Todays cups were the four day old roast of preset 1 (only two handfulls of beans left) and the five day old very dark roast of preset 2.

The preset 1 was the first one to go. The beans made just a double basket at setting 4 on the Rocky. How little coffee two handfulls of beans give doesn’t cease to amaze me. The crema was there but by the end of the pull it was “pushed away” by the last five seconds of drops. There wasn’t too much crema in total, but it looked nice. The taste was really nice, although quite light, not quite unexpected from a light roast. When I cleaned up I noticed the puck had shattered with two large cracks going right through it. I haven’t seen that earlier.

For the second shot, an hour or so later so that the Pavoni had had a long time to cool down, the crema was identical. The cup and group head had been preheated just as in the previous shot and the Rocky was still dialled in at 4. The pull required was still nice, strong and steady. I believe it took about as long time, some 20-25 seconds. The taste was more burnt, which was expected from the very dark roast I had the first day. My conclusion from day 1 remains, I had overdone it with preset 1. This worries me as my variant of Randy’s famous “preset 10” was also quite dark, but I’ll come back to that one another day. This one should be at its prime now and was quite bitter, actually. Much of that “wow”-taste is gone.

Oh well, tomorrow I have some new grinds ready. I haven’t heared back from Risteriet yet regarding a tamper and some fresh green beans, but I’m sure they’ll get back to me in no time. In the meanwhile, there is still loads to learn. For this dark coffee I certainly need to froth some milk. Now, how do I do that?

Note to self: this one will be called “the big eared poodle”, my first latte art creation.

Having read the iRoast 2 review at Coffee Geek I couldn’t help myself and roasted two new batches: 150g of cold Miscela d’Oro (100% arabica). One roasted at 190C - 5m, 208C - 6m, 232C - 2m30s. The second one was at 196C - 1m, 222C - 3m and 240C - 2m. With these two profiles in addition to the first one (176C - 2m, 204C - 3m, 232C - 3m), it’ll be an interesting day saturday or sunday when I get to taste all three of them.

Nothing much new with todays roast, it’s the same as two days ago, but with 45 seconds less in the last stage. My reason for this was that I found that roast to be just a little bit too burnt in smell, and I want to see what implications that has for taste. Also, these beans were directly up from the freezer, so the change for them must have been very drastic.

Regarding grinding, I’ve found this advice: The grind should be just slightly finer than sugar. Kinda sandy but you can smoosh it together with your fingers. However, doing this I get no crema. Using Lavazza or Illy (which are about grinded to about sugar size) I got no crema. Using supermarket beans I get little crema. Using fresh roasted beans I get crema, but just a couple of millimeters, not the excess of crema as seen on many videos and reported by other Pavoni users.

In other news I’m looking at tampers. It seems that there’s more to it than I thought. The La Pavoni Pro I have should probably have a 51mm tamper, but now I’ve found that they make them both flat and convex. So many choices….

Oh, btw, Coffee Geek has a nice iRoast 2 review released two days ago

. Also I found a nice La Pavoni Introduction.

Delicious, yesterdays roast turned into a cup with lots of crema. To adjust for the grind I experienced yesterday I dialled the grinder up to 6, but it went perhaps just a tad to fast through this time. But the cup is awesome: no acid, no bitterness, just lots of taste. What a lovely blend. I can’t wait until saturday when these beans should be at their peak.

I’m just not concentrating today (too much coffee?) so I’m roasting the last 150 grams of Miscela d’Oro: 160C - 5m, 190C - 4m, 196C - 2m, 204C - 1m, 210C - 1m30s. I was inspired by Randy’s iRoast 2 review and Ryan’s summary of his first day with the iRoast 2. Now I’ve placed my order for a Miscela Due Doppio from Risteriet, which is 80% arabica and 20% robusta. I’ve heared robusta gives more crema, which is what I’m hunting for at the moment. The cups taste spectacular already.