Tasting: Organic Galapagos
Posted by deCadmus on 11 Apr 2005 at 2:17 pm | Category: Coffee Reviews, Coffee
- Rating:
The most intriguing coffee I’ve tasted this week is courtesy of Bernie Digman, roaster/owner of Milagro Coffee y Espresso in Las Cruces, NM. The coffee… an organic bean from the Galapagos Islands.
Yes, those Galapagos Islands… the archipelago in the middle of the Pacific, 600 miles from anywhere, made famous by Mr. Darwin and a curious collection of creatures found nowhere else on earth. Fittingly enough, the flavor profile of this coffee does much to kindle one’s thoughts on the origin of species… or at least the origins of this particular cup.
The story is told thusly: in 1869 enterprising French colonists planted Bourbon coffee trees on the island of San Cristobal — the easternmost of the archipelago — and that it’s these same ancient coffee trees that are still producing today. It sounds lovely, and quaint and entirely unlikely, except that I’ve recently heard from an American grower of heirloom coffee that they, too, have coffee trees that are still producing after more than 100 years.
So, how’s it taste?
This is a delightfully fragrant coffee… its aromas are all sweetness and caramel. In the cup it’s mildly bright with bits of lemony citrus acidity. Its flavors are fairly lush and layered and offer notes of tobacco and leather. All in all nicely balanced, perhaps a little soft and slightly puckish [read, tart] in its finish.
Frankly, it cups more like an African coffee than anything else — certainly it’s not much like a Central or South American bean. It reminds me of quite recent beans from Rwanda, or 2-3 years’ distant crops from Uganda.
Recommended.
Milagro Coffee y Espresso can be reached at (505)532-1042.
Its important to know where coffee was bought. Is a new crop organic gourmet certified? or not certified?.
There are currently 3 widely recognized standards for organic products… There’s 100% Organic Certified; Organic Certified; and Made from Organic Products.
I’ve no reason to doubt that this product is 100% Organic, especially given the origin; there have never been chemical pesticides or herbicides in the Galapagos Islands.
You mention “gourmet”… this is not a certification of any sort, and has been so overused as to have virtually no meaning at all. As a rule I don’t use it to describe coffee.
What are the environmental arguments gainst the production of this coffee? I’ve heard some people don’t think the coffee there should be harvested.
The Galapagos Islands have been named a World Heritage Site, which affords them special protections…
Among the active conservation efforts there are steps to ensure that non-native plant species (coffee was introduced to the *inhabited* islands in the 1860s, it’s *not* native) don’t get transported to protected areas. See also:
* Galapagos.org
* Galapagos Conservation Trust
Who has the right to qualify whatºs endemic or not after a serious investigation ?.
Its important to know that these bourbon coffee trees have changes after 130 years, which diference against mainland bourbon coffee trees is true.
Actually we have evolution also or was freezed in 1860 ?
Some birds are not natives, also, but are different from recent time.