Posted on August 7, 2007 - by deCadmus
PT’s Coffee: Kenya AA Kieni Auction Lot
I’ve known Jeff Taylor for nearly half a dozen years. Jeff’s a coffee guy through and through. He’s a heck of a barista, an international WBC judge, and a talented coffee roaster… which he puts to good use as co-owner of PT’s Coffee in Topeka, Kansas. PT’s had a coffee shop up the street from me a ways when I was in Overland Park, Kansas… I understand they now have another only a block or two from my old place. (Clearly, one or the other of us needs to work on timing.)
Many moons ago Jeff was kind enough to send along a number of his coffees for me to sample. I enjoyed them each and all, but never quite got around to writing about them. (Okay… so it’s now clear that *I’m* the one who needs to work on his timing.) I figure that was something less than fair of me, so a number of weeks back I ordered some coffee to see what he’s roasting these days, with the intent of writing about *this* batch of beans. I’m glad I did. I enjoyed *this* round each and all, too, but one coffee in particular stands out…
PT’s Kenya AA Kieni Auction Lot is a sweetly perfumed cup, with jasmine-like hues of coffee flower, and… are those violets in its fragrance? Wetted, much of the florals remain, joined by a lower note that I read as amber and a new top-note of citrus. In the cup I find ripe, red grapefruit (seems I nearly always do with better coffees from Kenya’s Nyeri district) as well as flavors of green apple that are by turns sweet and tart. There’s lots of movement — surprising body, actually for a Kenya. The finish is long and sweet and leaves a bit of sweet cherry on the tongue.
This is an exceptionally clean cup. What’s more, it’s a cup that, unlike a great many Kenyan coffees — most all that I’ve tasted, in fact — doesn’t really flex its muscles at you. There’s none of the musky note that’s typical to origin. It’s not broad-shouldered at all… it’s all curves. It’s a Kenyan coffee in touch with its feminine side. And I like it.
Recommended, and available now, at PT’s Coffee.
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Bloggle is the online playground of Doug Cadmus, a usability guy, writer, photographer and sometime dramatist who moved to Vermont for the coffee. When not writing, reading or walking his old, blind golden retriever, he roasts coffee in his garage and is the Web Guy for Green Mountain Coffee in Waterbury, VT.Flickr Photos
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August 8, 2007
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[...] glad I did. I enjoyed *this* round each and all, too, but one coffee in particular stands out… GO TO Bloggle! PT’s Kenya AA Kieni Auction Lot is a sweetly perfumed cup, with jasmine-like hues of coffee [...]
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August 12, 2007
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How would you describe the roast coloration…?
The grape fruit (bitter/acetic?) description scares me a bit but I might give it a shake. I get a milky aroma on unground beans of top grade kenya and sometimes other africans. Thoughts?
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August 13, 2007
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I’d call it a light / medium roast. No surface oils at all.
As to the milky aromas… I think there’s something to what you say. I might wildly speculate that, as Kenyan coffees are loaded with sweet acids, there may be something to the nose that recalls lactic acids while coffee is still in bean form, which — when ground — is overwhelmed by all sorts of other esters and aldehydes.
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October 25, 2008
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[...] any Coffee Klatch offerings — at all! I think I need to fix that — I tasted some of PT’s Kenya AA Kieni Auction Lot last year and found it pretty darn wonderful. It looks like they’ve got a stable full of [...]