Archive for the ‘Coffee Reviews’ Category

Posted on August 17, 2005 - by deCadmus

Tasting: Equal Exchange Mind, Body & Soul

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Equal Exchange is an unusual company. It’s not simply an employee-owned business (a growing number of companies are, for a given value of employee owned) but is instead a worker-owned cooperative… which is a very interesting and balanced thing to be when one deals with a great many worker-owned coffee cooperatives. There’s kind of a Zen thing at play there. (more…)

Posted on August 15, 2005 - by deCadmus

Tasting: Starbucks’ Rift Valley Blend

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I’m surprised as anyone to find myself reviewing two dark-roasted coffees back-to-back, and more surprised to find that they’re both African origins (the coffee immediately prior was Ancora’s Kenya AA Nyeri “Fine Cup”.) I guess it’s chaos theory in action: I ran out of coffee last week, and on a whim stopped at a local Starbucks to see what they might have to offer. I came away with a new coffee — Starbucks’ Rift Valley Blend.

This is a very, very dark roast. The coffee’s oils have freely migrated to the surface of the beans… they don’t merely gleam with coffee oils, they clump.

There is perhaps a hint of Dutch chocolate in this coffee’s fragrance; a smattering of caramel in its aroma. The roast itself, however, dominates its aromatics.

Like Ancora’s Nyeri, the roast level of this coffee has transformed the brightness of the bean. However, where Ancora artfully distilled the coffee’s acidity to a shimmering presence, Starbucks’ roast dominates, leaving the coffee’s acidity as little more than a savory dryness on the tongue. Its flavor is slightly pungent (that’s the roast talking) and quite herby… I taste notes of basil and thyme and warm notes of pepper. Its body is much less lush that I might expect given this degree of roast; its finish is dry and long.

In sum: if you like your roasts deep and your cup savory, you’ll appreciate this fairly heavy-handed take on an African staple.

Notes:
1) The very oily beans may be difficult to grind — they bridge easily.
2) It would appear that Starbuck’s destoner is set to obliviate; there are a lot of broken beans in the bag.
3) Use this coffee quickly; with all those oils on the surface of the bean, this coffee will very quickly get stale and rancid.

Recommended… with reservations.

Posted on August 4, 2005 - by deCadmus

Tasting: Ancora’s Kenya AA Nyeri

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We all know the too-common tale of a heady, distinctive origin coffee that’s muted into oblivion by a heavy-handed roast… This is no such tale. Instead it’s a story about a rather nifty coffee that Ancora Coffee Roasters has made extraordinary by a deeper roast that’s genuinely artful. (more…)

Posted on June 6, 2005 - by deCadmus

Tasting: Ethiopian Yirgacheffe MAO

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Over the course of the last week I’ve roasted several batches of new coffees from my favorite purveyor of green coffees, Sweet Marias. The first on my tasting list is a brilliant Ethiopian Yirgacheffe under the MAO mark (lot 538).

I haven’t roasted in a while, so after lots of seasonal cleaning (you won’t believe all the places chaff can build up on a roaster!) I gathered up my watch and my notebook… both indispensable tools when roasting a new bean. This one got treated to just the vanguard snaps of 2nd crack, though that’s mere happenstance… I still roast mostly by nose, and this coffee offered a pronounced sweet-savory signal in its smoke.
The result: wonderful, room-filling sweet floral and citrus aromas (most remarkable I’ve experienced since Barry scored that stunning Yirg a year or three ago) that evoke apple blossoms and jasmine. Its acidity is high-toned; subtle citrus… very smooth and not at all shrill. Its flavors are rich and complex; a bit of smoldering cedar, a little roasty lapsang souchong tea (black tea, but more like a flowery dark oolong). Far more body than I’d expect from a washed coffee… and a finish that sweetly fades into dark, sweet cherries.

Highly recommended. If you’re a home-roaster, add this coffee to your next Sweet Maria’s order. If you’re not a home-roaster, I can’t think of any better reason to start.

Category: Bloggle/Coffee

Posted on May 3, 2005 - by deCadmus

Tasting: Don Francisco’s Tanzania Peaberry

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I’ve long heard coffee enthusiasts pine for a coffee that offers in the cup all of the promise of its fragrance and aroma. I’ve recently tasted a coffee that offers all that and more… to which I can say only, be careful what you wish for. (more…)

Posted on April 24, 2005 - by deCadmus

Tasting: Intelligentsia Coffee’s La Corona

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You’d think it should be easy to make a great blend from outstanding origin coffees… say, if you had your pick of a series of Central American Cup of Excellence winners. It simply isn’t so. Coffees of this caliber are not only outstanding representations of origin, they tend toward the intense side of the coffee experience. Not only is it a challenge to marry such flavors, it’d be something of a travesty [and certainly an expensive mistake] to get it wrong. (more…)

Posted on April 11, 2005 - by deCadmus

Tasting: Organic Galapagos

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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. (more…)

Posted on March 31, 2005 - by deCadmus

Tasting: Fair Trade Organic Nicaraguan Matagalpa

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I’ve been tremendously impressed by coffees from Nicaragua these past many months. They are proving yin to the yang of the light, bright fruity notes of what’s become the archetype of Central and South American beans. Nicaragua offers a balancing opposite rooted in darker, earthier and more rustic notes. (more…)

Posted on June 26, 2004 - by deCadmus

Green Mountain Zimbabwe AA

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The Green Mountain tasting series continues, this time a coffee with which I have no experience at all — Zimbabwe AA — and so I have no preconceptions about what to expect.

Oh sure, it’s an African coffee, so I’m ready for something that’s probably bright, and could be winey; or it might be gamey and wild. Perhaps you see what I mean: the coffees of Africa are just so varied there’s no telling what might be found in the cup. (more…)

Posted on June 23, 2004 - by deCadmus

Green Mountain Tanzanian Peaberry

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There’s a mystery in Africa, friends and neighbors… a curious affair involving Tanzania and the peaberry bean. As we’ve covered before - recently, even - peaberry coffees comprise about 5% of a given coffee crop. How can it be, then, that virtually every coffee you and I have ever tasted from Tanzania is a peaberry? How can there be so many peaberries from the origin… and where do all the flatbeans go? (more…)