Fruddled Gruntbugglies

Sun Bear Single Origin Coffees

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  • Roaster: Sun Bear Specialty Coffee Roasters (St. Petersburg, FL)
  • Purchase date (both bags): 3/22/2026 from Sun Bear café inside Sans Market, St Petersburg, FL
  • Both bags 12oz/340g
  • Bag 1:
    • Origin: Ethiopia (Guji, Oromia); Farm: Mr. Girum Girma
    • Roast level: Light
    • Roast date: 3/16/2026
    • Process: Natural; Varietals: Heirloom, Ethiopian Varieties; Altitude: 1500-2000 MASL
    • First cup: 3/22 or 3/23/2026; last cup: 4/19/2026
    • Tasting notes: Pecan, jasmine, apricot
  • Bag 2:
    • Origin: Peru (Cajamarca); Farm: Women Lima Coffee
    • Roast level: Light
    • Roast date: 3/17/2026
    • Process: Washed; Varietals: Catimor, Caturra, Bourbon, Typica; Altitude: 1600-1900 MASL
    • First cup: 3/23 or 3/24/2026; last cup: 4/19/2026
    • Tasting notes: Jasmine, nutmeg, lemon zest
  • Pour-over with Ode grinder:
    • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
    • Ode: 3 (Peru), 2 (Ethiopia)
    • Water at 100°C
    • Size 1 ceramic V60, preheated
    • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover, 50g bloom water and 60g pulses. Stir several times in lieu of swirling. Finishes around 03:00-03:15 (Peru) or 03:30 (Ethiopia)

I always try to buy some locally-roasted coffee when I’m out of town. There are a bunch of roasters in the greater Tampa/St Petersburg area, but most of the local, non-chain roasters didn’t have retail hours on weekends. Fortunately, I was able to find Sun Bear, which was only 20 minutes from my hotel in light traffic, and had a café inside a small zero-waste grocery store that was open Sundays. They specialize in single-origin light roasts.

Brewing these has been educational. The beans are roasted more lightly than anything else I’ve brewed in recent memory, and are quite dense. I opened the Ethiopia bag first. I like to grind most Ethiopian beans on the finer side (usually with good results), so I started these at Ode setting 2. The grounds took longer than 4 minutes to draw down, and the end result was not very good. There was a little bit of muted fruitiness, but it was dulled by a kind of wooden roasty flavor. I guess now I know what over-extracted light roast coffee tastes like. Yesterday, I backed the grind off to setting 5, which sped the draw-down up by around 30 seconds. It was kind of like taking a veil off: the cup was much brighter and flavor-forward.

Things went similarly with the Peru beans, except I started them at setting 3. The draw-down was a tiny bit faster (it finished at about 4 minutes on the nose), but the result was similar. Actually, initially, I would have been hard-pressed to tell which of these was which. Backing the grind off to setting 5 once again made a big difference, and really brought out the lemon zest flavor.

I may adjust the grind a little bit coarser still with one or both of these, because ideally, I think I’d like them to finish brewing by 03:30. But whatever the case, this has gotten me thinking more about how I approach brewing light roasts. That being said, most beans I’ve bought in the past that are sold as “light roasts”, have been roasted darker than these. Everything is subjective, I guess.

4/5: I think I’ve got the Peru beans dialed in at grind setting 5 with the size 2 plastic V60. With these settings, the brew has been finishing just past 03:30, and the cups have been pretty good. The Ethiopia beans have proven more challenging. I’ve gone all the way to grind 7, but the brew time has still been slow, and in spite of that, grind 6 and 7 have both tasted under-extracted. Today, on a whim, I tried grind 5 with my size 1 ceramic V60, and it finished brewing just past 03:00, which is a full minute faster than with plastic. The cup was under-extracted, but with the faster brew time, I should be able to grind the beans finer now. Next time, I think I’ll try grind 3 with ceramic, and see how that turns out.

4/9: I’m now brewing the Peru beans in the ceramic V60 with grind setting 3. The brew finishes at around 03:00 with ceramic, and the past two cups have been vibrant and fruity. For Ethiopia, grind 3 was an improvement, but still lacking something. Next up will be to try grind 2. Most African beans I’ve brewed have benefited from a fine grind and a draw-down time of about 03:30, so we’ll see if that turns out to be the magic sauce. I have enough beans left to brew 5 cups of each of these.

4/12: Grind 2 with the ceramic V60 has produced the best cups with the Ethiopia beans. I think I prefer the Peru beans, but both are good light roasts. Also, similar to what I’ve been doing recently with the Switch, after I’m finished pouring, I’ve been stirring several times instead of swirling. This is more for convenience than anything else; with a 300g pour, the size 1 cone ends up rather full, so it’s hard to swirl effectively without the water sloshing out. Also, the ceramic V60 gets too hot to comfortably pick up by the bottom of the cone, and the other options for holding it (rim, base, handle) are awkward. The only downside of stirring is that it’s harder to get a perfectly flat, level bed of grounds, which is best for consistent extraction. I’ll have to experiment a little bit with the technique to see what I can do about that.

4/19: I was never consistently able to get an even bed of grounds with stirring alone. Today, I used up the last of both bags, and with each cup, I stirred as usual, but then I followed up with a really quick swirl. Both times, the bed ended up mostly even, and both cups were among the best I’ve had of each bag.

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