monsooned malabar

got some monsooned malabar AA from SM, arrived yesterday along with some other beans.

i decided to roast it up before heading over to W's. i was in a hurry.

normally, smokey wants exactly 64g of green beans to do his magic.

unfortunately, monsooned malabar are swollen up huge, and 64g would have filled the whole roast chamber, probably leading directly to a kitchen fire.

i noticed the size of the beans immediately when i looked at the bag. it was a 2lb bag but i rememebered ordering only 1lb of beans. sure enough, the beans were individually so light that it takes twice the volume to contain 1lb.

so i ditched the 64gm measure and filled the chamber to the approximate volume occupied by 64gm of "normal" beans. turned smokey on and waited.

took forever to get to 1st crack, and i turned him off just barely in to second crack (maybe! that might have been just 1st crack remainders.). in any case, the beans were very lightly roasted. i feared leaving smokey on too long and burning him out. i'll push him harder next time.

fast fwd to this morning, on my berkeley => san mateo commute...

hot damn! that stuff is fargen delicious! doesn't taste like "coffee", it's earthy, nutty, grassy, and absolutely yummy. got some acidy notes as it cooled, but i think i'll try to roast those out next time. the body was amazing - it was heavy as espresso, nearly, and this was from paper filter drip! this might become a favorite bean of mine, despite the difficulty in roasting it. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmonsoon!