We had a chat with Brad Cassidy, our roaster and co-owner of Leaf Bean Machine, to discuss the latest Seasonal Blend 1 and find out a little more about the bean to cup process.
What is your green bean selection process?
Over the last 10 years we have built strong relationships with our green bean suppliers who know the high standards that we have and the quality that we are looking for or trying to achieve. They send samples which we roast and cup which sometimes means that our roasting team may taste a lot of coffee before selecting one.
How did you go about choosing the beans for this Seasonal Blend?
On the cupping table the Malawi Phoka Hills womens coffee showed intense fruit flavours that really made it stand out and I knew that it would marry well with the deep bodied Sumatran that I had cupped in a previous session with our team. I always try and select the best available coffees at the time and I particularly liked the story behind the Womens Coffee.
What process did you use to develop this blend?
To develop the finished cup we roasted both coffees to four different roast profiles and selected our favourite profile of each. These were then used for a blind blending session to establish the ratio of each coffee which showcased the individual characters of each origin. The final test was to put our three favourite blend ratios through the espresso machine to taste with milk and as an espresso. Our roasting team then assessed each sample according to balance, intensity of cup, sweetness and milk compatibility.
I was originally interested in the Malawi because of its high point score, the cupping notes from the grower and the story behind it. The fully washed Sumatran was a stand out from the ten Sumatran coffees that I sampled because of its deep, rich flavour and thick luscious body.
I think you will agree that these two beans really shine whether you enjoy a coffee with milk or black. In my opinion, they really are the best of the season.
