Bolivia Apolo La Paz Department Bolivia: Apolo, La Paz Department

This bean tastes good as light roast or dark roast. Roasted dark (just before 2nd crack) it tastes like dark chocolate and Carmel with amazing body and mouth feel, which is the exact profile I'm always after with coffee. Very easy to roast (forgiving). Will have to buy 5 lb next time.

Gave it 4 stars I only had a 1/2 lb to play with. I will buy 5lbs and see if I can raise that to a 5 star . I roast until 2nd crack starts and then I cool. It has a very smooth full flavor. My favorite so far. I have been roasting for 18 months and am still learning

The Bolivia Organic Apolo is my favorite bean so far. I love the flavor profile at a dark roast. I recommend this bean to any new roasters out there like myself. It has the chocolate and caramel tones that come at later roast times and are delicious!

Roasted to Full City, but the color of the bean is lighter than what I normally see at that range. Also on the lower end of how much chaff there was. The unroasted beans had a more herbaceous aroma than I would normally smell. The dry fragrance does give a peek into the flavor, but it’s not as strong and specific as the coffee itself actually is in the cup. The wet aroma brings out the white grape, lime and a hint of mint leaf, which gives a better clue to the cup. As far as taste, I started off with a pour over (Chemex) and it was a very light flavor as first, and then a pleasant sweetness crept in as it cooled off. White grape juice and a white sugar sweetness was there all the way through, but were a bit like a courteous neighbor. Not absent, but not close enough to come over for dinner. The big win with this method was the brewing aroma, which is not to be scoffed at. :) The AeroPress (immersion) and Americano (espresso) methods were basically the same. The flavor was much more punchy from the get-go, and the citrus invited itself over for dinner. (Lol). It seemed a bit more like lime to me, but I can see how CBC would note it as tangerine. Since I like that aspect in my coffee, I was quite a fan. Adding milk to this coffee was the only part that was not amazing. I won’t take a star away from this coffee for it, but the flavor just wasn’t able to shine through in a flat white. Granted, I rarely, if ever put cream in an auto-drip coffee or anything like that, so that may be a different story. In this case though, the flavor was pretty muted. The tartaric acid poked through a wee bit, and the sweetness snuck in a bit, but that’s it. (The neighbor who stares at you through the blinds, if you will?)

I roasted this just into second crack and found the chocolate notes were not as pronounced. I will try a longer roast but overall a very subtle coffee and a smooth finish

First tried a 1lb bag, then 3, then 5. Initially preferred Bolivian Caranavi; but when I switch from a WhirleyPop to an SR800 w/extension tube Apolo became my favorite. Day ago roasted my 14th batch; hit start of yellow (300° chamber temp probe) 3:00; 1st-K 8:00 (395°) & because I had a strong 1st-K after my 425° probe alarm at 1:50 into 1st-K did 4, 1oz scoops (average 2) & then hit 2nd-K 3:10 into 1st at 420°. I thought “Wow, 420.” I didn’t know beans could retain that much heat. Removing/returning the chaff basket & scoop’n takes 10 seconds & the roast chamber temp drops to 390° & would be lower but I drop the fan speed and often charge the heat before scoop’n or after. The heat momentum returns faster when I hit 1st-K earlier (7:30) & slower when later (8:30). When I don’t scoop 2nd-K is normally ±444°. I brew Hario pour over at 203° & ’m getting clean, smooth, mellow favor notes with a trailing subtle dark roast favor when keeping 2nd-K to 0:05 or 0:10 when I hit cooling mode (C-3). After 10–20 seconds at C-3 I dump to an external cooling basket. I’ve done back to back roasts of Apolo at different roast levels for blending but prefer the cup’n of this method. Seems a forgiving bean like Apolo is also suitable for beginners.

Roasted to medium and pushed toward the start of second crack. Has almost the typical commercial coffee profile used to stand up to syrups and milk. Not overly distinct beyond the slightly fruity and smokey notes.