I just roasted some of Tom's Indonesian Komodo Blend decaf and heard almost 
no cracking.  Tom says: "Remember, SWPs are dark in color, so roasting is 
best done by listening to the cracks, smell and time," so I was paying close 
attention to the cracks.
There was exactly one (1) first crack.  Pop!...that was it.  By the time I 
heard several second cracks, it was very near the end of a 17 minute roast 
on my Aromaroast - about a minute past where regular coffees are near a 
Vienna.
Even though I wasn't supposed to be paying close attention to the color, the 
beans were so dark at that point that I stopped the roast.  Results look 
past Vienna but not to French.
Could anyone who has had some experience with this particular coffee give me 
some guidance?  I'm going to let it rest at least a day before I try it 
(there are no resting instructions on Tom's site).
Gene Smith
riding the wild learning curve, in Houston

--- Gene Smith  wrote:
<Snip>
 These beans give the softest little cracks of anything in my
stash. When you hear one little pop, that's most likely first
crack happening, so ease off on the heat a little if you can. I
like it roasted both pre-second crack, and roasted a touch into
second. It's much more delicate than regular Indonesian when
roasting into second, so go easy. At a city+ roast the beans
look pretty dark untill ground. Full-on second crack (viennese)
roast is too far, negitively effecting the body very much.
Roasted barely into second the beans look too dark, until you
look at them closely after cooling.
It's quite nice brewed imediately after cooling. Decaf goes
stale almost twice as fast as regular, so don't rest it too
long...
  Charlie
=====
Brick Oven Roasting in British Columbia
Do you Yahoo!?
Win 1 of 4,000 free domain names from Yahoo! Enter now.http://promotions.yahoo.com/goldrush

<Snip>
Thanks Charlie I was wondering to what degree you roasted the Komodo blend.
I guessed it would be pre second crack or just a snap or two into 2nd. I did
a 1lb batch a couple days ago. I did notice a nice soft first crack and they
you really have to cut the heat to keep it from rushing into 2nd. I was into
2nd before I wanted to. so it got just a bit to dark for opium flavor
although at fullcity + it was still nice.
RK

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
<Snip>
This list is going to the druggies!  How do you know what opium tastes like?
Insert a smiley here!!
Michael
<Snip>

Does opium flavor taste anything like poppy-seed cake?
Jean  ;~D

Hasn't caffeine been classified as a "gateway" drug, yet?
<Snip>

Yes it has, news from last week proved it!
ginny

Just like coke - only without the bubbles!
On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 18:57:40 -0400, Michael Guterman
 wrote:
This list is going to the druggies!  How do you know what opium tastes like?
<Snip>