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Espresso Tamped in Prep for Extraction

I’m sure everyone has noticed by now that I tend to get all my green from one supplier, and right now that has been Sweet Maria’s. In this installment of your favorite home roasting journal, I’ll be exploring their New Classic Espresso Blend.

This blend has extremely intense bitter sweet chocolate notes. I can smell it while grinding and it’s overwhelming as I pull a shot. Quite amazing to see though as the espresso appears almost like hot lava with the chocolate aroma. There is a nice almond tone as well. I found this blend to be much more pleasing in a milk drink or as an americano. As a straight espresso shot the bitter sweet chocolate absolutely dominates, but once milk is added, a nice malty undertone emerges. I’ll admit, this is one blend that actually has chocolate tones that are too intense for me. I’m much more of a milk chocolate fan, so I prefer this blend as a cafe macchiato or americano. It even made a quite surprising iced americano. Keeping its bitterness in a pleasant way and the chocolate mellows just enough to make way for the almond.

As far as roasting goes with this blend, I’d say keep it at a Full CIty+. Getting into Light Vienna really starts bringing out smokey flavors that I feel don’t compliment the bitterness in the chocolate tones. If you’re impatient like me when it comes to roasting your coffee, this blend really seems to peak at 24 hours.