As stated back in June, I declared Malabar a light roast worth exploring again some point in the future. The future was yesterday.
I found the “green” and cool flavor of the Malabar to be an interesting mouth feel and good flavor. The question I had whether the flavor was replicable with BBotE processing. Light roasts are problematic at the best of times because there is just so much there to extract. Dark roasts have the advantage of driving of light oils and caramelizing what remains. The challenge is not only getting something good, but to do it more than once; Panama is the only success so far.
Enough blather. The results, courtesy of my favorite guinea pigs at the tasting room of St. George Spirits.
Straight: pipe tobacco, creamy, bittersweet chocolate, green, not quite menthol
Vodka addition test: honey again
In summation, it is replicable and it is good. Unfortunately, the Santa Cruz Roasting Company is roughly 80mi away. This means potential production of Malabar is will be by special request only. However, I do have 2L left over from this test run. If you are a brave soul, I have put two bottles in the Prototypes & Clearance that I will take back down on October 4th, the end of the Oktoberfest 10% off coupon. Grab them…and ride as a leader of men. Or hamsters. Whatever. We don’t judge here at Funranium Labs.