Lavanta Coffee Roasters Flores Peaberry, Green, 2lb

UPDATE: after allowing some of the coffee roasted with the Nesco roaster to sit for a few weeks in an airtight container (while I enjoyed some different coffee), a funny thing happened that I wasn't expecting and have never experienced before: the coffee got better. Dramatically so. So much so that I really enjoyed it. Maybe this "aging" process is something that frequently occurs but that I've just never read about, but whatever occurred, it ended up taking fantastic.That earns a swift and well deserved upgrade from 2 stars to 5!ORIGINAL REVIEW: I've been slowly getting into home coffee roasting after a friend with a Nesco home roaster let me sample several of the coffee's he's done, which he's purchased on Amazon from Lavanta. A Kenya blend he had was simply outstanding and sold me that home roasting was something I had to try.Traditionally, I've always liked Sumatra medium/dark roasts. I purchased Sumatra Peaberry as a way to roast something I was already familiar with from many other coffee companies, hopefully to give me a baseline of how Lavanta's coffee measured up.I started with an air popper (ghetto garage style) after reading many online reviews, tutorials, and opinions on this process. The roasting process was simple and the beans roasted beautifully. I turned off the popper right as 2C started, and immediately cooled them down to stop the roasting process. Waited 24 hours for them to off-gas and then got ready to try it. The beans smelled great. I used my hand-crank burr grinder to grind them for my AeroPress and the grounds smelled great. I made it in the usual manner and they bloomed right up - or even more so than I expected. First sips were decent, but really didn't blow me away. I finished my cup with mixed feelings, but just figured I could adjust the roast for the next batch.The next day I went to make another cup of coffee with the same fresh roasted Sumatra Peaberry, and I don't know what happened in the beans, but I literally couldn't finish the cup. It tasted very ashy, and almost...sour?I tried a couple of other batches of roasts and never had the same experience with it tasting "sour", but never achieved anything other than average-at-best 7-Eleven mini mart style coffee. I had about 1/2 pound left and asked my friend with the Nesco roaster to roast up the last of it so that I could at least compare THAT roast against my air popper roast(s). It was marginally better, but not dramatically at all.What I thought might have been the result of the ghetto air popper roasting process, I think actually was the batch of beans I had. I don't know if it was the Peaberry beans, or if it's their Sumatra blends in general. I'm not going to give up and want to try at least two other roasts before I give up on Lavanta, but for what it's worth, their Sumatra Peaberry isn't ever worth purchasing again if it continues to taste like that.

If you live near a coffee roaster you can do better than this. I used to before I moved to a very rural area and there are no roasters within 100 miles of me. But if you can order this with free shipping it is the same price you'd pay if you drove to a roaster - not bad for not leaving your house!Some of the critical reviews state they did not receive true peaberry. From the criticisms I learned peaberry is not a varietal like I always thought it was but a naturally occurring morphology when the coffee cherry develops with one bean instead of two (apparently this happens in all coffee varietals around 5-10% of the time). So I have no idea what varietal from Tanzania this is, but it's quite good!Peaberries have to be picked out by hand so they're usually more expensive than the non-peaberry version of the same bean. Yet this is one of the more inexpensive Lavanta offerings. And it definitely contains SOME regular beans, I'd guess 2-3%. But considering how much effort goes into sorting, I can't complain!I always roast as light as I can once the bean flavors (NOT the roast flavor) become prominent. We've been roasting these (in our hot air popper) on average 1:20 after the first crack. We only make pour over with a reusable filter. Delicious. Smooth, earthy, very slightly sweet. Low acidity. This is the only Lavanta offering we've tried (and got it twice we liked it so much).With a nearby roaster you can explore organic and fair trade versions of their single origin coffees. We don't have that luxury anymore, but we are very happy with this. We're definitely planning on trying their Sumatra Mandheling and Ethiopean Yirggechefe next!

I always have on hand a Kenyan or Tanzania bean. If you like beans from Mt Kilimanjaro these peaberry won’t disappoint you; it has a bright clean smooth favor void of bitterness or grassy hints. I’ve placed 2 orders and been happy with both shipments. My 4 photos show 5 roastings between light (ending of 1st crack) and dark (30+ seconds into 2nd crack with some oily sheen).My only note of many marked as excellent was pulled at 10 minutes at 435° laser probe and 20 seconds into 2nd crack (this reading of a pair of red laser beams at the bottom of a smokey Whirley popcorn popper are an approximate reference point). This temperature and duration in 2nd crack has been repeated several times. However, on one occasion that I can’t explain I couldn’t get the beans after a reasonable time to enter 2nd crack and pulled them before my impatience grew; this has only happened once before and that bean was a peaberry too.My 4 pics of different roastings all use a Stainless Whirley Pop on a Bayou Classic cooker.1.) light roast, my note indicates a single first crack at 6:10, regular random 1st cracks 6:30 at 380° (laser probe, ¿calibrated?); dumped at 7:30 & 415°2.) Med+ roast, pulled at 410°+, these are darker than a batch pulled at 415° (laser probe was more or less accurate one of the two times)3.) Dark w/med roast, pulled at 430° and 30+ seconds into 2nd crack4.) light to medium roast, pulled at 415° and medium to dark roast, pulled at 435° and 20 seconds into 2nd crack. I often blend a mixture of two roasting unless one cups really well.

Really fresh (years from expiry) and flavoursome once roasted. Message me for temp, timing, and tips.

wonderful aroma with fragrant chocolaty taste.

Very disappointing.