Vienna Roast & My First Coffee Blend
I recently received another assortment of coffees from Blue Tokai roasters:
Seethargundu estate (light roast, washed)
Bibi Plantation (medium dark roast, washed)
Vienna roast (beans from Chikmagalur, dark roast & washed)
I have a new favourite roast now: the Vienna roast. It’s really the roast as not much of the original coffee’s flavour remains afterwards, that I have become the fan of. By definition, the Vienna roast is a dark roast, where the beans are roasted well into the 2nd crack (learned some new coffee lingo!). It’s not allowed to go to the extent of the French roast (which is the 2nd darkest roast, only topped by Italian roast). Given that the beans are of a good quality, the roast produces a rich aroma, a very nice body, and a flavour which is so characteristic of coffee (much closer to the nescafe instant).
I learned of a surprising fact: the darker a coffee is roasted, the more caffeine it loses. It means that a strong coffee carries much less caffeine than a lighter and more flavourful coffee. This is because caffeine is water soluble. When a coffee is roasted for an extended time it starts losing water after the first crack. With water, goes out the caffeine.
I depleted the Seethargundu estate reserve first. I’ll detail it in another post.
I found the Vienna roast, as I had been expecting, to be well suited to my taste. So ultimately I depleted my Vienna reserves rather fast. Only a little quantity remained. I had also tasted the Bibi plantation coffee, which was way lighter than Vienna. Now the Bibi plantation coffee was not initially my favourite. It professed to have toffee flavour. It was toffee but I discovered I didn’t like the toffee flavour all that much! But anyhow I was adamant on emptying this Bibi plantation packet before Vienna. But as days progressed, I learned to live with it and even appreciate the subtle caramel notes in this coffee. Still not my favouite but I’ll enjoy it anytime.
Then one fine day, I find that both the coffees are nearly depleted. I decided to put one tablespoon full of the Bibi plantation roast and half a tablespoon of the Vienna roast in my French press and brew a cuppa. The result was good. My coffee cup carried the mellow sweet toffee notes (which I had despised earlier) and the brew was strong with a good body coming from the Vienna roast. I discovered the joys of blending my roasts. In coffee it seems that two varieties don’t nullify each other but rather come together and bring the best out of each one. Next time if you don’t like a lightly roasted coffee, go ahead and add in a stronger roasted coffee like Vienna or French. It’ll make the coffee more coffee like and still let you enjoy the citrus or caramel notes from the specialty coffee.
I’m not sure the procedure which the baristas or roasters follow, but I simple mixed the two coffees in assumed quantities together in the press. I shook the mix a little. I could see the difference between two coffees- a light muddy brown of Bibi, and a dark brown of the Vienna. I went on to add near boiling water (boiled first then allowed to cool for a few seconds) and let it brew for ~4 minutes.
Photo by Jacek Dylag on Unsplash