• Beans: “Lexington Market Blend” from Black Acres Roastery (Baltimore, MD)
  • Roast level: looks like lighter end of medium*
  • Origins: Mexico Mico de Noche, Organic Colombia Sierra Nevada
  • Tasting Notes: Cherry Cordials, Praline, Rich Chocolate
  • Purchase date: 3/22/24
• V60:
  • 21g coffee / 300g water (1:14.3)
  • JX: 19 (57 clicks)
  • Water at 95°C
  • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with slow pour; draw-down finished around 2:50

Cathy picked this bag up at Lexington Market (surprise, surprise). The web site says it is a dark roast, but I think that may be a mistake — the beans have a tan to light brown coloring, with no oils visible on the surface. To my (admittedly amateur) eye, they look like a light to medium roast. In any case, I’ve been brewing them like a medium roast, with good results so far. I made my first cup 2 or 3 days ago at setting 25, but it tasted weak. 20 was an improvement yesterday, and 19 was a little bit better still today. It had pretty good body with a definite hint of cherries and a mild bit of acidity.

4/8: For the moment, 18 appears to be the best grind setting. It seems to bring out most of the chocolate flavor, which complements the fruitiness nicely and results in a nice, well-balanced cup. I tried it at 17 (slightly finer) but did not like it as much — it seemed to have a bit less sweetness and a bit more acidity. It will be interesting to see if I need to tweak things as the beans age, but I may go through them quickly, as I don’t have any others at the moment.

4/9: I decided to brew a cup with my ceramic size 1 V60, which I had not used in a while. I kept everything else the same, and I used my old tried-and-true preheating method of sticking a Fernco cap on the bottom of the dripper and filling it with water from the kettle. I pre-moistened the filter at the same time. Later in the day, for comparison, I brewed a second cup with the plastic size 2 V60. The first big thing I noticed was that with the ceramic V60, the water drained down a lot faster. It was finished by around 2:30, vs. 2:50-3:00 for the plastic V60. I’m not sure if this is because of the different geometry of the dripper, different filters (size 1 vs size 2, but both Hario brand unbleached paper filters), or something else. The cup brewed in plastic was better than the cup brewed in ceramic: the former had more flavor and body, and while the latter wasn’t bad, it was a little bit thinner, likely because the faster drain-down led to less extraction of the grounds. I’m curious to see if this is more related to the size of the V60, or the material, but to determine that, I’d need to buy a plastic size 1 V60. In any case, with the ceramic, it might make sense to use a finer grind to try to slow down the brew a little bit. I’m fine just sticking with the plastic, but I have a lot of size 1 filters to use up.

4/14: I used the rest of these up this morning. Like the beans I bought in Morton a month or so ago, I had to start grinding these finer to keep the cups from getting weak. I finished up at grind setting 15, and at that setting, the draw-down finished at around 3:00. The last few cups were still pretty good, if not quite as good as the first few cups.