Delicious, yesterdays roast turned into a cup with lots of crema. To adjust for the grind I experienced yesterday I dialled the grinder up to 6, but it went perhaps just a tad to fast through this time. But the cup is awesome: no acid, no bitterness, just lots of taste. What a lovely blend. I can't wait until saturday when these beans should be at their peak. 
Today I was rushing out of the door but had time for a cup of pre-roasted Columbia. When I came back later I tried the beans I roasted yesterday at the same grind, setting 3. To handfulls of beans resulted in a single double-basket of coffee! Yikes! Where does the rest go?!? (or, how much of my bean is really air). I should get a weigth to try this out. Still with my plastic tamper I did what I would think is a decent tamp and a few seconds later I pulled the lever. Exitement.... how much will come flowing? Nothing. Oh well, a gentle pull... nothing. A thighter squeeze... nothing. Increasing up to full body weight and finally a little bit came dripping. An early refill, press 'til halfway, refill and full length pull with all my weight. Drop by drop, until I had a full cup. Which was still warm, btw, so nothing too wrong there. But the cup was more acidic than the previous cups I've had, so this was probably a too fine grind. I'll let the beans rest for a while and see what happens.
Since I wanted more beans to test with for the light roasted one (remember I roasted just a hand and a half full of beans, so I'm running out of beans if I'll be using that amount for a single cup). Two cups roasted at preset 1 and put into a paper bag before they go into their own box tomorrow. I have no idea what box that will be, I'm quickly running out of boxes. I'll probably throw away some more of that pre-grinded coffee.
I've finally taken the plunge: La Pavoni Professional, Rancillo Rocky and iRoast 2 are all lined up on my kitchen counter. Espresso heaven, here I come. Now, what's missing is what I can't buy: my skills. I have had a $50 espresso machine and a $10 grinder so far, and after 500 cups served it can only produce burnt water (you won't know it until you've tasted it), but after this I was sure I wanted something that could make a real cup where I could taste something new.
Well, this was certainly new. I've experimented a week with the Pavoni (it arrived a week before the roaster and grinder) and not been able to get a single cup with crema using Lavazza, Illy and extra fine grinded espresso coffee from my local coffee seller. So I was really looking forward to the grinder. Having very excited opened it and followed the instructions, my first cup with Colombia Supremo from Føtex turned out to have very little Crema (but still more than with my previous cups) but an incredible taste. I was starting to believe.
Next step: roasting. I know nothing about roasting, but the iRoast 2 comes with two presets: light and dark. Figuring I'd try what it suggested first, I roasted some Espresso Miscela d'Oro from Risteriet at preset 2 - dark, and put it in a paper bag overnight. It smelt very burnt so I was afraid I'd overdone it.
Day 2 I wanted to taste it, even though I was skeptical of how burnt it was. Grind, press: there's crema! Lots more than I've had before, although nothing compared to the pictures I've seen. The taste? Great! Really, really great. No bitterness, and all I've heared about a sweet cup of coffee, I just understood what they meant. And this was after one day, I've read peak taste will be at day 4 or 5. Can't wait. To make the day after more interesting, I roasted a handful of greens at preset 1 - light.
Day 3 - the dark coffee is still very good. The light one I haven't come around yet as I want to give my tastebuds a chance to go into neutral again. So meanwhile I'm surfing the net to learn what others think of roasting with this machine to see if I can get a third alternative and what I should think about when I'm tasting the next cup. Can't wait!
