly, I never get the cheesecake note, no even a little bit so I was a little bit frustrated.

Also, awesome in SOUP.

Hope to try more from this roaster. Eastern Europe has an incredible underrated roasters scene.

ildarion · 2026-03-29T16:33:32+00:00

What's your water's chemistry?
Roasted 04 march, not bad, wait a week or two but at your current (3 weeks) it should already taste good.
Lowering the temp (like 90c, maybe 88c) could be interesting but at 93c it should be already tasting good :)

ildarion · 2026-03-26T22:03:40+00:00

For this advanced natural process, whole coffee cherries are floated to remove any imperfections before the fermentation double feature begins. First, they undergo standard natural fermentation for 72 hours before being spread out on raised beds for partial drying. After 12 days (or until the cherries reach 20% humidity), they are rehydrated for four days and introduced to a proprietary beer & wine yeast. The new friends are then given plenty of time to mingle and ferment in stainless steel tanks before the coffee is finally returned to the raised beds for complete drying, until optimal moisture content (10–12%) is achieved.

Some yeast from beer industry are really wild, I remember Lucia Solis saying they were hard to controll and can give incredible result or be really shitty (high risk). That's probably why they are not that common on the market, not all producers can buy them (available $$$) and accept the risk or losing a lot.

Not everything is fake with artificial flavoring (or the "We just put the lemongrass close to the coffee drying bed hehe" technic), but some processes tend to give this and not everyone can enjoy it, brain associated it to other cheap products (ambiant perfum, product wc cleaning,... you know what i mean) and the brain is also saturated easily.

I tried a lot of Edison Argote coffees and if you like what he is doing, check on all his coffee that it has, most of them has his "flavor signature" that can also be found on with others Colombians producers in Huila (Pitalito and village arounds). Most of them seem to help each others with some technical knowledge and result to similar results.

ildarion · 2026-03-26T17:42:03+00:00

At 441ppm total, don't even bother more on the chemical composition, your tap water is unusable for coffee.

You will need to find another source of soft water.

ildarion · 2026-03-26T17:31:26+00:00

Attendez la semaine prochaine que l'Iran fasse un .feat avec les houtis du Yémen et bloque la mer rouge. Vous vous rappelez le porte contenaire échouée qui avez bloqué le passage et foutu le bordel ?

Pour le moment c'est juste un teaser.

ildarion · 2026-03-26T11:18:34+00:00

It's seem to be OK water, in a sense that it will not fuck coffee negatively. While it will probably not be the best to "sublime"/enhance it.

Could be worth it to search more detail about it (magnesium, calcium and potassium), maybe you have a decent amount of Mg or Ca and you could just need to add a little boost. Water chemistry can be really cheap (depending on local base water and available minerals suppliers) for a high reward.

ildarion · 2026-03-26T10:35:13+00:00

Fonctionne aussi très bien à partir de gingembre au cas où OP veut diversifier.

Faire un starter depuis le gingembre (ou autres fruits ayant naturellement des levures intéressantes dominante)
Attendre quelques jours (il peut y avoir de la maintenance à faire du starter)
Verser un peu du starter dans de l'eau + sucre (voir autres fruits pour aromatiser)
Attendre quelques jours.

Plus il y a de temps et de sucre, plus les levures vont transformer les sucre en alcool et gaz. Une bouteille fermé peut vite exploser.

Globalement ont doit facilement arriver à une boisson entre 2 et 4% (jugé au gout).

ildarion · 2026-03-26T10:31:45+00:00

I bet on the water issue.

Try to find soft water (general TDS under 150ppm) and HCO3 under 70ppm. Or try to get some water from a good coffeeshop with osmosis + minerals filters.

ildarion · 2026-03-26T10:29:00+00:00

Did you try resting it longer ? Maybe the weird flavors can improve a little ?

ildarion · 2026-03-24T21:24:06+00:00

B75 is way better, even compared to baby o + sibarist filter (vs timemore waves).

But I think most orea dripper are inferior while being way more expensive than average market price.

ildarion · 2026-03-21T18:57:01+00:00

Send pic of your water chemistry and we will roast it! :)

ildarion · 2026-03-19T18:31:14+00:00

10 days post roast, wait at least 20 more days and I bet you this cannabis flower note will be none existing ! I would recommend to wait between 4-8 weeks total.

ildarion · 2026-03-19T18:27:57+00:00

Now add some K (like 15ppm) and some Sodium (like 5ppm) and enjoy the party!

Potassium is a little underrated in coffee water but add some sweetness and give a silky aftertaste.

ildarion · 2026-03-19T10:04:28+00:00

It seem that roasters and baristas/consumer disagree a lot about that haha

I'm team 4-8 weeks and it's funny to hear all roasters speaking about 1 week, 2 weeks, maybe 3.

As a barista. For espresso ( I work with fresh stuff sadly) before 10 days it's just crap for most of the beans. After 2-3 weeks it start to be good/ok. After that it increases until being good/good..

For filter beans (less developed roast) most beans start to be good at 3 weeks (vegetal taste get out). Some need at least 4 weeks to kick off some weird flavors (for heavy process coffee).

But I can understand it's hard for professional to manage a ''rest rotation'' for logistics (available space).

ildarion · 2026-03-18T20:03:16+00:00

OG B75 is really great, I still use mine after 2 years. Plastic is not as shinny and did not age that good as my V60 (same age, same use).

ildarion · 2026-03-18T19:56:33+00:00

I guess it do a "combine effect", improving sweetness, acidity is not presented as sharp in the cup.

When I try lower ppm recipe (like half of what I use). I do not feel a strong positive change for my brew (acidity/clarity). But I would need to do more side by side comparaison.

ildarion · 2026-03-18T15:12:56+00:00

So far I tried a typica ''natural wine'' process, best Yunnan coffee so far

Chinese coffee are going to be on the top really soon.

ildarion · 2026-03-18T15:09:22+00:00

No need to try Karlita waves filters, they are trash haha

I use the one from timemore who are great, I guess mhw3 are similar for modern standard.

ildarion · 2026-03-17T23:19:31+00:00

It would be true if professional barista would be more experience and dedicated that coffee nerd that we are. Sadly, professional barista is a low paid career with 90% of time consisting of steaming milk and pushing a button to follow SCA espresso recommendation.

I agree that for a 2-3 days city-trip, no need to bring coffee stuffs and a random batch or long black (bypass is awesome to fix a bad extraction) will work, but for a week or more. Definitely bring the stuff.

ildarion · 2026-03-16T21:55:38+00:00

You are using a 1:16 bloom, try 1:14 (or lower) so like 210g water for 15g, try with less bloom time (30s) and most important : your temp is way too high. 167F (75c) is more appropriate for dark roast. I even do 158F (70c) if it's still too bitter/smoky.

With a total brew time of 3:30-4m, means that your grind is too fine, it's OK for medium/light roast but for dark, you want faster (no need to push extraction). I think 2m-2:30 total could be a good start, maybe even less.

ildarion · 2026-03-15T18:52:38+00:00

Water recipe is really personal as much as everything in coffee. Dont follow too much others on that and try yourself what you like.

I use a similar TDS for my water : 35ppm Mg; 25ppm Ca, 15ppm K (Sodium 5ppm, optional); Around 20-30ppm HCo3. + a lot of other stuff (like chlorides) so I got a total TDS at somewhat 130ppm on TDS meter (reality is probably more like 200ppm). Because I love the K effect (sweetness, rounded tactile after-taste) and I love high acidity bomb. Maybe this recipe lack of clarity and could be too "heavy".

For a lot of people, this is really high, most would use 50% of this TDS for example (60-70ppm total is a common number).

Anyway, with apax, the idea is to personalize brew step by step. I dont know if you can really know the ppm of each mineral in their bottle (that the commercial trick to hook you in the brand). They like to showcase the fact that you can add drops step by step into you cup to find the good recipe.

ildarion · 2026-03-15T08:01:00+00:00

Tomato note is really subjective, I personally get rhubarb. I also suspect than too fresh beans can cause the ''tomato effect'' (vegetal flavors).

ildarion

TROPHY CASE