This is it: the perfect roast profile.
The conventional knowledge on coffee roasting says that there are various roast levels, e.g. light, medium, dark, etc., but after an earlier experiment roasting different sets of beans at those various roast levels, I thought that there might be more to it than preference. Perhaps there might be a certain level of roasted that fits not the preference of the drink (who more often than not neither care nor know about roast levels—I should know, being a coffee drinker for a long time and knowing that there are “light roast beans” and “dark roast beans” but not exactly what they mean until I actually studied them) but rather the bean itself.
At a certain level for a certain bean is still too grassy, light, that might taste good for someone, but odd for others who knows of coffee as something deeper, stronger.
At another level for the same bean is already burnt, “plain coffee” for some, “just like how coffee should be” but is no longer different from any other burnt bean and much of the intrinsic flavour of that specific bean has already been lost.
Maybe somewhere in the middle is the spot that both and any sort of coffee drinkers would appreciate, a spot where the earthy goodness of the coffee bean is retained and even improved upon, a medley of flavours that has both depth and playful notes. Something both enthusiasts and casual drinkers can sense and enjoy wholly.
Just like Aristotle’s Golden Mean and the Law of Diminishing Returns, I reckon it’s the medium sort of roast.
Specifically for this week’s bean (an Arabica from Benguet), it’s a medium that is almost dark, a lot closer to a dark roast, being roasted slowly for a long period of time*, but not quite there. Grinding it manually, one can still feel a lot of resistance. The bean looks dark but not porous.
Then an 11g to 17 g for 2-3* servings is a good pour over ratio with it. (I tried half an 11g for a single serving and it did not quite worked out, however).
*Everything done in estimates and intuition. I’m formulating a process that requires no external measurements, just eyeballs, muscle memory/practice, and a healthy gut feeling. And I think I’m getting there.
This week, I’m finally getting the green beans of the variant I’ll be studying for the café! I’m looking forward, especially because the above pictured are my last stock of beans and coffee here runs faster than me and my two dogs on our evening walk.