“City to Full City: Citrus brightness, pink grapefruit, mandarin, blood orange, complex spices, with accents of pear, plum, and shaved orange peel.” -Sweet Marias
The first sip is juicy and the body is smooth with bright splashes of pink grapefruit. The grapefruit is hard to miss, but there is an overall citrus flavor and the acidity has a rind like tartness, which does invoke accents of orange and peel. The finish is clean, but there is a light viscosity that lingers on the tongue.
As it slowly cools, the grapefruit has settled down, and I definitely get the blood orange now. The spice notes accent the bright citrus flavors, which now have a light mandarin sweetness that is also balanced against the bright acidity. The finish still has a viscous feel that coats your tongue, and has light flashes of sweetness within the lingering tartness. I do think that I got a taste of pear in the finish, but it was so light that I barely registered it at the time.
The bright flashes of citrus fruit and tart acidity in this roast make it a good first cup candidate to wake up the taste buds, and lift the fog of sleep. I took this roast to Full City on the first batch, and I would like to see how it fares at a lighter City roast, to see if I can draw out those light sweet notes of pear and plum. The bright citrus flavors were balanced with the spice to make this an excellent batch. 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 13:00 minutes and continued for about 1.5 minutes. Cooling was done in the Gene, down to 215 degrees, and then removed and cooled in a colander until room temperature.