Home roast case study
13 roasts · 6 profiles
Goal: origin-clarity

How to Roast Ethiopia Sidamo ETH04: NCT Filter E Recipe

Dialing in Ethiopia Sidamo ETH04 — 13 logged home roasts with real metrics

Ethiopia · Sidamo · Washed · 1,400-2,200 MASL · G2 · John Burton

aroma of caramel, lemon flower and spices. Flavours of madeira cake and black tea with lemongrass undertones. Long lemon black tea finish. Crispy acidity, medium coating body. Score: 82.5+

Dialed-in recipe
NCT Filter E
Level 2.2·100g batch
“nice and fruity, smooth, a little darker, could probably be roasted a tick lighter.”

Winning batch R-094 · 2026-07-14

Roast loss
13.9%
DTR
12%
ROR pre-FC
32°/m
ROR dev
7.5°/m

Cup quality across 13 attempts

Each point is a roast scored from tasting notes (1 = miss, 5 = dialed in). The series stops at the teal halo — once dialed in, later repeats aren’t scored the same way.

12345Cup qualityR-021R-028R-037R-053R-068R-094Roast attempt →

Where the good cups live

Roast level vs batch size. Color = profile family; larger dots = better cups. Notice how quality clusters once batch size moves to 100–120g.

1.41.61.822.22.42.62.83Roast level (higher = darker)40g60g80g100g120g140gBatch size
9minFilter
Raost
NordicLight
F-WSH 1500-2200
NCT Filter E
NCT Filter D
○ size = cup quality

Roast mechanics that stuck

DTR, roast loss, and rate-of-rise across attempts with klog data. Each series is scaled on its own axis so shapes are comparable.

R-021R-028R-037R-049R-069R-086R-101Each series scaled independently (shape, not absolute overlay)
DTR
Roast loss
ROR pre-FC
ROR development

What the data taught us

  1. 1NordicLight ~2.8 / 120g (R-037) first hit “nice and fruity” after rest — early 9min/Raost runs were green or dark-flat.
  2. 2NCT Filter E around 2.2–2.5 / 100g became the cleaner modern lane (R-069, R-094): fruity, no green, watch for a touch dark.
  3. 3F-WSH 1500-2200 at 2.3 was awful underdeveloped on this lot — same family that works for Gatugi is not automatic here.
  4. 4Current fine-tune: Filter E at 2.0 (R-101) after “tick lighter” feedback on R-094.
Roast goal: Stop roast just after first crack completes to preserve the signature lemon acidity and black tea delicacy. Aim for a light brown color with no oil development. Focus on highlighting the madeira cake sweetness while maintaining the crispy, bright character that defines high-altitude washed Ethiopians.

Want to log a journey like this?

Track profiles, klog metrics, and tasting notes until the cup clicks.

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