# Moving away from the dark side... - Decent cheapish lighter roasts?



## Northern_Monkey (Sep 11, 2018)

I normally go for more traditional medium or darker roasts with toffee/nut/chocolate/smoke tasting notes. Used for a mix of espresso and with milk.

I would like to try something a bit different really, the posts on jammy, blueberry and fruity flavours have got me intrigued. Maybe not ready for the "tomato" that someone mentioned recently though!

Any decent recommendations from online sellers for safe bets that are lighter/fruitier and come in about £10 ish for 500g?


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## MildredM (Feb 13, 2017)

HasBean do a set of 4 x 250g of 3 blends plus a s/o all of which are kind of fruity. They could be a good introduction @ £20 plus postage. You could add on a couple more fruity ones and get an idea of how they taste


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## Hasi (Dec 27, 2017)

there might be something coming up in that sort of range...


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## Jony (Sep 8, 2017)

Well not many on here recommend Crank House but I use other roasters but this is my goto bean stop.


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## ratty (Sep 22, 2019)

Northern_Monkey said:


> I normally go for more traditional medium or darker roasts with toffee/nut/chocolate/smoke tasting notes. Used for a mix of espresso and with milk.
> 
> I would like to try something a bit different really, the posts on jammy, blueberry and fruity flavours have got me intrigued. Maybe not ready for the "tomato" that someone mentioned recently though!
> 
> Any decent recommendations from online sellers for safe bets that are lighter/fruitier and come in about £10 ish for 500g?


 I'm thinking similar too, but have 1.5kg of different dark beans at the moment, some in the freezer vacuum packed and some in a cool room vacuum packed but would splash out small time on something fruity.

I mix my own vape liquids and have been using 2/3 blackcurrant to 1/3 mango flavourings for the last few years that suit me well for taste.

So I'm also interested in suggestions here.


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## 4515 (Jan 30, 2013)

I was all dark roast at one time but one dark bean put me off pretty much all darker roasted beans.

Some good suggestions already. I wouldn't go too light as it may be a step too far.

Square Mile would be another good place to start.

Edit: Probably not the cheapest but they are 350g bags and sometimes have a black Friday offer


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## Rob1 (Apr 9, 2015)

Northern_Monkey said:


> I normally go for more traditional medium or darker roasts with toffee/nut/chocolate/smoke tasting notes. Used for a mix of espresso and with milk.
> 
> I would like to try something a bit different really, the posts on jammy, blueberry and fruity flavours have got me intrigued. Maybe not ready for the "tomato" that someone mentioned recently though!
> 
> Any decent recommendations from online sellers for safe bets that are lighter/fruitier and come in about £10 ish for 500g?


 "Jammy, Blueberry, Fruity flavours" says natural process to me, not necessarily light roast. Ethiopian Wild highland from coffee compass has very obvious blueberry notes but is probably the darkest roast you'll find. You might look at Cartwheel for a well developed natural process bean. EDIT: I last had the ethiopian from CC about a year ago so it's probably a different batch now.


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## Northern_Monkey (Sep 11, 2018)

Cheers everyone, that is a goodly number of replies!

@MildredM and @Rob1 think I will be looking at hasbeen an CC first after having a search round with the suggestions so far.


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## Northern_Monkey (Sep 11, 2018)

I ordered these from CC today since I could use the forum discount code and the descriptions sounded interesting. No blueberry but the cherry flavour should be a nice change and I haven't had much African coffee before, so fingers crossed!

- Cherry Cherry (Cherries, stone fruits, nectarine/orange)

- Ethiopian Kochere Yirgacheffe (lavender, mango and fruit tea)

- Ethiopian Wild Highland (dark chocolate, black cherry and caramel)


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## catpuccino (Jan 5, 2019)

I've wondered about Cherry Cherry for a while...


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## Jacko112 (Oct 29, 2015)

Cherry cherry is one of my go-to's with CC. Always been good


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## MediumRoastSteam (Jul 7, 2015)

Coffee compass tend to roast on the darker side.

Cherry cherry is certainly *not* a light roast.


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## Rob1 (Apr 9, 2015)

Who cares if it's light or dark really, it's all about how it tastes. Op said fruity/light roasts but they don't necessarily go hand in hand. Cherry cherry is pretty good. I got sweetshop from redber and it tasted like fruit salad, was definitely a solid medium roast though and a little too acidic for my taste (much like some of the fruit salad sweets themselves), had a nice floral note though. I think when going for these exotic fruit flavours you need to be prepared to spend more than on the standard chocolate/caramel because the greens are more expensive.


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## Northern_Monkey (Sep 11, 2018)

MediumRoastSteam said:


> Coffee compass tend to roast on the darker side.
> 
> Cherry cherry is certainly *not* a light roast.


 I might have confused things by equating "lighter" with "fruitier", which I now realise isn't the case ?

I was looking to try something a bit different to the Milan espresso style beans, monsoon malabar or dark Sumatra blends I've had quite a bit of.

Great to get some input from people who have tried a wider variety, also recommendations for roasters I haven't considered before. Which is what I was after really.


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## MediumRoastSteam (Jul 7, 2015)

Northern_Monkey said:


> I might have confused things by equating "lighter" with "fruitier", which I now realise isn't the case  I was looking to try something a bit different to the Milan espresso style beans, monsoon malabar or dark Sumatra blends I've had quite a bit of.
> 
> Great to get some input from people who have tried a wider variety, also recommendations for roasters I haven't considered before. Which is what I was after really.


Oh, don't get me wrong: they are excellent! But it's certainly not on the lighter side of life.

I'm not sure if they still do it, but you can pick 3 500g for a really good price.

Edit: they do here:

https://www.coffeecompass.co.uk/collections/espresso-range/products/coffee-compass-espresso-selection


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## Northern_Monkey (Sep 11, 2018)

@MediumRoastSteam Thanks for the link, I've used that offer a fair bit now. Tried most apart from the cherry cherry and tusker. It is a good deal and the mahogany malabar hit and bourbon lanes blends are lovely.


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## Northern_Monkey (Sep 11, 2018)

I was out and about this afternoon, wandered past Origin Coffee Roasters near Southwark station. Pretty quiet in there today and I managed to persuade them to let me have a single espresso and a with milk taster of their Ou Yang natural before buying some.

It was amazing, exactly the dark chocolate, cherry and fruit from the tasting notes and actually a bit of an eye opener to be honest. I hadn't realised just how punchy and different some natural process coffees can be, I'm definitely going to consider them more in the future.

  

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https://flic.kr/p/2hLzzh7


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https://flic.kr/p/2hLzzh7


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https://flic.kr/p/2hLzzh7


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## CoolingFlush (Aug 4, 2019)

Spending £10 on a V60 cone and some filters can open up a whole world of coffee flavours to explore. I still prefer making espresso every day, but some single origin coffees can be meh as espresso, and outrageously flavoursome as a V60/pour over/drip/filter.


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## Jony (Sep 8, 2017)

I do agree I have V60 most mornings


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## fatboyslim (Sep 29, 2011)

Jony said:


> Well not many on here recommend Crank House but I use other roasters but this is my goto bean stop.


 What do you mean? Are you saying not many people recommend Crankhouse? Are you mad?


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## Jony (Sep 8, 2017)

Not at all, I see more Hasbean and other ones, are you mad !I have a Sub with them and the recent lsol.


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## Northern_Monkey (Sep 11, 2018)

I finished the Ou Yang (which was just as good at home as in the shop) on Friday so got to open another bag Sat morning.

First one I tried was the Ethiopian Wild Highland, unfortunately no dark chocolate, black cherry or caramel. Roasted so highly the main flavor notes were bitumen and ashtray, it was incredibly oily so the beans froze into a solid lump! I tried espresso, with milk, aeropress and cafetiere but couldn't get past the first sip and was pleased I hadn't bought a lot of it... ?

It felt like CC had done the equivalent of Crocodile Dundee going "you call that a knife, this is a knife!" with their roast level! ??

Cherry Cherry is lovely in comparison, a fair bit of sour cherry fruitiness but with a nice medium roast "coffee that tastes like coffee" flavour that my wife was a fan of.


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## Rob1 (Apr 9, 2015)

Well that's a shame, I haven't had any of this batch but it doesn't sound like it compares to the previous ones I've had. It must have been roasted almost a month ago though? Previous batches didn't have off ashy flavours like you describe unless over extracted and CC wouldn't usually make things up and roast like that for the sake of it so I'm guessing either the beans have gone stale or quality control has slipped.


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## Northern_Monkey (Sep 11, 2018)

Rob1 said:


> Well that's a shame, I haven't had any of this batch but it doesn't sound like it compares to the previous ones I've had. It must have been roasted almost a month ago though? Previous batches didn't have off ashy flavours like you describe unless over extracted and CC wouldn't usually make things up and roast like that for the sake of it so I'm guessing either the beans have gone stale or quality control has slipped.


 I think it was likely just a blip in the run, seems quite tricky to get something that dark as you might have less margin for error. Shame as all the CC stuff I've had has been top notch and they are my favorite roaster. I tried higher/lower doses different methods, but the beans themselves had the same smell.

I popped the Jiffy bag it arrived in straight in the freezer the day I got it. The Cherry Cherry was fine in terms of being frozen and stored for a bit in the same way.

Any suggestions on storing your beans, are room temp airscapes (sp?) better than freezing sealed bags in terms of avoiding stales?


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## Rob1 (Apr 9, 2015)

Probably. I would always re bag in a ziplock to freeze and store (remove all air and completely seal). You might be good just putting tape over the valve though.


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