I invited myself along to the all new Origin roastery recently in order to see how the first large scale Cornwall roasted coffee was shaping up. Phil has been locked away like some kind of caffeine driven hermit for the last few months whilst the baristas of Cornwall have gone untrained, but it seems that Phil has been training himself, and to good effect. 

The guys have had a 1kg gas Probat for quite some time now, which has given Phil the chance to make lots of mistakes experiment with different greens, creating profiles and riding the cracks *cough*. The result of all of this is quite impressive, with Phil unsurprisingly developing an excellent caffeine tan1, but slightly more surprisingly - a really decent espresso blend.

I must say that before I tasted Phil’s blend that I had lined myself up for disappointment. That is with no disrespect intended towards Phil, but having dabbled a little in roasting myself I am well aware of the pitfalls and the slow learning curve. 

But let me tell you, this guy is either naturally gifted to the point of being a Jesus of the coffee roasting world, or he has bumbled across something that just works… probably the latter. The blend is shown on the image of the packaging below, i’m told that the packet is still in development…

You’ll notice that the espresso was roasted over three weeks ago, but believe you me – it tasted, smelled and felt good. In fact i’m starting to think that in general i’d much rather be drinking slightly old espresso that slightly too young.

So what was it like?

For me it was unbalanced, but it didn’t matter. This is a sweet shot that is bolstered by the acidity of the Gethumbwini, but lacks bitterness to truly round it off. It didn’t seem to matter though as the really thick body hung around in my mouth I really got the buttery character mentioned on the label. There is a touch of blackcurrant or even cranberry and then a long hazelnut and caramelised sugar finish. It is affectionately called ‘Steve’s Blend’ after steve who takes the coffee orders over the phone suggested the combination of coffee in the blend.

I also had a go at roasting some Costa Rica – La Lia (Tarrazu) whilst there, which I have taken home to brew on the aeropress. I found roasting on the expensive Probat infinitely easier than on my Gene Cafe, but there ya go! I really enjoyed playing around with the timings and stuff and for a moment considered the amount of greens I could go through if given the chance. From memory I hit first crack at 12.45 and dropped the roast at 14.00 (198°C), i’ll let you know how it tastes in a few days.

The Origin roasted coffee is not yet available to buy, but check their website towards the end of the month. Oh and check my photostream for a picture of their 12kg Diedrich which will be up and running shortly to cope with demand.

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