We tried a bit of oven roasting this week. Our only other experience of this was some time ago and involved a batch of Colombian La Manuela. From memory it was lovely and even but there was a bit of a chaff storm when the fan-assisted oven was opened.

This time we used some regular pulped Bourbon from Cachcoeira Farms in Brazil. The temperature was set at 240C and the oven pre-heated, which is what we thought had been used previously, and the cooker hood employed at full-pelt.

We roasted 250g of beans spread evenly out on a flat baking tray. They were shaken gently a couple of times during the roasting process.

First crack began at around nine minutes, which is a bit quick for my liking, and second seemed to start as soon as first had finished. The noise of the fan system made second a little hard to hear, so these times could be a bit out. A tiny bit of oil was forming on a few beans at the end, which is not ideal in my opinion for Cachoeira, which to my taste is best just at second crack and before any oils appear.

There was less chaff than previously, though the roast was not perfectly even; very good, but perhaps less even than I remember the Manuela being. I’ll try to get a photo or two up to show what I mean.

Since the roast, I have chatted with Breako (espressomattic) from TMC who is a bit of a home roasting whizz in all its forms, with particular skill with both the WhirleyPop and in the oven. He explained that a pre-heated setting of 200C works best for him. We shall give that a try shortly. Thanks Breako.

We tried a cappuccino 24 hours after the roast and it was very nice. Fortunately, there was no hint of the ‘roast’ in the flavour and the beans appeared to have settled down with the usual appearance of something ‘dropped’ at the start of second crack, save the fact that a very few were uneven as already mentioned. I think the beans might benefit from another day or two degassing, but overall a success.