Posts Tagged ‘Colombia’

Posted on March 16, 2007 - by deCadmus

I Double Dog Dare You to Outbid Me!

Paradise Roasters, a true Mom n’ Pop (and son) coffee roastery, has been rackin’ up the accolades over at Kenneth Davids’ Coffee Review, and was recently picked as one of the country’s best boutique coffee roasters by Food & Wine magazine. They’re winning fans far beyond the ten thousand (frozen) lakes of their home in Minnesota by keeping it simple: they source the best damn coffee that money can buy, and roast-to-order in small batches. (more…)

Posted on March 14, 2007 - by deCadmus

Peet’s Colombia Caracol: Voluptuous Magnificence

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Nuanced, balanced and complex with a lip-smacking semi-sweet finish.

Peet’s current Special Offering — a limited run of a Colombian Caracol (peaberry, en Español) — is an heirloom bean (typica, a very low yield, high quality varietal) from the Huila region of Colombia, and it’s a lovely cup, indeed.

Its deep chocolate and flowers fragrance gives way to chocolate, smoke and leather with a subtle grapefruit acid zing. It’s body is liquid velvet — so smooth, so luxurious — and the slightly impatient, astringent nip in its musky-sweet finish just leaves you wanting more.

In a press this is Sappho in a cup; its poetry is only slightly muted with a manual drip method. (We won’t tell Mr. coffee, okay?)

Highly recommended. Get it while you can. (Maybe dab some behind your ears on Friday night and get lucky.)

Posted on August 12, 2006 - by deCadmus

Tasting: Ecco Caffe’s Colombia La Virginia

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I’ve recently written about my new-found appreciation for Colombian coffee — a growing region I’d long written off as an example of style over substance; marketing over matter. The past few weeks I’ve had not only opportunity to eat most of my prior sour words, but also the sweet pleasure of some fine Colombian coffees with which to wash them down. And this one… well, it’s the sweetest yet. (more…)

Posted on August 11, 2006 - by deCadmus

On the Tasting Table…

When we cupped the Colombia First Harvest Cup of Excellence coffees in April, the number 3 lot — La Virginia — wasn’t on the table. It was, at 48 bags of coffee, quite a large offering as as auction lots go, and far more than we could offer through our Special Reserve program. So it seemed only reasonable at the time to not include it in an already large field of coffees. Reasonable, maybe… but a cryin’ shame, ’cause thanks to Andrew Barnett at Ecco Caffe I’ve discovered that the La Virginia is a stunning cup. (more…)

Posted on July 19, 2006 - by deCadmus

Tasting: Green Mountain’s Special Reserve Colombian Dos Quebradas

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I’ll admit some prejudice — not altogether unwarranted — against Colombian coffee. Let’s face it, we’ve *all* been told for years now how Colombian coffee is mountain-grown; that only the ripest beans are picked by Juan Valdez (and his faithful little burro). And even while the Colombian Coffee Federation was feeding us this hugely successful marketing campaign they were rounding up beans from all over and carting them to vast processing mills and creating a single, homogeneous flavor profile. And we consumers were most all of us buying our 100% Colombian coffee — the best coffee in the world, mind you — pre-ground in its little red vacuum-packed can and we were satisfied, perhaps… if a little underwhelmed. (more…)

Posted on February 14, 2006 - by deCadmus

On Today’s Tasting Table

In which your author drinks bad coffee so you don’t have to…

Imus Ranch Coffee… claims to be “100% Colombian Coffee”. I don’t see anything on the Imus Ranch package to suggest it’s 100% Arabica coffee, and given its wet cardboard aroma and burnt rubber and ash flavors, I wouldn’t doubt there’s significant Robusta content. Icky, unpleasant and a general assault on the senses.

Not recommended, even for lawyers you intend to later spray with bird-shot.

Hawaiian Gold Fancy Kona Coffee Gourmet Blend… a stellar example of why Kona coffee shouldn’t be blended. Virtually no aroma, and only the most subtle of brightness (yeah, I’m reaching here.) Gold Coffee here offers a mild and mellow flavor (probably Colombian) with a rounded body and a decent, if short finish. Nothing whatsoever about its flavor says anything about Kona coffee, and whomever grows this should be apoplectic and shame-faced about the final result.

Not recommended. Remember, kids… just say no to Kona blends.

Equal Exchange Cafe Salvador… actually, not bad. Not bad at all. A slightly nutty and floral aroma with bitter orange / bergamot brightness and predominantly chocolate flavors, this offering from Equal Exchange is round and slightly roasty, and generally quite slurp-able.

Recommended… and a fine intro to an increasingly impressive array of coffees from El Salvador.

More: coffee | tasting coffee | coffee review

Posted on May 14, 2004 - by deCadmus

Battle of the Coffee Icons

When icons do battle, it’s epic stuff… Godzilla and Mothra. Kirk and Kahn. IBM and Apple. Juan and the Mermaid?

The Colombian Coffee Federation - that even sounds epic! - fronted by the fictional Juan Valdez, is preparing for battle with the Siren of Seattle. The Seattle Times calls it thisaway:

Long before Starbucks hit the mainstream, Valdez was the face of coffee to many Americans, leading his mule through coffee fields and grocery-store aisles on TV ads sponsored by the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia.

Now, the federation is looking to parlay Valdez’s familiar image into a global chain of high-end coffee shops. Ten Juan Valdez stores are up and running in Colombia, and federation chief Gabriel Silva told Reuters this week that the chain will open at least eight U.S. stores later this year.

It’s a bold move for the Colombian group… and the logic is eminently clear: why settle for pennies per pound for green coffee beans when the beverage business gets dollars per cup?

The upside is huge, but so’s the risk. Does Juan still carry the iconic power he held while Mrs. Olson was hawking Folgers, and Mr. Coffee was the state-of-the-art of brewing tech? Can any coffee house stand on the one leg of a single origin, ’specially one that’s the very definition of mild, unassuming coffee? We’ll see soon enough.

Bonus question: What was Juan’s mule’s name? [Look in the comments, below, for the answer!]