My last post (which unfortunately was months ago) described a lovely coffee that I was enjoying: Wush Wush is fruity, but not acidic. It’s smooth like syrup; a warm hug in mug. My only sadness was that it was pricey: over $37 per pound. So it was an infrequent treat, rather than a daily cup.

Then I discovered that The Captain’s Coffee had the same coffee, except that they sold it unroasted. Now — I’m a home coffee roaster, but I’ve always been challenged when it comes to light roasts. I had managed to make some reproducibly nice dark roasts of Colombian origin. My wife likes those at breakfast. And occasionally, I could turn out a decent medium roast; for example, a Sumatran origin with tasty cedar notes. But light roasts were always slightly disappointing. Ok. Fine. Drinkable. But not as tasty as something that I could buy from a professional roaster.

(my roaster: a Gene Cafe CBR-101)

So I purchased the green coffee from The Captain’s Coffee and set out on a learning journey. The main thing was understanding how I could control heat on my roaster. I needed the roaster to be pre-heated, and then I needed to ramp up the temperature as quickly as possible. I dumped as much heat as possible into my roast until I heard the beginning of first crack, and then backed off, allowing the coffee to roast only a little more… roughly to the middle of first crack.

(my homemade cooling system, with a fan in the bottom)

The resulting coffee has reproduced well what I tasted from Chestnut Ridge (a local specialty roaster), and the learning has taught me how to do a better job on all of my light roasts. And the really nice benefit is that now I drink it every day. (The price when I roast it at home is about $14 per pound for the finished product.)

And my recommendation still stands: if you like light roasts and get a chance to drink a cup of Ethiopian Wush Wush, take advantage of the opportunity!