Humbug

With some of the coffee that I had bought to tide me over Xmas turning out to be quite bad, it was out with the heat gun and dog bowl again for laughs. I home roast every now and then and can't really profess to have had great results, though I imagine that if I were to invest some serious time in it, I'd get there.

The half dozen batches that I have had varied from garbage to acceptable, due to a combination of bad technique and bad beans in my stash. The sometimes-maligned Nicaraguan Maragogype from ARC that I won in the Victorian Cupping Competition turned out to be the pick of the lot; not a complex coffee, but definitely soft, smooth and sweet as a brewed cup. In the past, it has been nutty and mild as an espresso, but my machine has been disused for the past few weeks.

I will keep on experimenting for my own amusement and education, but will likely try to scam my way on to some commercial equipment, which I have found easier to handle in the past.

In the meantime, I continue to appreciate the hard work that my favourite roasters put in to their green selection. I bet that if you were to walk in to any roastery and check out their stash you would actually have a fair idea of how cluey the roaster is.
Perhaps my dog bowl just doesn't have enough carats ...

Not raining ... pouring!

Regular readers will notice that I sometimes go through droughts in which I haven't tasted much worth mentioning. Well, the last week has been the reverse. Let's skim over it:

Brewed coffee:

Kenya Gethumbwini from Hazel: Grapefruit, creamy mouthfeel, dry.

Kenya Kitamaiyu from the Source: Tea, lemon sherbet.

Kenya Muchoki Peaberry from Square Mile: Crisp, strawberry, citrus.

Esmeralda from BBB: Mark NAILS the roast and it actually lives up to all of the ludicrous overseas tasting notes; floral, perfumed, peach ... can't even remember what it tasted like ... it just threw everything at us and stood out in the blind cupping by a mile.

Dale Sidamo from BBB: Peach, from memory.

Nicaraguan Natural from BBB: As always, mega clean coffee with natural process blueberry superimposed on top of it.

Espresso:

Kopi Luwak from Instaurator: Can't remember in much detail, but it was pretty ordinary, at best.

Devon Estate SL-795 from Instaurator (the monkey picked coffee): Black pepper up front, quite heavy in body, whilst it had a fair bit of acidity at the same time. Very heavy in body at the bottom of the cup ... wonder if the monkey spit was still left on it. A number of us agreed that the espresso machine must have been running cold, though. (Inny had gotten ECA to send down a Giotto Premium Plus for the event, as he isn't a fan of LM/Synesso ... ironically, I suspect that we could have gotten a lot more out of the coffee on the Synesso ... should've mentioned it whilst we were there. Actually, Inny had bought some new mountain top down to feed the Synesso ... totally didn't twig that it was there and taste it. Damn.)

... so that's ... like ... seven pretty good coffees in less than a week ... craaazy ...

I have to say that I feel almost swindled by the Kenyan coffees that I have tried this year. The stereotypical and much loved berry flavours seem to have been transmogrified into crisp citrus flavours in practically everything. Still some great coffee, to be sure, but I'm still hoping to get something in the same genre as the Mamuto, let alone in the same ballpark taste-wise. Anyhoo, this will be the subject of the first article on my new web page and I'll probably syndicate that to the new mag that's being launched.

November = Events

Don't ask me, why, but there seems to be a bit on this November.

Barista Comp Wrapup

The Victorian Barista and Latte Art Championships were held over the weekend. I did the judging calibration purely out of interest, but intended to study rather than judge. Turned out that there was a bit of a shortage of judges, so I sidelined studying to get the opens judged and happening. The obvious changes this year were the new machines and the new faces - who, without exception, displayed a very good level of technical competence. It would be impossible to remember or list all of the home runs that the competitors hit, so I'll just mention one - Simon James absolutely nailing the description of his espresso. It was nice to see Nim step up to judge, adding another experienced palate to the Victorian pool of judges.

Talor judged by HJ Ross, Myself, Mel, Tom and Jeff.

As usual, Syd has put up his amazing photos of the events. Emily Oak's idea to fly him up to Atlanta to be the official WBC photographer is brilliant.

I was furiously footnoting an essay on Sunday, but it was nice to see a well-deserved latte art comp win from Erin, who I am sure will win the Australians and the Worlds, but might lose the Intergalactics to the seven-handed Florgostillians and their legendary 'galaxy of rosettas.' Big props to Kirby from Maling Room and Dave Seng for their placings. Jesse 'Iceman' Hyde took out the Barista comp, leaving the press with the immortal one-liner:

"I used to play guitar full-time for a living," Hyde said. "Coffee geeks will never be rock stars. Slash (former lead guitarist of Guns N' Roses) is way cooler than David Makin."

Golden Bean

So I've got a 5am flight tomorrow to the Equal Golden Bean conference + coffee roaster competition. Should be fun; really looking forward to tasting the best that Australia has to offer. Many thanks to Mr Makin for the lift and Cafe Culture for the whole thing.

Drinking?

Why yes, yes I am drinking coffee. I have a nice drip roast kenyan coffee generously sent down to me by the boys at Mecca in Sydney. Thanks guys!

Siphon: With a high dose, surprisingly full-bodied, with apple-juice like acidity and mouthfeel. Relatively low on the classic winey/raspberry flavour - for a Kenyan - but definite orange overtones. Wierd. Dry finish, owing to the hot weather that the parcel has been exposed to.

Seriously. Lightish roast kenyan coffee, for brewed methods, has to be as close to shooting fish in a barrel as you can get in coffee. It's usually very impressive and this one is no exception.

PNG Elimbari, Market Leaders and Blog Followers

Sometimes you've gotta laugh. I went to buy some coffee a few weeks ago and ended up getting some PNG Elimbari that I was told was roasted by Five Senses' recently set up Melbourne branch, though it was in another bag. So I'll attribute this coffee to them!

When it comes to PNG coffee on the Australian market, there is a broker that is basically the authority and there is a roaster that is the authority. That roaster is Five Senses. Dean set up the company after working in PNG and getting to know the local farmers. They started their direct trade program years before the phrase came to be prominent. And while we're talking about direct trade, I'll take this opportunity to point out Watts' take on it, if you haven't read it already.

A better name for 'direct trade' would be 'fair trade', seeing as the former results in the exchange of a sum of money that the farmer is happy with for coffee of the quality that the purchaser is happy with, whereas the latter results in the exchange of a fixed sum of money for coffee of unspecified quality. Pity about that whole 'fair trade' movement having the 'fair trade' name - maybe we should think about calling it 'fairer trade' or 'fairest trade'!

The point is that Five Senses' direct trade relationship has enabled them to get spectacular coffee from PNG in the past and the same is true for the Elimbari.

Brewed: Good body, mid level acidity, hints of tomato.
Espresso: Decent body, long finish, clean, sweet, hints of apricot.
Cappuccino: Average ability to cut through milk, but, amazingly, on a few occasions I was able to coax the fruit flavours into the cappuccino.

To date, I haven't dabbled much in trying to score coffees on this blog, preferring to describe and get acquainted with the various numerical score systems in my own time. However, I will mention that I tasted this coffee soon after a cupping of Costa Rican Cup of Excellence coffees at BBB. The Elimbari clearly trailed behind the top two, but was up there with numbers 3 through 9. On this basis, I think that it would be fair to say that this is a mid to high eighties coffee on the SCAA cupping form, which is a bit of a rarity on the Australian market.

And Another Thing ...

I must be like - totally - the best person in history or something. My "followers" list has tripled! To three!

I guess that I should add the "followers" watchumcallit, but to do that I'd have to switch to templates ... and the last thing that I want to do is to lose all of the links on the right-hand-side that I have spent an eternity cultivating for the benefit of y'all, dear readers. Help?

Don't Turn Your Nose Up At This One: CoffeeSnobs' Colombian Volcan Galeras

Background

I gather that Colombia's coffees gained a reputation for excellence through the Juan Valdez campaign, against a backdrop of filter coffee drinkers looking for something consistent and clean. As a result, Colombian coffees are sometimes thought of as bland. Kenneth Davids writes:

At their best, the classic coffees of Latin-American manifest bright, lively acidity and a clean, straightforward cup. They provide what for a North American is a normative good coffee experience.

Of course, and as Davids goes on to mention, there are plenty of Colombian coffees that break the mould. Those that I have tasted build on the base of a solid washed coffee by adding a little something extra. For example, last year one of my favourite coffees from Veneziano was actually a supposedly generic 'Colombian Popayan Supremo' that was very sweet in the cup. This year, buyers of BBB's Colombian Bachue might be forgiven for thinking that it was from Africa.

I can't help but wonder if professional roasters consider selecting that ultimate Colombian coffee from a batch of generic samples to be a rite of passage.

Introduction

CoffeeSnobs is a unique mix of online forum, green coffee buying cooperative, marketplace and coffee roastery. In order to order from CS, you must sign up as a member. Many new sign ups to CS decide to try their hand at roasting their own coffee at home. For them, the legendary sampler pack is a must buy; a once-per member offer of four 500g samples of green coffee for $20. (CS usually sells its green coffee in multiples of 2.5kg ... and I'm sure that packaging the tonne or whatever of coffee that it distribute every month is still a huge task.) Recently, Andy decided to introduce a roasted sample pack of 4 x 250g of coffee for $30. This time around, the Volcan Galeras was the pick of the pack.

I can't say that I know much about this particular Colombian, nor was I able to google up much, beyond finding out that Volcan Galeras is in the department of Nariño, a prolific coffee producer.


Espresso: Voluminous crema, lots of body and low acidity - in that regard, it was reminiscent of the last lot of CS coffee that I blogged about. Incredible marzipan flavour. (It's been a while.) Intolerant of shots that were run too fast; marzipan turned to metallic and bitter flavours.

Cappuccino: Fine, but marzipan fades into the background. Bitter and metallic flavours in fast shots seemed to concentrate in the crema.

Brewed (filter/siphon): Oddly, marzipan did not come through strongly. Potential for bitterness.

In summary, this coffee is like a lemon zester; it does that thing very well. That thing is espresso. You will find your cappuccino fine, but you won't remeber it in a week's time. As for all CS offerings, this coffee will be of particular interest to those who have bought it to roast at home.

If you buy this as part of a sampler pack, as I did, a good tip would be to plan to use it all at once, rather than changing the grind setting whilst swapping between different beans, as I did. This coffee will punish you for being overly sloppy. Get it right and Volcan Galeras has explosive potential.

The Emerald in the Coffeebloggosphere's Crown, or not so Special?

Eliminating The Suspense

Esmeralda = emerald in Spanish, OK?

The Esmeralda That Was

Esmeralda is one of the coffees widely regarded as one of the world's best; its reputation is that of a modern-day Jamaican Blue Mountain. Last year, my curiosity got the better of me and I arranged to procure some from Paradise Roasters. In blogging about it, I introduced it as follows:

I probably don't need to write too much about this one. If you have been living under a rock, or if you just happen to be one of the few people who doesn't follow the coffee auctions, you might not know that this is currently the world's most expensive coffee. Previously, that dubious honour went to kopi luwak. (I'll spare you the jokes - google it if it's news to you.)

Esmeralda has an impressive back story; in a nutshell, the gesha varietal that makes up the Esmeralda Especial lot seems to have basically gone extinct except for a few random rediscoveries in Panama. It just so happens that this particular farm's gesha offering has won something like four Best of Panama auctions and every single other cupping competition it has been entered in. In terms of scores, the consensus seems to be that it's a 92 at a minimum, with some tasters going as high as 97!

The 2007 Paradise Roasters lot displayed a predominant and intense mandarin flavour in all brewing methods, backed with hints of bergamot and a slight astringency.

The Esmeralda That Is

Last year's, as far as I can tell, the correct name for it was "Hacienda Esmeralda Special." Flash forward a year and all of a sudden, the Petersons decided to shake things up by sorting the crop into different lots, all of which were auctioned under the "Hacienda Esmeralda Special" moniker. Again, the auction was blogged about widely. Readers are encouraged to post links to other relevant posts in the comments field. If you have to choose only one (other) blog post to read on the subject, remember the old saying - "in Hoff we trust." James' points about dilution of their own trademark and the effect on the market struck a chord with me, particularly seeing as trade marks was one of my favourite subjects.

The auction itself always reads like a who's who, so you might like to imagine Joan Rivers delivering the commentary. Stumptown was wearing batch one, hailing from "north of the creek," but the heavy hitter shared the most expensive batch, two, with Sweet Maria's. The dashing duo deftly devoured batch three, the peaberries, whilst 49th snapped up the sole double pass lot. Though the Petersons didn't credit Mountain Top for their technique - as I understand it - one wonders if the Piccolo clan's decision to purchase wasn't influenced by best buddy, Australian Mountaintopophile and coffee guru, Instaurator, who has done some consulting for them. Batches six through ten were bought by a wide spectrum. For the readers of this blog who I know follow the Japanese CoE buying circuit, it looks like crowd favourite Kentaro Maruyama didn't even contest the Esmeralda auction against big dog Wataru Nishibayashi. Presumably this means that Wataru will edge ahead of Maruyama in the awesome coffee purchasing league tables, but I would still want a several Watarus for my mint condition Maruyama trading card.

Competition results also deserve a mention. This year, the Petersons gave the Best of Panama competition a miss, presumably in order to give someone else a chance at winning. They also failed to place first for the fourth time in a row at the SCAA cupping pavillion (perhaps one of my kind readers could provide the link; I can't seem to find it). Fortunately, though, they did at least manage to walk away with first place in the rain forest alliance cupping for quality competition.

Anyhoo, that's enough background.

Having had spectacular success with the Mamuto, I decided to place an order for Esmeralda with Terroir, along with a few other goodies for various people:



Nim's care package; two packs of Esmeralda, a pack of Mamuto, Coffee Trail book, Hacienda La Minita book and a pack of the AWESOME filtropa pourover filters to go with his filter cone.

Let's take a closer look at that label ...


Where's the trademark Howell photo?

It was interesting to note that last year's batch from Paradise was comprised of unusually long and thin beans. This year's lot from Terroir looked considerably shorter and rounder ... perhaps a consequence of the decision to separate Esmeralda Special into different lots.

Anyhoo ...

Siphon/Vac Pot/Clover: These brews varied from being excellent to OK and I found the coffee difficult to work with. Several tasters agreed that there were Earl Grey tea (bergamot) notes, but differed to the intensity that they perceived. Sweetness was not as high as I had hoped, there was a good measure of acidity and the coffee was dry. The best brews had hints of peach.

Espresso: As I felt that the coffee was slightly too dark for siphon, I took it into the big V, borrowed one of their grinders and treated everyone to some Esmeralda espresso. The espresso had the kind of astringency that I usually associate with a roast that is slightly too light for espresso, but displayed a tiny amount of sweetness and some tannic tea type flavours.

This lot was interesting, but not the mind-blowing experience of last year's lot. Differences could have been due to (a) the separation of the Esmeralda Special lots this year, (b) the roasting of the coffee and (c) the shipping of this coffee, and attendant two week delay from roasting, compared with the last lot being brought over in carry on luggage. It would be very interesting to try out the various lots from the various sources that bought them, but that would probably end up being an expense to rival Krusty the clown's addiction to faberge' eggs.

The Esmeralda that will be ...?

It will be interesting to see if anyone actually does the work of tasting all of the various Esmeralda lots and working out how big the spread in quality is. Who knows how Esmeralda Special will be divided up in future? I am also very interested to find out how 49th's lot will go and whether this processing method might take off in Panama.

Digression - Siphon - Again


Siphon continues to be a learning experience, though brews are usually pretty good nowadays. I thought that the butane burner warranted a quick post. Frankly, I can't see how you can really use a siphon without putting it on the stove or using a butane burner. I bought mine off ebay from Jack Grieve. A similar burner is available at a very reasonable price through Jack's web store, along with some pretty cheap siphons.

When used in conjunction with a thermocouple, the butane burner makes it possible to get repeatable and adjustable brew temperatures. A marathon session of three siphon brews (and three cleaning runs) showed that the burner seems to emit more heat immediately after it is filled with gas. Good practice would be for the first use after refilling to be in a cleaning run.

So far, adjustments to the water temperature, dose and grind for the siphon have had eerily similar effects to doing the same thing for espresso.

One final tip - remember that every siphon brew is diluted by the water that doesn't make it into the top chamber to start off with and, as this is a fixed amount, the proportion of each brew that is made up of water that has never been in contact with coffee will increase if you try to brew less than the maximum amount for any given siphon. This lead to the experiment and realisation that if the brew is slightly on the strong side, dilution with hot water can sometimes save it.

Minita and Mamuto Mumblings

Introduction

I'm a firm believer that the quest for coffee excellence requires tasting a lot of different coffees with an open mind. For my purposes, I try to taste a lot of different stuff purely to build up my own palate, as well as to get an idea of what others are writing about and what is possible in the world of specialty coffee. All of the good roasters that I know also believe in tasting a lot of different coffees - they view it as an exercise in benchmarking, without which they will quickly be proclaiming the virtues of utter crap; emperors with no clothes. Conversely, I don't think it's a coincidence that the very few roasters who I have heard of who don't taste widely do not produce a good product. (That applies equally to home roasters as it does to commercial roasters.)

The USA

Several years ago, I never would have imagined ordering coffee from the US of A. Over the past few years, coffee from the US has made regular, but infrequent, inroads into my usual rotation - fuelled in part by the prolific writings of the US bloggosphere and other coffee web pages.

It would not surprise me if the USA's coffee mainly does live up to the stereotypical Starbucks ashy espresso or the pot of drip coffee that has been sitting on the burner for a week, but they have a lot of good things going for them. As the world's largest economy, they have considerable buying power and they are conveniently placed near south and central america; two great producing regions. Their roasters appear to have developed against a background of a drip coffee culture, in which single origins are appreciated for their unique characteristics ... even if only because of the forehead-slappingly obvious contrast between a smooth colombian and a winey kenyan. In comparison with Australia, their espresso roasts have developed in the vacuum of Starbucks' shadow. Finally, they have an active specialty coffee association and are home to various programs such as the cup of excellence and the coffee quality institute. The USA has well and truly emerged as a big player in both the worlds of espresso and brewed coffee - one that leads the charge in many respects.


(Unfortunately, I appear to have misplaced my bag of Mamuto. I have taken a page from the book of barismo and borrowed this photo from Steve Ford. Steve ran an excellent project where he took a photo of the first cup of coffee that he drank each day over a year. You can check out 'First Cup' here.)

Terroir and George Howell

This particular coffee comes from Terroir in Massachussets. Terroir is run by George Howell, the man who founded the multi-site roastery 'Coffee Connection,' which he later sold to Starbucks before co-founding the Cup of Excellence and winning the SCAA's lifetime achievement award. Avid PQ readers will note that this is not the first time that Howell has rated a mention on this blog and I reiterate that his Long Road To Coffee Quality is a must-read.

The lovely thing about the prevalence of e-commerce in the USA is that the person on the other side of the web site is usually quite responsive and adept at getting around all sorts of problems, which included the difficulty of getting the coffee sent out as soon as it was roasted and correcting for an incorrect credit card number on my part. Nonetheless, postage is still a significant problem, with my package taking about three weeks to get here. Ugh. This activity is also not for the faint of wallet.

Costa Rica La Minita

La Minita has a reputation of being one of the great coffees of the world. It is also a model of quality and ethics working hand in hand. In a nutshell, my understanding is that they are very stringent on their picking and processing, to the point where they pay the pickers a premium to ensure that under-ripe fruit is not harvested. In turn, this means that their product is consistently good, justifying the premium for the roaster. This is a delicate, washed coffee that is really ideal for brewed coffee (drip/filter/siphon/clover). However, I first tasted this coffee in Klaus Thomsen's 2006 WBC winning blend, where it was paired with Daterra Sweet Collection to create a light, clean, crisp and sweet blend.

Siphon/Drip: Bright, slight apple flavour. Slight bitterness emerged on cooling.

This particular coffee simply didn't stand up to the battering that it received in shipping. I have no doubt that it would be better if it were fresher. That said, it wasn't exactly bad, but this struck me as a relatively subtle coffee that was always bound to be overshadowed by the Kenyan powerhouse. Read on.

Kenya Mamuto

The Mamuto has gained notoriety due, in part, to the ridiculously high scores that Kenneth Davids has awarded it over the years. Again, this coffee also demonstrates that quality and ethics can happily coexist at the pointy end of the market - when I bought it, Terroir's web page said that $2USD per 12oz went back to the farm, which is a helluva lot of cash in the world of green coffee.

Siphon/Drip: Bright, sweet, smooth, ribena, coffee cherry, tomato.

This coffee was simply fantastic. I turned off the espresso machine for a week and gladly scrubbed my siphon out. If it was that good after its shipping ordeal, it's kind of scary to imagine what it would have been like earlier. Simon James was of a similar opinion:

Well I’ll cut to the chase! The Kenyan Mamuto was STELLAR! No wonder it scored a 97 at Coffee Review. I can’t say that my description of the flavours I experienced was the same as those of the Coffee Review, but it was certainly sweetly powerful, with a smooth balanced finish. But I got blackcurrant aroma with stewed apricot in the cup. A very tasty coffee!

Needless to say that this coffee stood up to its trip a lot better than the Minita did. I actually took both the Minita and the Mamuto along to a cupping at BBB. The Minita fared well, but was not a standout. The Mamuto was the absolute stand out; it was everyone's pick, regardless of their level of experience.

From my description above, you can see that this cupped up like an exceptional, but classic, Kenyan coffee - very different to what one would expect from a Colombian, for example. It's worth pausing to reflect that perhaps it is the fact that these coffees tend to have the least 'classic' profile that makes them so clearly special. Coffeecuppers deal with the distinction between classic cups and unusual coffees in their short coffee tasting primer. Howell that this consistent and unusual cup profile merited the title 'Grand Cru' - on his fondness for wine analogies, see CG podcast 63 (link directly to 29 megabyte mp3 file).

Teaser

Yeah. I admit it. I have some different stuff on the way from Terroir - readers with less respect for their wallets are invited to taste vicariously through future posts. I'm also keen on getting some stuff from the outstanding Ecco Caffe if anyone wants to split postage at some stage.

Indonesians are generally thick, dirty and not very bright ...

... and that's not a coffee tasting description that you want overheard in public!

With Saturdays free now, I have managed to make it to BBB for cuppings. It seems that most people use BBB's cuppings as a way to learn more about coffee and to build their palate. It's not an exaggeration to say that people travel far and wide for this opportunity - last week Emanuel from Ristretto in Perth turned up; this week it was Perth espresso godfather Corey from Epic and a bus load of his staff. It's great to see such dedication ... and mind-boggling to see a cafe owner flying his baristi across the country just to check out some cafes.

That's all well and good, but cuppings also provide a fantastic opportunity to sample BBB's offerings to work out what to take home. Last week, I was on a bit of a mission to find a fantastic, generic chocolate-bar type blend. I had a fantastic drip coffee - more on that next post - and, so, was looking for the opposite end of the spectrum for my morning cappuccino. I found it in mystery cup number 7:



Cupping: From memory, the cup was not particularly pleasant whilst hot, with an odd rubbery/chemical overtone. After cooling, the dominant sensation in the cup was body, supported by hints of sweetness, dirt, broth and the immortal "funky forest floor." Remarkably clean, for what it was.

Espresso: Striking, dense, brick-red crema. Heavy body. Some acidity, bleeding into a slightly unpleasant camphor/terpene (chemical) finish.

Cappuccino: Effortlessly mastered even relatively large amounts of milk, leaving me wondering whether I hadn't inadvertently added several spoons of Milo. Sledgehammer subtlety.

No prizes for guessing that this was a Sumatran Mandheling - actually a new crop Kuda Mas. I'm looking forward to this one over the next few months.

A Five Star Coffee: Guatamalan Cinco Estrellas

Introduction

I'm happy to go out on a limb and presume that Spanish is the main language spoken in Guatemala. (Go ahead; wikipedia it up and tell me I'm wrong.) This being the case, "cinco estrellas" means nothing more than five stars. Whether this is a grading or a trade name, I don't know.

The terrifically uninformative start to the post is really just to draw attention to the nature of the coffee trade in Australia and to underscore the importance of cupping as a commercial roaster; how much do we really know about the green that is on offer? I would argue that we don't know much, in stark contrast with some of the top-end roasters overseas, who can give you full details of the family trees from which their farmers pluck both their coffee and their workers. Fortunately, the depth of the brew in the cup doesn't depend on the length of the name on the bag ... it just means that roasters have to be shrewder about their purchasing decisions.

The Cinco Estrellas draws together a few different lines of research that have kept me amused of late and over the past few years. The first line of research concerns role of the washed coffee. My much-neglected regular readers will probably remember my linking to this thought provoking piece on the subject. It so happens that this coffee is a washed coffee. In fact, it more than so happens ... according to Edwin, it might even be illegal to sell naturals in Guate. Washed coffees tend to produce a clean, bright cup, perhaps with some subtle flavour accents and/or sweetness. See coffeeresearch.org In fact, I'm sure that many people would think of washed coffees as one-dimensional when it comes to espresso. This last trait made the 5* an excellent feed into the second and third lines of research; learning how to use my gene cafe and learning how to brew drip.

On Drip Brewing Generally ...

The humble drip brewer seems to be becoming a bit sexier. The revolting idea of the day old carafe sitting on the hotplate at McDonalds has long since left my mind and been replaced with a willingness to actually give it a shot ... admittedly brought on, at least in part, by involvement in the cupping comps. (Including my atrocious 5/8 score in the last one.) It turns out that there is more than meets the eye to drip coffee equipment - for example, the k-mart drip brewer at work definitely brews a less flavoursome cup than the old royal boiler co thing that we found. As far as I can tell, the much-lauded Technivorms aren't available in Australia ... a fact that I regretted until I realised that even I have no use for a litre of drip coffee.

For $20, I was game to find out how the humble plastic pour-over and melitta filter fared. This brew method carries the weighty approval of Paul at Mecca, so I figured that it couldn't be that bad. It turns out that if you pour water straight off the boil, the brew stays between about 95C and 92C for the whole brew time. (That sound you're hearing is of a million k-mart brewer owners slapping their foreheads.) Anyhoo, 15g of ground coffee and 250mL of water right off the boil seems to yield a tasty cup in something like a minute. Comments welcome.

The cup profile is very clean; totally sediment-free because of the paper filter. The cup changes a fair bit as it cools; at the beginning it is too hot to taste anything, then you hit the optimum temperature to get a flavour explosion, then it cools down and all that you can taste is brown and acid. It's kind of like Clover ... although that statement seems to be pretty cool since the big green mermaid plucked the little green plant.

Drip Tasting Notes

Over the first few days, the 5* simply tasted ashy and quite acidic. Surprisingly, letting it sit for a week improved it immensely - something that I expect for espresso, but not for anything else. After a week, the cup was clean, relatively acidic and had an interesting potpourri-like character that I can't quite put my finger on. I was quite surprised to see that subtlety emerge after a week, as opposed to retreating.

Espresso

The roast must have been quite close to second crack, so I decided to give it a shot through the Maver. The resultant espresso was quite bright, very sweet and very clean. It actually reminded me quite a bit of Klaus Thomsen's WBC winning blend. It did an admirable job in milk, with little body to speak of, but a fair bit of caramel. I only wish that I had left myself enough to experiment with lowering the dose.

# Update 27 April 2008 #

I found myself with a little 5* left over from the last roast and decided to experiment with a lower dose, as I alluded to in this post. It turned out to be a good call. The resultant espresso was a bit less sweet this time around, but it presented a fantastically balanced shot, with the elusive floral/potpourri flavour from the drip brewed shots making it through into the cup. The shot was light in body, but otherwise exceptionally rounded and complete. Perhaps the most interesting feature was a distinct bitterness that was not at all unpleasant.

Eureka! Australian Coffee

Introduction

It's kind of funny. I gather that many of the Australian farms are starting to harvest now, or will be starting in a few weeks ... yet now seems to be the time that Australian coffee is cropping up everywhere. If this means that it's taking us the best part of a year to get coffee harvested and processed in our own country, I have to say that that's kind of pathetic. But you can't argue with the results. Read on!



Archimedes Was A Coffee Drinker. Apparently.

There's a little espresso bar and roastery on St George's Road called "Grower's Espresso." Unfortunately, I'm seldom, if ever in that neck of the woods, so it has been a while since I last tasted any of Mark and Sam's Eureka Coffee. Lucky for me that, like all serious coffee dudes, Mark likes to keep track of coffee happenings all around Melbourne, so a few weeks ago he stopped by my work on a coffee crawl and dropped some of his stuff off for me.

Eureka take the whole bean-to-cup thing literally; they roast a single origin grown on their family farm in Byron Bay. I don't know much more about it than that, but if you're interested you should check out their webpage as linked above.

The coffee itself seemed to have a split personality. It was not difficult to pour and always presented a relatively balanced shot. Whenever I ground the coffee, my grinder was filled with a rather special rose blossom type scent. Enter Jekyll and Hyde: half of the shots were balanced and eminently drinkable, but not especially memorable. Remarkably, the rose blossom scent translated directly into the cup in the other half of the shots. In fact, the whole experience had me perplexed enough that to make sure that I wasn't just spitting out exceptionally wanky tasting notes I actually dug down into the pantry and pulled out a bottle of rosewater to make sure it was actually the same scent. Perhaps this is a coffee that warrants some serious experimentation in terms of dose and temperature. One final note; I found that this coffee benefited greatly from being allowed to sit in a sealed bag for a week after roasting - at two or three days after roasting it displayed the classic symptoms of excessive acidity and ephemeral crema.

On your Marks ...

From Australian coffee from one Mark to Australian coffee from another Mark. Bin 549 is kicking butt and taking names on the Clover at BBB. Various people, including St Ali's Mark, have described it as having a "coffee cherry" flavour. Not having eaten a coffee cherry, I wouldn't know - I'll have to check out the Nez du Cafe kit again. I thought that it started off tasting of liquorice, then some sort of interesting flavour that I'm content to describe as "coffee cherry" emerged. Top stuff. I haven't tried it as espresso yet, but several people have recommended it.

I'll be keeping an eye on the new harvest Australian coffees to come ...

El Salvador San Emilio and A Tale Of Two Doses

Two posts in two days? No, it's not so much because Mark wants it as much as that I'm in the mood to write. I have just had an exceptionally draining exam for an exceptionally uninspiring subject and, in contrast, have some rather interesting sample roasts at my disposal ...

Background

I have a bit of an interest in pulp natural coffees as a base for espresso blends. Last year's foray into the Costa Rican Santa Elena started badly, but once I got the roast under control it provided a reliably consistent high-body component that transformed a cappuccino into chocolate in a cup. In fact, I actually appreciated the very single-note syrupy body more than something like a Kuda Mas Mandheling.

Tasting Notes

This coffee appeared to be roasted to around second crack or just before - I don't know, I didn't roast it! These notes refer to four to six days after roasting.

Cupping: A balanced, unobjectionable, classic cup. Rather low in acidity. Good body and perhaps hints of nut, but nothing that would leap out at you. The sort of thing that I imagine would be a bit of a hit in a 1950's American diner as their breakfast drip coffee, with customers going for a second cup as they read their newspaper and relate the salient events to their illiterate, non-voting, foot-bound wives.

Espresso:

(a) Regular dose - overfill, rap three times on the portafilter fork, strike off level and tamp.

Again, a balanced and unremarkable shot. A bit of nuttiness, a bit of caramel and a bit of acidity. Vague hints of some sort of fruitiness matching the acidity - raspberry, wine, balsamic; something of that sort. A great base for an espresso blend (I mixed it with some Blue Horse earlier on) and quite enjoyable by itself.

(b) Low dose - overfill, strike off level, tamp.

I enjoyed this espresso more than the regular dose. I refuse to make a blanket commitment to one sort of dose or the other; over the past few months I have probably stuck with my regular dose 70% of the time and the low dose 30% of the time. I am yet to come up with any sort of guide as to when each sort of dose is appropriate.

This espresso had more pronounced fruitiness, but, somewhat perplexingly, I didn't feel that there was really any tradeoff. Neither did the body seem lower, nor was the acidity unpleasantly increased.



Cappuccino:

(a) Regular dose

I thought that the regular dose performed better in milk. In fact, like the other pulped naturals that I have tried, the strong point of the San Emilio seemed to be milk. It asserted itself well as a complete, balanced cup, tasting slightly of nuts. In fact, it was oddly reminiscent of the cupping experience. The surprise was the aftertaste, which was clean and long-lasting.

(b) Lower dose

Although the flavour was broadly similar to the regular dose, the aftertaste was completely different - fleeting and unremarkable, bordering on bitter.

The Wrap-up

So far, this has not proven to be the chocolate-bomb that the Santa Elena was last year. But it's early days yet. I'm sure that experimenting with the roast profile will deliver another milk bomb. Once the sample roaster is back online!

Harrar Blue Horse and Neighsaying

The background ...

George Howell, one of the fathers of specialty coffee in America, has an interesting philosophy. For those of you who don't want to read the linked write-up by perennial Pour Quality reference favourite Jim Schulman, in a nutshell George's philosophy is that coffee ought to be a clean cup that reflects the terroir of the region in which it is grown, rather than the processing method. This means that George is definitely not a fan of dry processed coffee, as Jim explains:

"I've been advocating the dry processed Yrgacheffes (sic) in my reviews; and although I'll never know a fraction as much about coffee as George does, he invited me to set me straight. Yrgacheffe has always been wet processed for export, and to George, this excursion into dry is just another garden path that will ruin farmers. He never even orders dry process coffee from areas where it is traditional, since he thinks this tradition needs to be scrapped. According to him, producing truly high grade dry processed coffee is a losing gamble for farmers. Virtually all dry processed lots are spoiled when runaway fermentation occurs in beans whose skins crack; and if one sorted these out, the labor would be higher, and the yields lower, than with wet processing."

I simply don't have enough experience to make a blanket statement either way, but I do wonder if the difference between the two points of view reflects the different ways in which Jim and George consume coffee. In a nutshell, Jim seems to be more of an espresso guy, whereas if you take a look at the coffee offerings from Terroir, you will see that George's focus is more on brewed coffee. (By which I mean methods other than espresso.)

The coffee ...

This particular lot of Harrar is from the prolific "MAO" exporter, but is a special preparation. From what I can gather, this preparation usually goes to Japanese buyers and has not made it to Australia before. I presume that this is still a dry process lot, but you would be hard pressed to tell that it wasn't wet processed by looking at it - the screen size appears to be quite even and there isn't much chaff on it.

My particular interest in this coffee relates to my previous experience with Harrar, which has always been an exercise in frustration. Incredible cups were peppered with cups that just tasted tainted by excessive ferment to me. Over the past few years I have even had instances where I have thrown out a whole bag. In other words, I have been able to appreciate George Howell's take on dry processed coffees. As I have mentioned before, this frustration was compounded by the fact that descriptions of Harrar almost invariably seem to use the word "blueberry." Whilst I have certainly tasted blueberry on occasion, I can't help but feel that this particular descriptor is used where it really doesn't apply. All of this led to the question - 'what do you do if you want to get an awesome cup of Harrar?'

I have now had Blue Horse on three or so occasions, from different roasters, roasted to different levels and extracted on different machines. I am yet to have a cup that tastes ruined by excessive ferment flavours, which is great news. The cups do have that classic Harrar profile; last week I threw an espresso roast into a (sighted) cupping and although the roast level was not calculated to maximise the aromatics in brewed coffee, it was unmistakeable. As for the flavour itself, I'm happy to concede that you could say blueberry, although personally I like to think of it as "purple." Maybe even cantaloupe.

Two random points to ponder ...

(a) Is "blue" coffee producer parlance for "clean"? Blue Batak is reputed to be a cleaner Mandheling and "Brazil Blue Washed" keeps on cropping up ...

(b) So if Blue Horse is consistent ... and regular Harrar is not ... is it possible that they're throwing the crap from the Blue Horse lots into the regular Harrar lots? This highlights a classic coffee farmer's dilemma and draws attention to something that coffee buyers ought to consider.

# Update #

(a) OK, after sitting down with some blueberry yoghurt, dried wild blueberries and espresso I concede that this thing does indeed taste of blueberry.

(b) A quick excerpt from Tom's entry on Harrar Lot Number 14659 at Sweet Maria's:

"I honestly thought we would stock no Harar this year. It's not a rare coffee, there are tons of lots available from the usual coffee brokers. But the samples have been dismal for the new '07 crop; musty, dirty, moldy, fungusy, or just plain flat. ... I was surprised to cup a small lot of Harar at random and find it was not only free from those defective "dirt and rot" flavors, but was a really nice cup."

Hacienda La Esmeralda Especial

About the coffee:

I probably don't need to write too much about this one. If you have been living under a rock, or if you just happen to be one of the few people who doesn't follow the coffee auctions, you might not know that this is currently the world's most expensive coffee. Previously, that dubious honour went to kopi luwak. (I'll spare you the jokes - google it if it's news to you.)

Esmeralda has an impressive back story; in a nutshell, the gesha varietal that makes up the Esmeralda Especial lot seems to have basically gone extinct except for a few random rediscoveries in Panama. It just so happens that this particular farm's gesha offering has won something like four Best of Panama auctions and every single other cupping competition it has been entered in. In terms of scores, the consensus seems to be that it's a 92 at a minimum, with some tasters going as high as 97!

So how much of it is hype? How much of it is mystique? How much of it is actually in the cup? Recently, a very generous person coming to Melbourne from the US of A offered to drug mule some coffee over for me. So naturally I asked for some Esmeralda. (Before you ask, no, this was not the auction lot stuff - it was the pre-auction stuff that sold for exorbitant but comparatively sane prices.) As fate would have it, the coffee arrived right in time for the first of this year's Melbourne Barista Jams, which I was running. (Perhaps I will blog quickly about that in the future; for now, you can take a look at my crappy photos and Syd's rather better photos.)

Strange shaped beans. Reminds me of a Harrar Longberry.

Tasting Notes:

Syphon/Vac Pot: Dominant and unnatural mandarin. This is a definite shock to the system. In Peter's words, "coffee shouldn't taste like that." Dry finish. Hints of Earl Grey tea (is this what they call "bergamot"?) in the first few days after popping open the bag, but these subsided. I didn't get the cornucopia of subtle aromatics that many others have waxed lyrical about, but I put it down to being ten days after roasting and having travelled half-way around the world. Most of the US coffee that I have tried just gives up the will to live on the plane trip, so the phenomenal coffee that we were producing really is a testament to either, or perhaps both, the inherent quality of the bean or Miguel's roasting and packaging.



French Press: Mandarin. Dry finish from the syphon wasn't really there. Creamy finish (I usually associate "creamy" with "vanilla," so I hasten to add that there was no vanilla flavour.)

Espresso: Yes, I couldn't resist the temptation to pull two shots with some of the remaining coffee. No, none of them were perfectly dialled in. The better pair had a fair whack of orange, but a slight astringency that I tend to associate with coffee being roasted a bit too light for espresso. This coffee has gained notoriety against a backdrop of Americans who drink drip, so it is unsurprising that it was more suited to preparations other than espresso. Indeed, a lot of the commentators online say so quite explicitly.

The Wrap Up:

A sensational coffee for anything except for espresso. Espresso is unique and interesting, but I didn't feel that it showcased the coffee as well as the brewed methods. Perhaps it would make a good foil to a rich, heavy style of espresso as a small component in a blend.

More Information:

Many of these people have tasted the coffee under fairer conditions ... ie. without it having travelled half way around the world. It is interesting to read their taste descriptors.

Hacienda La Esmeralda - the farm's webpage; quite a bit of info on gesha

Stoneworks - final auction results

CoffeeCuppers.com - tasting notes for green Esmeralda roasted by Jim and Bob

Coffee Review - Kenneth Davids tastes Esmeralda from multiple sources

Sweet Maria's - tasting notes from Tom

Paradise Roasters - where my lot came from

Digression 1: Syphon coffee - dryness + bitterness

The dryness of the syphon coffee warrants more investigation. To my mind, there were three possible causes:

(1) a taint inherent in the coffee;

(2) contamination from past brews in the hario cloth filter;

(3) the sunbeam grinder that I bought for non-espresso use not cutting the mustard.

Number 1 was eliminated with the french press preparation. However, I used the ditting at work to grind the coffee, so numbers 2 and 3 are still on the cards. I am now storing my cloth filter in a solution containing cafetto and doing a cleaning brew with just water before brewing, following some tips from Toshi. We'll see how things turn out.

Digression 2: Back to Basics

Well, it has been a while since I started this blog and I can't say that I have been prolific in generating a set of tasting notes for me (and others, I guess) to refer to. I will endeavour to correct this in future. This might entail me just putting up some basic posts; just the notes, with a minimum of chat and without photos.

Missed It By This Much: PNG PSC AA

Background: It's amazing how an interest in coffee can bring together people from all kinds of places. At the beginning of last year, Corey from Epic Espresso was at his previous cafe, Core Espresso. He was kind enough to take in this barista for a few shifts so that I could extend my trip to Perth for a conference. Not only that, but we went and visited the gang at Five Senses, who were great hosts, firing up their linea and bringing on a slew of different single origins. The standout, by far, was their exclusive PNG PSC AA. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and I was thrilled to receive a few bags of it in the mail not too long ago. Thanks, guys!

Before they were famous: Vanessa (left), Megan (blur in background) and Ben (right) at Core.

But I'm not the only person who this coffee has brought together. Dean, the major-domo of the company, has established a direct-trade relationship with the growers of his PNG coffees. Without getting too technical, PSC stands for "premium small holder crop" and seems to be a designation used to rip off growers without too much trading power. Dean circumvented all of the BS and cut out the middle-man to ensure a better deal for all involved. Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that he gets the "AA" grade ... the best part of the crop ...

A random Linea sits in the hallway at Five Senses.

Tasting Notes: In Perth last year, the PSC AA beat me over the head with liquorice and cherry flavours. I was unable to recreate that with the lot that arrived here, but was treated to a distinctly chocolatey coffee that made for a very nice cappuccino.

Conclusions: Get on the mailing list for this one.

Tasting coffee can be hard work!

Daterra Sweet Collection (Brazil)

About the coffee: The Daterra sweet collection certainly has a reputation to live up to. From memory, coffee from this cooperative has been an ingredient of the winner's World Barista Competition blend in each of the last three competitions. Klaus Thomsen, this year's WBC, certainly used it as part of his two-bean blend (the other was Costa Rican Hacienda La Minita). Various Daterra coffees also get the stamp of approval from at least three Aussie coffee roasters who I respect a great deal; Mark from St Ali, Peter from Veneziano and Tony from Rio in Adelaide, who has used some Daterra stuff in Mecca Espresso's blend.

The cooperative is absolutely cutting-edge. Rather than waxing lyrical about their sustainability, research and education programs, I'll just direct you to the Daterra webpage to have a look around. It is very succinctly written. Go ahead. I'll fix myself a coffee while you're gone.

The image to the right is of a blacklight being used to screen for fermented coffee in the Daterra labs. Click on the image to go to Tom's gallery at Sweet Maria's, where the image came from.

Back? Hope that was a good read.

OK, so Andrew and I were desperate to get our hands on some of this. Luckilly, Ozgreens had laid their hands on a 24kg box and Ed and Graeme from Greenguys were able to organise for us to grab one of the two 12kg foil bags to ourselves. Hehehe. Daterra packaging is awesome.

The roasts: I have roasted this twice for espresso. The first roast, on the 31st of August, seemed to be inordinately slow. I stopped it at what I thought was the first signs of second crack. For the second roast, on the 15th of September, to avoid tempting fate, I asked the guys what setting they were using for their mogiana pulped natural and used that. Of course, I really should take better notes, including actually timing the roast properly ... one of the aims of starting this blog in the first place!

Nicely processed, very even screen size, guaranteed 11% moisture content ... not hard to see why roasters like this coffee! It even seems to photograph easily ...

Tasting Notes: 31 August roast

This turned out to be rather unimpressive. I suspect that I plain and simple under-roasted it. On the 8th, I was unable to find a combination of variables to reach a decent extraction. It was either thin, with pale crema and slightly sour, or developing some ashiness at an extraction designed to achieve a richer mouthfeel and tone down the sourness. With an extraction at the better end of the spectrum, as a double ristretto in a 170mL cup it was unable to overcome the Pura Cafe milk that I was using ... don't ask.

Tasting Notes: 15th September roast

Usually, increasing the brew temperature seems to bring out more sweetness in beans, so I began my exporation of this roast with an extra 15 seconds of heat added by flipping the steam switch. Shots pulled this way were universally unbalanced. Then it occurred to me that the whole point of having a coffee selected based on its sweetness is to not have to go to great lengths to increase the sweetness in the first place. Unsurprisingly, shots pulled at a normal brew temperature were much more balanced, and quite sweet.

At seven days of age, I hit the jackpot with this roast, getting a ristretto extraction that not only brought out the sweetness that I was looking for, but also brought out the marzipan/almond aroma and, to a lesser extent, flavour that I had tasted in other roasts of this bean (read: roasts by people who know what they're doing). Unfortunately, the shot was slightly burnt, as well. Speeding up the shot got rid of the burnt flavour, but got rid of the unique almond/marzipan sensation, too. (Sidebar; my burrs might need replacing) Using normal pura milk this time, caramel and hazelnut flavours came through in a cappuccino, but it was no tour de force.

I made one french press and the notes for that read "sweet, sweet, sweet ... I think I have diabetes."

Conclusion: A fantastic coffee, deserving of a better roaster than I. Although roasts of this stuff from St Ali have made great SO espresso, every single espresso that I have had with Daterra Sweet has been low in body and has had difficulty cutting through milk. Given Illy's involvement in setting up the amazing Daterra facility, I wonder if this is what fresh Illy is supposed to taste like?

I can really see using Daterra Sweet in an espresso blend, maybe even up to 30%. It would superbly complement a more 'bass note' coffee that adds syrupyness and cuts through milk. This coffee would also be great in lower pressure brewing methods, such as french press, vac pot and aeropress.

Santa Elena 'Miel' SHB (Costa Rica)

Part of the purpose of this blog is to give me references for my own roasting, which means recording the inevitable failed roasts. So let's take a look at one ...

About the coffee: The Santa Elena cooperative is located in the Monteverde region of Costa Rica. 'SHB' is a designation meaning 'strictly hard bean,' that is usually applied to high-altitude coffees, for example those grown in the Huehuehtenange region of Guatemala. 'Miel' is spanish for 'honey' and refers to the unique processing method used for this coffee. Instead of pulping or fermenting the fruity mucilage layer off the coffee beans, this is left intact and the coffee is sun-dried for a week or so. This processing method is said to leave some of the body and sweetness of dry processed coffees, whilst also bringing out some of the fruitiness and clean cup character imparted by wet processing. It is also quite a unique method for Costa Rica - I seem to recall reading that this is because it is a bit of a PITA in a country where the humidity can, at times, impede the necessary drying. I bought this lot from coffeesnobs - thanks, Andy!

Don't you love the CS stamp?

The roast: I do most of my roasting in the sample roaster at Veneziano. Although it is an air roaster, it doesn't seem to create a very bright profile the way that the domestic Imex, I-roast, et. al. are reputed to. Those of you that have tasted Dave's WBC blend will have noticed that in the cup. I was aiming to stop this roast just after second crack, but let it go for a bit too long while I was busy fooling around - the guys were running an experimental blend through the marzocco ;P

Yes, Pete has more beans than I do.

The tasting notes:

The initial dial-in (27th): pulled various fast shots at grind setting of 11, 10, 9, dose = level, collapse, level. none of the shots were as objectionable as they should have been and the final espresso, although still out of the ballpark at 22 seconds, was actually quite good. very clean, none of the ash that I feared when I saw the oil on the surface. true what they say about cr coffees; very clean, very single-note. fairly sweet. the shots got richer in body and redder in colour as I increased temperature and decrease brew time (duh). temp surf of +10s should be where I start next time. a french press showed some slight ashiness; preferable to roast this one a little bit lighter and rest it longer.

cappuccino (28th); short double. a very rich shot that blends well with the milk, although it tastes slightly burnt - partly the shot, partly the coffee.

Conclusions: Gee, Luca, howsabout not burning it next time? The fact that it went well through milk might make it a great blend component.

Links:

Santa Elena Cooperative's Webpage

Discussion in CS's Cupping Room

SM's Costa Rica Page (They aren't offering the Santa Elena - check their archives if you're after notes, but they obviously won't be for the current crop. The link is there for the overviews that Tom has written, but it also reviews another 'miel' coffee.)

A brief mention in June 02's 'Tiny Joy' newsletter from Sweet Maria's

Flavour Characteristics Due to Processing (coffeeresearch.org)

Coast Peaberry (Australia)

Some background info: Peaberry coffee beans are a naturally occurring anomaly where the coffee cherry develops only one bean with a completely rounded surface, rather than two with flat surfaces. Take a look at the photo to the right (link to source). Most sources will tell you that the beans result from stress to the coffee plant, such as insect damage or drought, but also confirm that they will pretty much always occur in some coffee cherries harvested at the tip of the branches of the coffee plant. As a result, 2 -7% of a coffee farmer's crop will usually be peaberry, which will be screened out and sold separately. Peaberries are usually considered a defect in conventional lots, but are sold as individual lots, too. The flavour of peaberries is usually described as a concentrated version of the conventional bean.

About this peaberry: Australian coffees are rare enough, but Australian peaberries? My sense of curiosity was instantly piqued when Mark from St Ali told me that he had some in stock. After Tim Wendelboe used some of the peaberry from Mountain Top to win the 2004 WBC, we tried out a blend using the regular MT coffee and were very happy with it. (This was at Maltitude, the cafe that I used to work at in the city.) Since then, I had only had some relatively disappointing Australian coffees and had certainly never even heard of "Coast" coffee. It was a very pleasant surprise to have a traditional double-shot cappuccino from Toshi, perhaps one of Melbourne's best baristi, earlier this year. The phrase "best coffee of the year" springs to mind. It was rich and unctuous; the closest thing to a rich hot chocolate that you will ever get out of coffee. So when they roasted up the last of the bag, I couldn't help but buy some for myself and for my boss, Andrew, at Maling Room.


The tasting notes:

The coffee was roasted on the 17th and I drank it at home from the 20th to the 25th. Through my Silvia/Rocky combination, I was unable to recreate the magic that Toshi had earlier created. The resultant espresso was low in acidity and tasted of cocoa, cutting through milk well, but I was unable to bring out the sweetness to transform it from cocoa to hot chocolate. I had earlier mentioned that it would be awesome to blend this with some Daterra Sweet Collection. Of course, I picked some of this up from Mark as well and blending them together produced great espresso off the back of the Daterra. A french press brewed on the 24th had a berry aroma that I couldn't discribe more precisely than that, but that flavour did not make it into the cup, which was full-bodied and low in acid, unexpectedly becoming sweeter and sweeter as it cooled!


On the 26th (9 days old), I took Andrew's 1/2kg into Maling Room, which was fortunate, as the house blend was quite unimpressive on the day. Not having been able to repeat the "wow" experience from St Ali earlier in the year, I was unsure how it would go through the Synesso. We dialled a head to 201F and found that, as an espresso, it wasn't overly impressive by itself; chocolatey, for sure, but not terriffically complex, nor was the mouthfeel anything special. The thought that it would make a great blend component was again confirmed when Andrew just had to show off the Sidamo that he'd roasted that week. Of course, there was only 10g or so left, so he pulled an impromptu blended shot. Score; lovely acidity with some chocolate. Sure, the extraction paramaters were off, but pretty good overall. Anyhoo, the customers went bannanas over the milk drinks that went out for them and within a few hours it was all that I could do to snag the last double shot for myself:

Yes, I need to remember that the Synesso has way
more steam than my Silvia ;P

Conclusion: A unique and somewhat perplexing coffee to work with. A 150mL milk drink based off a double-shot, if pulled correctly, can potentially blow your mind, however it seems to be a bit finnicky in this regard. Perhaps the difference in ability to pull great shots between home and work indicates that this one is best left to sit for a week before using it. In this regard, it is similar to most of the nice robustas and monsooned coffees. If this is around in a year, I will certainly revisit it, likely as a blend component.

Links:

Roast Magazine on Australian Coffee

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