NEW T-REX! Back to the roots with ‘Blueberry Candy’

Posted on by Diana Johnston Ledezma

Did you know each dinosaur is connected to a flavour profile? As we come back around to the first dinosaur I released in 2023, the Tyrannosaurus Rex, I felt it would be fun to return to my first World Coffee Roasting Championship preparation experience. In 2019, when I won my first UK Coffee Roasting Champion title, I was working as the Head of Quality at DRWakefield, a London based family run importer.


Blueberry, Chewy, Nostalgic


At the time, most of my roasting was restricted to small probat sample roasting barrels, which while pivotal to my roasting and green knowledge, made it difficult to train for the world stage as I would need to turn batches on a six kilo Giesen for the actual championship. Luckily, I was supported by the coffee community and was invited by Red Bank Coffee Roasters to come use their space to train. While there, I had been experimenting with a few different coffees and Blueberry Candy was one of them.


I vividly remember tasting the roasts with the owner of Red Bank, and both of us being really blown away with how much it reminded us of a great tasting natural wine. We enjoyed the whole process so much so that we decided to go for a collab and release the coffee for Red Bank customers to buy. I can never express enough, the gratitude I will always have to Tom and Mick for being incredibly supportive on my journey.


I am pleased to be able to offer ‘Blueberry Candy’ as this Tyrannosaurus Rex release, seeing how well it fits with the Tyrannosaurus Rex vibe. Like the last T-Rex released, it is complex, chewy, and big. While there is less of that natural wine characteristic that existed back in 2019, I do feel there is a bit more complexity and sweetness. 


The coffee is an H3, planted in 2015 and produced as part of the first wave of F1 varieties. It is a cross between Caturra and Ethiopian landrace varieties, supporting its cup quality, and it has been naturally processed. These cherries have been hand-picked, and then set to dry in two stages at low temperatures in order to enhance the fruitiness of the coffee.

I wanted to preserve the liveliness in the cup, while capturing a sweetness that I felt would support the already bright notes. For this I decided to try a different approach than the one I had in 2019, and the result has been quite delicious.


I found the cup to be full of berries, with notes of blueberry and redcurrant, candy like notes akin to a nostalgic lime Starburst, big and chewy like a Bakewell tart, and cooling into notes of honey, Madagascan chocolate, amaretto and dried papaya. But let me know what you’re tasting, as the batch I’m describing was just roasted and I’m sure it will open up even more after about a month of resting!

And just a kind reminder- if you are UK based you will have free shipping if you order two bags and they can be two different coffees 🙂

Grab your bag via my dropdown menu on this website, or simply click here.

MEET LONGNECK: RELEASED!

Posted on by Diana Johnston Ledezma

We continue our adventures together with a new character to add to the Roastersaurus brand; The Longneck!

And with that a couple exciting things! Firstly, while this coffee is going to be shipping from the 8th of October (pre-order now!) a limited amount of bags will be available for pickup during the week of Cafe Culture (October 2nd onward) at the Saint Espresso in Angel Central shopping center. Simple select the product titled ‘pickup’ (here), and select pick-up as the shipping option. For those still wanting delivery your link is here, and then select your delivery shipping choice, or here if you wanna see the whole shop to grab multiple bags an benefit form free shipping. The other exciting thing is that I have a very small amount of this coffee available for wholesale, so get in touch (diana@senseitlondon.com or @roastersaurus) if this interests you or if you know a cafe that might love this coffee! I’d feel honoured to be served or sold in your space! Now about the coffee:


Purple-Blue, Chewy, actually Sweet!


Having worked for many years as the Head of Quality for a green coffee importer, often quality grading somewhere on average of 30 different coffees a day, you would think I would have experienced everything. But one of the most exciting things about specialty coffee is that it’s ever developing, and every so often an emerging origin rises up to surprise us. Rest assured, it isn’t a coincidence that this happens though, as a change in the perception of quality of a whole origin is the fruit of the hard work of individuals with a vision.  And so is the story of this coffee; a micro-lot from the ‘Pearl of Africa’; from the Sironko Station in East Uganda


The story begins with Kenneth Barigye, a man who had a vision to change the world’s perception of Ugandan coffee. Barigye understood the potential of the region, and so he decided to establish the Mountain Harvest project in 2017. He formed a team of individuals, both by training local coffee professionals as well as recruiting from abroad, and began to standardise systems to improve quality and consistency. Recognising the potential due to Mt Elgon’s abundant sunlight and fertile volcanic soil, Sironko station was established at the base of the mountain, becoming the major research hub for the Mountain Harvest project. The result of all of this hard work: this stunning coffee.


You will notice the coffee is called ‘pure natural’, and this is to indicate that the coffee has indeed undergone a truly traditional natural process rather than one of the hybrid types that have recently become popular in some of the more well established specialty coffee origins. Ripe cherries, having been picked at a minimum of 18 brix, are funnelled from some of the most isolated communities of the mountain, namely Yilwanako Mayiyi, Buginyanya, Bushiyi, Makali, Bukalasi, and Sipi and sent directly to raised beds for drying to around 10% moisture. 


This coffee is incredibly sweet, so we felt it would be well represented by the Long-necks of the dinosaur world. And my absolute favourite part; the artist (@killbeef) further amplified that sweetness by giving the dinosaur the adorable eyelashes you see depicted in the image. The dinosaur is also taking care to water some baby coffee plants, helping grow a future generation of delicious coffee, and reminding me of myself and all my little coffee plants I am currently growing in the roastery (Roastersaurus 2029 release?). 

To retain and amplify the sweetness while supporting it with a fruit forward character I went for a minimal soak and hit it with less gas than usual as this coffee carries energy well (peak rate of rise around 29.5 at ROR60sec). I then retained that setting for quite a while in order to allow pressure to build up in the bean, before making gradual graceful cuts to gently coast this natural coffee’s rate of rise down to around 6 (ROR60sec). Like the last coffee, this coffee is roasted on a relatively lower drum speed as well, contributing to the complexity in the cup.


I did the profiling roast for this coffee on a Friday, and didn’t want to wait until the Monday to taste it as I wanted to see how the journey would be from freshly roasted to properly rested. Initially the coffee was full of jammy red fruits like strawberry and apple, but also chewy and reminding me of an eton mess. As we returned to brew and taste the coffee the week after roasting, and as it had rested, the flavours shifted toward more blue and purple colours. As I write this now, I am enjoying some of it in my cup, brewed on the origami, and its aroma reminds me of bubblegum! It has this jammy blackberry quality, with a hint of blueberry juiciness and a black sable grape sweetness. It is chewy. It is round. And did I mention it is sweet?!. 

Grab your bag via my dropdown menu on this website, or simply click here.

Watch this space as I’ll be looking to write more about Mountain Harvest project, as well as some of the pending posts on some of the other coffees I have available to purchase!