Espresso 'Aida' (All El Salvador Blend)

Courtesy of Nim and, I believe, Jon in the US, two bags of Counter Culture Coffee's Espresso 'Aida' made their way to Melbourne about a month ago. It's a safe bet that this is the furthest south that this particular blend has ever travelled.


This blend was developed by CCC and Murky Coffee's Nick Cho to win the US South Eastern Regional Barista Competition, which Nick did. But it's greatest achievement was surely travelling halfway across the globe with multiple pit stops and still behaving itself. Ordering coffee from overseas is a fun and expensive way to pass some time, but it often ends in heartbreak. Last year alone, various people have had various blends from most of the "usual suspect" roasters in the US and they have invariably been oily and well past their prime by the time that they got here. (But that's not going to stop us!) So it was certainly a very pleasant surprise when we ripped into this one and it looked like it had been roasted here.

OK, so a fair bit of time has passed since I tasted it, so my descriptions aren't going to be the best. I remember that as an espresso it was very acidic, but not unpleasantly so. Where it really shone for me, though, was as a cappuccino, where the blend tasted of nuts and honey.
Pretty funny, because I heard that Nick used a different blend for cappuccini in the SERBC! Certainly, I think that plane travel really does alter the flavour of any coffee.

Checked the CCC webpage today and evidently Nick's blend is done and dusted. Damn. Hmm ... maybe I should shell out for Aida's Grand Reserve ...