Royal Street Blend

Under the influence of You Tube coffee experts, I’ve been staying away from dark roasted coffees. However, emboldened by recent good fortune brewing a variety of different coffee beans from around the world with my Hario Switch, I decided to step out a bit and try my hand with this blend of medium and French roast. Glad I did. I like the complexity that Orleans attributes to the different roast levels. The flavor also pleases. I am not good at detecting or describing things like fruits, chocolates, etc, so I’ll just say that after just a couple of experiments, I hit on a recipe that consistently produces a cup with rich, complex coffee flavors that is medium to full bodied and leaves only a slight, pleasant after taste. That recipe uses a 16 to one water to coffee ratio. Grinder set to the middle of the pour over range on my Izpresso grinder. Water temp–195. Bloom for 2 minutes with Switch closed. Follow with 3 pour overs divided approximately equally. I normally use 15 grams of coffee. So, the bloom uses 50 grams of water and the succeeding pour overs use 70, 70 and 60. If I’m in a hurry, I’ll go with 2 pour overs of 100 grams of water apiece. I’ll close the Switch for the last pour for a minute and agitate the grounds using a chopstick. I lightly swirl the Switch on the first pour to make sure the bed is even, Each recipe yields a slightly different flavor profile, but I find all most enjoyable.