Brewed the S&W Guatemala Santa Rosa (natural) today, another bourbon varietal like the Burundi. Natural process from the Americas seems rare. The fresh grounds had a complex aroma that was both sweet and floral. I was expecting a fruity cup and it is surprisingly not that at all. Mild acidity immediately off brew that was muted by cooling. Not sharp or tart like the Burundi; it’s more like red apple. Flavor was extremely floral, medium body, with an earthier floral finish. The florals had a bite and presence that reminded me more of the botanical liquer Chartreuse than it did of tea.
Bear sitting on it’s butt.
Not in East Ukraine by chance?
Switched to cold brew a couple years ago. Coarse ground beans. Light - medium roast. Mason jar overnight. Paper filter. 3 day supply at a time. Microwave by the cup in the am. Heavy cream. Anything less than half/half won’t do.
One final review from S&W for a coffee with a ridiculously long name: Ethiopia Kebede Wako Gedeb Gr1 Organic Natural Yirgacheffe. It took me several days to get this dialed to my liking which ended with a coarser grind and thus lighter extraction.
Lemony acidic opening that is round and pleasant, not sharp or biting at all. Main flavor is berry, but more like raspberry as opposed to the blueberry that Ethiopians can be known for. Light body with a clear, clean flavor–almost no earthiness–and a rather unremarkable finish with only faint aftertaste. That’s probably due to the light extraction on my part. Overall I think this is quite reminiscent of Kenyan coffee as extracted: straightforward and citrus acidity without a ton of complexity. They claim on the website that this one can change considerably depending on brew so I may try a few different methods during the week. Grinding on my normal setting and pouring Chemex produced similar flavor profile with muted acidity.
Of the three I’ve reviewed, I think all were excellent, high-quality coffees, all possessing a winy quality. My favorite is the Burundi because it has unique grapefruit-like acidity with an interesting flavor and finish. I actually found myself craving it late at night during the past week and had to resist the urge to fire up a PM caffeine bomb.
I also have a cold brew sample which isn’t really my thing. If one of you cold brewers wants to review it here, claim it in thread and then send me your (United States) shipping address.
Picked up some Kenya AB from one of my local roasters this week. It doesn’t blow me away but I forgot to order anything in time and had a free pound to redeem. SL-28 and SL-34 varietals. This is what I mean by good but not great coffee. Has the characteristic citrus and acidity of Kenyan but it’s just missing something. Flavor tastes like grape to me but too many bitters and nothing too interesting in terms of secondary flavor or finish. One trick pony and I need to see two tricks to award medals.
Over the past few months my home coffee has been flat and weak and I went from loving having a few cups in the morning to barely being able to finish one but I finally figured out the (fairly simple and obvious) reason. We had a reverse osmosis filter put in about that time and apparently reverse osmosis water is terrible for coffee as the lack of minerals prevents proper flavor extraction from the coffee. Luckily I can still use tap water (we got a filter so it’s basically bottled water from the tap) so I’ll be trying that over the weekend and praying that i get back to the stuff I like. Not sure why it took me so long to put these events together but figured I’d post it as an FYI. I’ve got some coffee that I picked up while out of town and I’m excited to see what it’s actually supposed to taste like.
I picked up an Airscape coffee cainster recently. I have no idea if it’s any better than my OXO container or even the bags the coffee ships in, but I’m testing that right now. Will report back in roughly two weeks. Seems to be built well and you can hear the air escaping as you plunge and seal it.
I’m a French press guy to the end. I buy my beans from a local independent cafe and grind them for each press. It’s like the unfiltered cigarettes of coffee drinking.
This is my go-to place for espresso, but beans are $20/lb, so I usually grab a pound when I’m on vacation and stick to the $5/lb Colombian beans from Costco. The website has a blog, articles, and tips for brewing from the ultimate coffee nerd.
I’ve almost four pounds on the way, all of it rated 93+ on Coffee Review: a Panama catuai from Elida Estate, an El Salvador honey process, and another Yirgacheffe Gr1. Should be interesting.
I decided to pass on gesha again. It’s such a pain in the ass finding super legit stuff (Elida, Esmeralda) in stock at a reasonable price. Also not uncommon to have to pre-order and wait for it. A few reputable places have it but of course the price is insane at > $140/lb:
The catuai Elida scores higher than some of the geshas so maybe the magic is in the estate quality, not necessarily the varietal. I expect only the gesha will have the unique floral profile, but the catuai should be great at almost $30/lb. Also tilts the hell out of me that Klatch calls it geisha.
Cool thread. I used to be more of a tea drinker but now am fully on the coffee train. I have the Wynn poker room to thank for turning me on to coffee as that is where I first started trying espresso, cappuccino, mochas, etc. Now I mostly (95%) drink just black.
Get yourself a cheap $15 grinder and get whole-bean coffee instead of pre-ground. This is a huge immediate step up.
One hack I learned in college is you can go to your local coffee store and ask if you can look at the latest beans they’ve got and buy a pound of whatever looks fresh. You want beans that are shiny and oily because that’s where the flavor comes from.
I haven’t had Kenyan in a while, but this thread makes me want to get some this weekend.
I have a bunch of Mormon relatives, they’ve never been anything but supportive of my coffee addiction.
Oily beans are not a sign of freshness. The $20/lb beans I get are always freshly roasted and dry as a bone. The $5/lb stuff from Costco tend to be slightly oily to dry.
