By the time it is at 2nd cracks it is just ashy and burnt. So if we roasted it any darker than this the coffee was tasting smoky, turning bitter. Dries the mouth out a bit after you swallow. Soft mouthfeel, smooth, not too astringent or acidic. The aroma is bizarre - soy sauce? garlic? The taste is savory and sweet, with flashes of orange peel, rosemary, and apricot. Enjoyable, unique.Īs coffee, our favorite roast was 15 seconds lighter (407 degrees on our roaster). Tastes of chocolate, orange, and sage came through. We did not get the normal heavy crema expected from a honey coffee, but it did have that honey taste and soft mouthfeel. We found that we had to grind the bean a notch finer than normal for best results.

As Espresso, our favorite roast was 45 seconds after first cracks end, somewhere around 410 degrees on our roaster. Takes a normal amount of heat, and cracks start at a normal time.

So if you're up for participating in this experiment, here is what we found with the coffee. It was a fun coffee to play around with, but not one we would necessarily enter in a competition.

In short, we don't hate it, but we don't love it. We have never had a honey processed Indonesian coffee here before, so this coffee was an experiment for us as well as for them. This coffee grows near the Kerinci Seblat National Park and the proceeds go towards preserving the park. The Kerinci Valley is known as the 'rice bowl' of Sumatra because of all the crops grown there feed some seven million people.

These beans come from what would normally be considered Mandheling territory, but it's not grown by Mandehling people, so it's referred to as Kerinci Valley, which is an extremely fertile growing area with a population of around 300,000 people.

Kerinci coffee bean