Date: 2026-02-09Roaster: Gene Café CBR-301Batch: Sample Roast (low mass) In: 52.5 gOut: 44.3 gWeight loss: 15.6 % 1. Purpose & framing (important) This roast sits squarely inside the agreed Sample Roast guardrails: Can the Gene Café apply and control heat coherently at very low bean mass, and do the usual decision anchors still hold? This…

Gene Café CBR-301 | Sample roast (≈50 g) Why this roast exists This roast wasn’t about flavour discovery or proving whether Geisha is “worth it”. It exists to answer a simpler, more practical question: Can the Gene Café CBR-301 roast a true sample-size batch in a controlled, meaningful way? Professional sample roasters typically work with…

Methodology, Approach, and Guardrails Sample Roasts are very small batch roasts (typically 30–60 g) carried out on the Gene Café CBR-301 to observe machine behaviour at low bean mass. They exist to answer a narrow question: Can the Gene Café meaningfully roast very small batches, and what changes in behaviour emerge when it does? They…

Coffee: Brazil Topazio, naturalRoaster: Gene Café CBR-301Batch: 250 gSet temperature: 250 °C In: 250 g → Out: 205.4 g (17.8% WL)Total time: 13:23 Why this roast exists Roast 8 was not intended to be a daily-drinker or an optimisation exercise. It emerged as a natural outcome of exploring development range on Brazilian naturals and became…

Ethiopia Guji Karume — Natural Date: 8th Feb 2026Roaster: Gene Café CBR-301Batch: 250 gSet temperature: 250 °CIn / Out: 250 g → 214.8 gWeight loss: 14.1%Total roast time: ~18:32Intent: Repeatability check on Ethiopian natural; confirm crack behaviour and Lazy Mode boundaries Why this roast exists Roast 17 exists to test repeatability, not improvement. Earlier roasts…

This note supports a short video where I show how I cup coffee at home, and why I keep the process intentionally simple. Cupping is often presented as technical, performative, or something you need training to “do properly”. That framing never sat comfortably with me. At home, cupping serves a much narrower purpose. For me,…

Roaster: Gene Café CBR-301Batch size: 250 gSet temperature: 250 °COut: 209.7 gWeight loss: 16.1%Total time: ~13:10Cooling initiated: ~80 s after rolling first crack Why this roast exists This was a personal roast rather than a planned comparison or reference. The intent was simple: roast a washed Central American cleanly, without pushing for brightness or novelty,…

Today I watched a bonus Q&A between Lucia Solis and Roaster Kat, and something in it stayed with me longer than I expected. Not a technique.Not a fermentation trick.Not a new term to add to the mental shelf. What stuck was how calmly they dismantled the idea that coffee language is precise, regulated, or even…

Reflections This space exists for longer-form thinking that doesn’t belong to a single roast or a fixed guide. These pieces are prompted by experience — things read, watched, tasted, or noticed along the way — and are written to understand them more clearly, not to resolve them quickly. They are occasional by design.They may contradict…

This cupping form is intentionally simple. It’s designed for home roasters and curious drinkers who want to compare coffees without chasing flavour notes, scores, or performance. If you can say “this is heavier”, “this is brighter”, or “I’d drink this again”, this card is doing its job. US Letter A4