How good was the Guatemala? It was the real thing.  I’ve had a lot of coffee in the last year, but I made a slightly over-dosed ristretto shot this morning, pulled for around 33 seconds, and I can tell you it was by a factor of 2 or 3, the best espresso I’ve ever had or made.  No exaggeration.

As someone once quipped, “A man in the jungle at night may suppose a hyena’s growl to be a lion’s; but when he hears the lion’s roar, he knows damn well it’s a lion.”

This was a lion.  I don’t have the language of the cupper or the connoisseur to paint you a word picture, but I can tell you it was marvelous.

On a side-note, the Behmor 1600 is a little disappointing – I should have waited for the Behmor 2000 – Espresso Edition (which as far as I know, isn’t a real thing, I just made it up).  I put 12 oz. in the basket and pushed the 1 lb button, and added 30 seconds, and that still only got me barely past 1st crack.  What??  So those of us who want 2nd crack (duh) just have to load less coffee than we’d like to try and find the spot.  I think on the Behmor 1600, you can get to 2nd crack with 10 or 11 oz. using the 1 lb. (B / P1) settings, adding 30 seconds for a total of 20:30.

This batch, I forgot and put 12 oz in, and rather than roast it again for another 8 or 9 minutes it takes to get it back to 450, I pulled out the secret weapon – the West Bend Poppery II, and I had 2nd crack in no time flat.  But I had to do it in 3rds, I couldn’t fix the whole lot at once.  It was so beautiful, too, a perfect roast, despite the bump.