"What's all this, then?"

It's pretty simple.

I'm in the very lucky position where I get to taste all sorts of great different coffees. Getting the best out of them often requires quite some effort. A few recent developments have made me realise that I should not be letting this effort go to waste. These developments are (a) my starting to roast my own coffee, (b) my exposure to Dave Makin's WBC preparation, (c) my current boss' recent quest to create his own blend and (d) a few very rare coffees that I have recently been given, namely the Yauco Selecto that I have already posted about and the Australian Coast Peaberry that I will post about very soon. Get to the point, I hear you say.

It's pretty simple.

This blog is going to be my little place for notes on different coffees that I taste (and, like any other blog, rants that I feel like making). I don't profess to be any sort of expert cupper, nor do I claim to follow any sort of strict procedure. Primarily, these are tasting notes for my own reference. But I'd like to think that the wide range of different preparation methods, coffees, machines, etc. that I use might make this an interesting resource for others.

Hrmmm ... there's a lot of work ahead.





Oh, and just so that you know, the title is supposed to be a play on words. Pour = quality of the espresso pour or bad quality. I thought it was clever ...

... tumbleweed ;P

Yauco Selecto

About the coffee: This coffee comes from the Yauco region in Puerto Rico and, like Jamaican Blue Mountain, is pricey. Very pricey. Since I first met Peter Wolff from Veneziano Caffe, he has raved about it, so when he finally got some in a few weeks ago it was time for him to put his money where his mouth is. The coffee itself is hard, clean processed and had a great dark blue tinge to it. It roasted very evenly but, curiously, it looked much lighter on the outside than it did when it was ground. So was it any good?


The tasting notes:

Espresso
- 4 days old
-Silvia/Rocky
-LM Basket, up-dosed, extra 10 sec of heat, 2 min or so temp surf
-LM Cup full at circa 25 seconds, immediately dropped to 1/2 volume
-Sweet, but very gentle acidity, like drinking some sort of fruit juice; more, more!
-Marzipan and star fruit smell came out when brewing and was present in the cup, but not strongly (Daterra marzipan)
-Very balanced

Espresso
- 9 days
-Silvia/Rocky
-LM Basket, up-dosed slightly, extra 7 sec heat, 2 min or so temp surf
-45mL in 27 seconds
-Not as sweet, but still some sweetness
-Star fruit taste gone, but some vague rosewater/turkish delight flavours
-Acidity more muted
-Great syrupy body

Vac Pot - 9 days
-Vac potted twice this week, really need to work on my vac pot technique!
-Very, very clean
-Brown Sugar
-Again, fruit flavours muted, probably more technique than anything else. That said, the guests at mother dearest's b'day dinner didn't leave a single drop at the bottom of their cups.




Conclusions:

An awesome coffee that I'd happily drink again as a single origin espresso, unlike the Jamaican Blue Mountain that I've tried. Blending this one is probably a no-goer; I'd want to appreciate it for itself.

Links:

Tom's take at Sweet Maria's

Cafe Yauco Selecto's Webpage

The first post ...

... and what a letdown! Yep, it's just a post to snag the url ... more details when I've got more time.

Later,

Luca