well put. what it has come down to for me (much of this since i wrote the above post) is that there’s just a whole different way to use your aa. it took me a long time to figure it out. i kept wondering what the “baggy” or “bland” aspects were, but, as mentioned above, the more i played with it the more i realized your zim took a dramatically different dose, brew temp, roast — just about everything. i’m accustomed to adjusting these parameters, but the adjustments in this case were larger than most. i finally got the aa tasting mighty good (just as my bag ran out, of course) although as you say it probably is not best for espresso. it just took me awhile to find out what you already knew, apparently — that the aa is just a very strange bean when pulled as shots.

i am definitely interested in trying the new crop. and i’m definitely interested in trying the “golden bag.” and i should probably, in fairness, spend some time with the ab. i certainly will try not to place new york strip expectations on a filet mignon, or vice versa. and i am aware of the bean-size thing … not sure if i gave the wrong impression, but i’ll try to be more clear.

thanks for the comments. and thanks for the chance to bloviate about your coffee. i’ll be out again soon — a direct importer in TR in just too cool to pass up for very long.
ben

p.s. the swipe at zimbabwe was a snarky jibe not meant to be serious. i get misunderstood sometimes when i do that (i.e., some people think i’m an actual fan of updosing). so don’t think i’ve written off all zim.

Next time you come in, grab some of our AB+ and also our C coffee and roast them as espresso. I’ve actually not had the best results roasting our AA+ as espresso, and much prefer it in a French press. I find our AB+ beans do the job better as espresso. We have one customer who insists on our C roasted darker for his espresso, partly because of the variety of coffee blended into the C. Our new crop is coming from Zim in a couple of weeks, got a bag of “Pinnacle” (AAA+) coming, said to be the best coffee produced in Zim in 8 years, according to Cephas, head cupper at the Zim Coffee Mill — had to fight for ONE bag of it, the rest was snapped up by a Dutch importer. Would be interested what you and your roasting club think.

I don’t want to, as they say in Zimbabwe, “teach my grandmother to suck eggs” (NO idea where that phrase originated), but you DO know that AA refers to the size of the bean, not the quality. So a AAA bean is bigger than an AA and AB is slightly smaller (screen 19, 18 adn 16 respectively). The plus refers to quality, i.e. that it has a good even color, is uniformly sized, produces an even, bright roast with acidity, body and a pleasant flavor. FAQ is “fair to average quality”, where the bean is uniformly sized with the odd defective bean, fair to mixed in color with some open center cuts, pleasant, mild acidity and body, considered a medium quality blender. You can have AA beans that are FAQ, and AAs that are plus quality. Some Kenyan AAs are FAQ.

Because the size doesn’t really matter once you grind it, for espresso you might find a great coffee that is a smaller bean, because of the variety of coffee it is and how they blended it at the mill.

A note about our cupping results: We are very happy with our 87, the best Kenyans cup at a 93. I doubt we’ll ever get above a 90, because our farm is only at about 3500-3800 ft and our soils are more doloritic than the Kenyan soils, and we have higher rainfall most years than the Kenyans that have one the prizes. As far as Zimbabwe goes, we are doing the best we can.

If you want filet mignon, don’t order a New York strip. Both can be great steaks, depending how they’re grilled and who does the grilling. But it’s not fair to ask a strip to be a filet.

Cheers,
Ildi