Are these Ethiopian Yirgacheffe?

admin

hi, I recently bought what I though was a pack of freshly roasted Ethiopian Yirgacheffe from a local roaster. I'm not an expert, but I was surprised by both the range of colours of the beans - almost white through to medium brown, and the difference in the look of the actual beans [size, shape etc].

Wondered if any experts can tell me:

does this look like S.O. Yirgacheffe?
if it is, what would explain the huge variation - low grade beans, an odd roasting style?

is something not right, or is it just my imagination?

thanks in advance!

Koffee_Kosmo

First of all I would not class them to be roasted And it's hard to tell the place of origin from a photo KK

hazbean

Here is a pic of some Yirg that I roasted yesterday (some Yirg Gr3 that I bought from Neil just this week). http://campl.us/brQqsjF1j5g roasted to a little before second crack. It shows some unevenness and a significant number of lighter beans. I was a bit disturbed by that at first but I chewed some up and they seem fine so I think it will be OK. In short, I'm not surprised to see some variation in colour and size, but yours certainly has quite a few on the lighter side. Maybe it is a really light roast intended for brewing? Can't conclude from your pic that it isn't Yirg. There are more "irregular" beans in there than I'm used to with Yirg, but there could be many reasons for that.

greenman

I haven't seen such an uneven roast of Yirg during my time, there are usually a few lighter beans and size variation. It must be a very low and poorly graded yirg! attached pics are of a special prep and an OCR natural Yirg......

Brett_H

Were those beans actually roasted or just left in the sun for a bit? I love Yirg and they certainly could be but... how's the taste? Hazbeans look more like what I'm used to seeing.

greenman

Brett H wrote:

Were those beans actually roasted or just left in the sun for a bit? I love Yirg and they certainly could be but... how's the taste? Hazbeans look more like what I'm used to seeing.

sorry I didn't state that the pics are green beans, I just wanted to show a comparison of well graded beans with the ones in original post--when I have roasted these beans they are fairly even with only the odd lighter bean :-|

admin

no probs at all, thanks Greenman; have attached a few other [closer-up] pics... what I couldn't get over was the variation in size, as well as roast colour - remember this was all from one batch, supposedly; Attilio or Jeff C, any further comments? tx A

hiphipharar

Yirgacheffe is a hub town for a large number of coffee growers in the area so it is quite possible beans from several crops are combined.

ACog

Yirg tends to have some blonde beans in the mix, but that has to be some of the lowest grade I've ever seen. Regardless of whether it's a blend of different farms or a true Single Origin.

Brett_H

greenman wrote:

sorry I didn't state that the pics are green beans, I just wanted to show a comparison of well graded beans with the ones in original post--when I have roasted these beans they are fairly even with only the odd lighter bean :-|

Oops, sorry mate. I wasn't referring to yours... I was referring to Admins beans. Thank you for posting yours, it's nice to have an unroasted comparison. :thumb:

mycuppa

The first question that comes to mind is washed or unwashed ? There are 3x lots, each from different brokers offering natural (unwashed) Yirg in Oz. I've tried 2 of them, in fact I have 240kg of 1x lot sitting in my roastery. Unwashed lots tend to be GR3 and GR4 and washed typically GR1 (almost impossible to get) and GR2. The natural is all over the place in terms of screen size and "ripeness" which of course gives it that quaker style appearance both green and when roasted. My thoughts about the pics above.........I can't be polite, so I'm going to call that a shocker as I can only imagine they were roasted way to fast and pulled too early. Even with such diversity in screen/grade you would still expect more even color and a closer matching with a bit of light and dark shade from a natural. If they are washed, then you should try them and my guess is it will not be very good. Washed Yirg tend to be VERY consistent in color and screen - generally more so than most Sidamo which is what the Yirg is "related" to. Of course, what I am saying applies to the general brew methods of plunger, perc, drip, stovetop or espresso. If the beans were roasted or intended for a different purpose, then so be it. What's in the cup A. ?

admin

thanks for that; unsure as to whether washed or unwashed... to be honest, with such a wide colour & size variation, I haven't been game to try them... more than anything, was worried that that it was clearly such a low-grade of Yirgacheffe that there might have been some stones in the mix as well, which obviously wouldn't bode well for my grinder... thanks again for analysis and comments! A

FreshCoffee2

mycuppa wrote:

..... My thoughts about the pics above......... I can only imagine they were roasted way to fast and pulled too early. Even with such diversity in screen/grade you would still expect more even color and a closer matching......

+1. Nevertheless you should still cup the beans and see what you think. Going only on the photos shown (and how they come up on my pooder screen), its hard to imagine any well established professional roaster would present a product like that for sale here.

ACog

I have to be honest. This looks like its come from the bucket a lot of roasters have sitting next to the cooling tray where they throw quakers, stones and the like in as they spot them. i.e. this is the rejects pile. While I don't advocate naming and shaming, I'd love to know who thought they could get away with selling this.

Brett_H

But... They may taste awesome! Perhaps we've been doing it all wrong... :stir

lemoo

just be very wary when grinding them! i learnt the hard way that under roasted beans tend to be a wee bit hard and may damage your grinder i broke my porlex hand grinder trying to grind some lol

Jonty

Brett H wrote:

But... They may taste awesome! Perhaps we've been doing it all wrong... :stir

I'd suggest to ask the roaster if he cups his roasts and give him the bag you purchased as a starting point. Seriously, no tickets this way but even with my 'Nancy' behmor, I have never seen a roast like that. Even the funky MM pushing 500g through the behmor looked better than that!!! 😉

GaryatGala

My 2 cents bank transfer worth. Dry processed and poor grading. Swept from the roadside in Yirgy country, thrown into a pile and packed. Havent tried the yirgs, but have had the ethiopian ghimbis and harrars which have a tendency towards uneveness, especially short roast times in the baby roaster. Not so uneven in the KKTO due to the gentler, longer roast times.

admin

Hi there - thanks again guys for your great feedback; Acog - it's a local [Adelaide 😢 roaster] ... don't particularly want to 'make an example' of them [in this instance] but will send you the name via PM, for your own reference. cheers A

3rd_Crack

admin wrote:

Hi there - thanks again guys for your great feedback; Acog - it's a local [Adelaide 😢 roaster] ... don't particularly want to 'make an example' of them [in this instance] but will send you the name via PM, for your own reference. cheers A

Sorry for your experience, PM me your address and I'll send you some complimentary Gr1 Yirg - roasted and green if you want.