“City to Full City+: Beautiful panela sweetness, citrus oil, black tea, cherry chocolate, mandarin, stone fruit, versatile roast. Good for espresso.” -Sweet Marias
The panela sweetness is evident from the first sip, with a nice spice flavor of it’s own. The body is light, but juicy, with a bright citrus flavor . The acidity is light, and has a lemon zest to it. The finish is clean, smooth, with a light tea note.
As it slowly cools, there are flashes of the stone fruit and mandarin, which adds a nice citrus sweetness to the cup. The citrus oil is still strong, and it lingers through to the finish as well. The acidity is balanced nicely with the sweetness, and the cup has a nice integration with the fruit notes, which contributes to the juiciness of the body. The black tea is coming in clearer in the finish, with some nice chocolate notes as well.
The panela note was the most interesting part of this roast. Besides adding a nice sweetness, it added a nice dark sugar flavor, more rum-like than molasses. The fruit notes were light, but did make an impression when they were present, especially the citrus oil with it’s bright flashes of citrus zest. This roast was targeted at Full City, and I think it was pretty close, as it retained the light fruit notes and sweetness. I can see why these beans would be good for espresso, where the sweetness and panela flavors would be concentrated, so expect an update for that as well. As for the roasting details, the roast was done in the Gene Cafe roaster, with a heat setting of 460 degrees, for 15 minutes. First crack started approximately around 12:00 minutes and continued for about 2 minutes. Cooling was done in the Gene, down to 215 degrees, and then removed and cooled in a colander until room temperature.
UPDATE: The citrus oil really comes out in the espresso, and the panela sweetness gives it a nice balance. The black tea comes through in the finish, but I don’t get as much of the other fruit notes, as the citrus and panela dominate the cup. As it cooled, I did get a slight hint of the stone fruit.