expresso bean recommendation?

[floydpink]

I see many of the expresso machines companies selling expresso beans and question the freshness.

I have been very happy with Killer Beans and am wondering if the beans like Caribbean Cutthroat are suitable for expresso now that I can properly grind them or should I look for something else for proper expresso?

I guess I am asking the non home roasters for a suggestion.

[MithShrike]

Check out the Commercial Roast Review board...

[Mister Moo]

Point of order for the espresso under-exposed and just generally for the record - "espresso" is a very peculiar process to make peculiar coffee; the bean (or, more likely the blend of beans) you use to make the stuff can be anything at all.

One single type of bean (known as single origin, or just SO) will mostly lack the combination of character, body, zing, zang & zong that makes espresso so peculiarly drooly foamy stick-to-your tongue chocolately good. A good blend is what brings the otherwise uninspired intensity of several SOs all together into something special.

I roasted for, and drank, SO espresso for a year or so to learn the taste characteristics of the individual beans. After I ran that horse to death I decided one SO made REALLY great espresso, bad blends made crappy espresso and a few great blends made great espresso. A great espresso blend is hard to create and harder to keep consistent from season to season. I honor the house who can create and maintain a great signature blend.

End of point of order.

[floydpink]

Very helpful Mr Moo, as usual.

I'm working through a bag of Killer Beans' Carribean Cutthroat and it seems to be good.

[Mister Moo]

Originally Posted by floydpink

...I'm working through a bag of Killer Beans' Carribean Cutthroat and it seems to be good.

When I started making espresso at home, and using fresh roast for the first time along with, it all tasted pretty darn exquisite. In fact, it all tasted better than any coffee I'd ever had in my life. Every season, to everyones taste, there are always going to be some single origin beans that make a very tasty espresso by any yardstick.

When you start analyzing the array of things from bean to blend to season to water temp to shot size to tamp to brew time that can make a shot of espresso taste good, bad, great or awful... well, it's hard to figure where one thing begins and another ends. Espressoheads jokingly claim planetary alignment and moon phase figure in and I'm not sure they're wrong. If I had the best espresso machine made (ResIpsas, maybe) I'd be happy to have five shots in a row that really tasted the same and I'd never figure out why the sixth one went off the rails. As your experience expands I'd wager (5# of Black Cat Espresso Blend - heh heh heh) you will become infatuated with espresso-specific blends and the magic of todays SO espresso will totally evade you by next Christmas.

Hey. I smoked Swisher Sweets for years and thought they were fabulous!

[Tristan]

I've been a fan of Paradise Roasters Espresso Neuovo and Classico blends. You can order them roasted. I bought 2# of each green and have been roasting 1/2# at a time.

If you want to roast it yourself (definetly worth it to go out and buy a popcorn popper!) I would also recommend Liquid Amber Blend and Monkey blend from Sweet Marias.

I read somewhere that Liquid Amber Blend was Sweet Maria's Malabar Gold clone. This might be totally erroneous; you know what they say about reading things on the internet. I can taste the Monsooned Malabar in the blend; or maybe it's placebo?

BOOOOM!

Donkey Blend from Sweet Marias is what I would recommend if you want decaf for the evenings. It's pretty darn good, but not as good as regular IMHO.

P.S. I've heard awesome things about BlackCat, but I've been too cheap to order some. If they sold it green I'd probably have some in the cupboard right now.

[Coach]

Killer Beans Electric Chair Expresso a truly good bean

[Bigwaved]

Stumptown Hairbender

I have another, but I can't recall it right now. I will post it when i do.

[ResIpsa]

Originally Posted by Mister Moo

Point of order for the espresso under-exposed and just generally for the record - "espresso" is a very peculiar process to make peculiar coffee; the bean (or, more likely the blend of beans) you use to make the stuff can be anything at all.

One single type of bean (known as single origin, or just SO) will mostly lack the combination of character, body, zing, zang & zong that makes espresso so peculiarly drooly foamy stick-to-your tongue chocolately good. A good blend is what brings the otherwise uninspired intensity of several SOs all together into something special.

I roasted for, and drank, SO espresso for a year or so to learn the taste characteristics of the individual beans. After I ran that horse to death I decided one SO made REALLY great espresso, bad blends made crappy espresso and a few great blends made great espresso. A great espresso blend is hard to create and harder to keep consistent from season to season. I honor the house who can create and maintain a great signature blend.

End of point of order.

so true, so true.

Originally Posted by Mister Moo

When I started making espresso at home, and using fresh roast for the first time along with, it all tasted pretty darn exquisite. In fact, it all tasted better than any coffee I'd ever had in my life. Every season, to everyones taste, there are always going to be some single origin beans that make a very tasty espresso by any yardstick.

If I had the best espresso machine made (ResIpsas, maybe) I'd be happy to have five shots in a row that really tasted the same and I'd never figure out why the sixth one went off the rails. As your experience expands I'd wager (5# of Black Cat Espresso Blend - heh heh heh) you will become infatuated with espresso-specific blends and the magic of todays SO espresso will totally evade you by next Christmas.

Hey. I smoked Swisher Sweets for years and thought they were fabulous!

so true, so true.....

Originally Posted by Tristan

I've been a fan of Paradise Roasters Espresso Neuovo and Classico blends. You can order them roasted. I bought 2# of each green and have been roasting 1/2# at a time.

If you want to roast it yourself (definetly worth it to go out and buy a popcorn popper!) I would also recommend Liquid Amber Blend and Monkey blend from Sweet Marias.

I read somewhere that Liquid Amber Blend was Sweet Maria's Malabar Gold clone. This might be totally erroneous; you know what they say about reading things on the internet. I can taste the Monsooned Malabar in the blend; or maybe it's placebo?

BOOOOM!

Donkey Blend from Sweet Marias is what I would recommend if you want decaf for the evenings. It's pretty darn good, but not as good as regular IMHO.

P.S. I've heard awesome things about BlackCat, but I've been too cheap to order some. If they sold it green I'd probably have some in the cupboard right now.

Dan and Tristan make some good, valid points. What I'd add is that what makes a good drip blend for coffee doesn't necessarily, and often flat out doesn't, make a good espresso blend.

Hunt down some of the blends made specifically to be used as espresso. Dan and Tristan listed some, I would add Black Pearl from Chris Coffee Service, and Red Line from Metropolis. These are beans roasted and blended for a specific purpose, to be prepared as Espresso

Killer Beans tend to be roasted to a dark, oily profile as far as I know. Many people prefer their espresso roasted to a lighter degree. Try some of the blends listed above, which are not as heavily roasted, compare, and decide which style is to your liking. And just because you prefer a dark roast for drip, does not mean you will prefer a dark roast for espresso.

[Bigwaved]

Originally Posted by Bigwaved

Stumptown Hairbender

I have another, but I can't recall it right now. I will post it when i do.

Dark Mountain Blend by Goodbean Coffee.

[MrJerry]

My Killer Beans Electric Chair Espresso is a blend of seven beans roasted from medium to full city. Very complex flavors throughout. Some of the beans are oily (darker roasts) while other have no oil (medium roast) and all are roasted to please the true espresso drinker.