Posts Tagged ‘Kenya’
Posted on October 12, 2008 - by deCadmus
Tasting Square Mile Coffees
Let’s face it. Right now the folks at Square Mile — Stephen Morrissey, James Hoffmann and Annette Moldvaer1 — could phone it in. They could source dubious coffees, call them edgy, describe them cryptically while lavishing them with praise… and they would sell. A lot. At least until the hype subsided.
Happily, our world champion baristas and coffee tasters are doing no such thing. They’re sourcing coffees of great character — juried award winners and coffees from small, family-run farms — roasting them light to remain faithful to the beans’ origins, and letting the coffee speak for itself. Well done.
Costa Rica El Portillo C.O.E.
I admit to having a love / hate affair with Costa Rican coffee the last year or two. From where I sit, Costas have lurched in one of two directions, each at opposite ends of my bell curve of happiness: at the one end, bright, shrill, efferfrickinvescant acidity at the expense of all other character; at the other extreme, big, beefy and dumb-as-a-cow bullion flavors with no dynamic to the cup at all. The exceptions to these extremes can be found far from the big coffee estates on small, family farms… and — happily enough — the Square Mile El Portillo is just such an exception.
Balanced and round, with flavors of honeysuckle and buttery caramel. I find a burst of citrus on the front, and a dark cocoa surprise as the cup cools, and that honeyed sweetness and syrupy body throughout. This is a complex, many-layered cup, and immensely rewarding.
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Kenya Muchoki Peaberry
Tremendously bright, crisp, and dry with flavors of tart cherry, and strawberries with fresh-ground black pepper. Its finish is dry, somewhat distilled and yet — somehow — suggests a candied sweetness. I’m reminded of a top-quality Muscato D’Asti.
The very light roast on this coffee makes for a cup that’s faithful to its origins, but the roaster in me can’t help but wonder if a bit more fire wouldn’t further develop the sweetness that dwells in this bean.
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Both of these coffees are highly recommended, and available now, at Square Mile Coffee Roasters.
P.S. It’s worth noting… this is two coffees down, and two to go. More soon.
P.P.S. Sorry about the marginal photography. It was a bit of a rush job.
Notes and Links
- Note that each name is described by double double letters… Coincidence? Or conspiracy? ↩
Posted on April 10, 2008 - by deCadmus
Your Politics Don’t Mean Beans
It was inevitable, really, what Farm Coffee has done:
THEY’RE ROASTING presidential candidates on Bill Hill, which is not nearly the same as grilling them.
Ashlawn Farm Coffee has introduced an Obama Blend, a “sweet, balanced” combination of “dark and light roasted coffees from Kenya, Java and the Americas,” and American Hero Coffee, “a light-roasted, highly caffeinated” brew that’s “edgy, strong,” made from beans grown in Vietnam. The latter’s redolent, you might say, of Sen. John McCain.
But what about a Hillary Brew?
That, says Carol Dahlke, Ashlawn co-owner and roaster, is … uh … in development.
In development. Hey… they aren’t trying to find a civet cat, are they?
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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Posted on August 6, 2007 - by deCadmus
Selling Coffee to Kenyans
Oh sure, it sounds like the punchline to a joke. Something like “selling ice to Eskimos.” Instead, it’s an idea who’s time has come. Finally.
Most coffee growing countries you may visit you’ll have a hard time scaring up a good cup of coffee. Ask for a cup and often as not you’ll get instant – granules spooned from a tin or a jar kept above the stove. Only Ethiopia — the birthplace of coffee — has had a coffee-consuming tradition for as long as the bean has been cultivated. (Yemen, too, but somewhat less so.) This is changing, and one of the most profound changes may be in Kenya.
For most of Kenya’s 100 years or so of coffee production, it’s been illegal to roast beans for local consumption, all to better assure a steady supply of beans for foreign trade. Those rules have been relaxed… and many more of the traditionally rigid, compulsory practices of the Kenya Coffee Board are being reexamined as Fair Trade principles — and Fair Trade’s higher prices — find their way into the Kenyan economy. 
Thus, the latest entry into the Kenyan coffee culture… the iconic coffee shop –
“People thought we were crazy to try to sell coffee to Kenyans,” said Jon Wagner, an American former relief worker who co-founded the company eight years ago, and has seen revenues grow every quarter since. “It was virgin territory but we believed a good cup of coffee would always find a market.”
Posted on August 3, 2007 - by deCadmus
Congrats to the World Barista Champion
Congratulations to James Hoffman (whom you may know as Jim Seven (that’s his blog in the list down yonder) on capturing the top honors at the World Barista Championship in Tokyo. 
His performance was — in a word — artistic. Poised, relaxed — or doing a damn fine job of looking relaxed — Jim wowed the judges with his technical skills, his presentation, and a signature espresso drink that combined separately-pulled single origins from Costa Rica and Kenya (an intensely blackcurrenty Gethumbwini) with a tobacco and cream infusion, topped with a biscotti foam. (I’m thinking it’d probably be labeled illegal in the U.S.)
If you’re at all wondering what the Barista Championships are all about, watch the finalist videos at ZacharyZachary and be amazed. (As a bonus the videography is quite good!)
Congrats to Jim, and congrats to *all* of the national barista champions (and that means you, too, Heather Perry!)
Posted on April 4, 2007 - by deCadmus
Coffee Notes from All Over
More on the USDA and Organic coffee certification kerfuffle when I can get to it… meanwhile here’s a link-dump of coffee notes from all over:
- Ever wondered what it takes to get to championship levels in Barista competition? Practice, practice, practice. (Youtube.) I really like Jen Prince’s point of view — and her humble approach to the bean — and having been on the receiving end of one of her stellar espresso macchiatos when I was last in Seattle I think she’ll go far.
I don’t really have much of a life outside of coffee.
– Jen Prince, Zoka Coffee
Posted on April 3, 2007 - by deCadmus
Green Mountain’s Game-Changing Kenya AA
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I have long been ambivalent — or at least something of a fence-sitter — where the whole single-cup coffee thing is concerned. Single-cup brewers are, by design, a study in compromise between convenience and quality. Do you want cup-at-a-time accessibility? Or do you want the full range and nuance of aroma, flavor body and balance that only grinding and brewing fresh-roasted beans can offer? I’d kinda like both. But the Clover is out of my price range and wouldn’t fit in my kitchen anyway.
(more…)
Posted on August 10, 2006 - by deCadmus
Tasting: Coffee Emergency’s Kenya AA Mtaro
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Jason Anderson and Sharon Grossman, husband and wife co-proprietors of Coffee Emergency, launched into the specialty coffee trade a scant two years ago and quickly made a splash. Code Brown — their signature espresso blend — wowed the Coffee Geek espressorati; no mean feat, that. It’s all the more remarkable given the fledgling company was still working its way out of the nest… they’d just revved up a mobile espresso van and were still roasting their coffee in tiny batches on a gas grill. (Something not altogether unlike like this.)
I get the impression that these folks haven’t let their early success go to their head. Their web site is spare and simple; so’s their shop. Just the same, they continue to pile on the accolades, and recently received a whopping 93 from Kenneth Davids for their Colombian Inza Cauca. (more…)
Posted on August 8, 2006 - by deCadmus
Tasting… when you can’t taste a thing.
Over the weekend I found myself with an awful head cold, every bit as severe as it proved — thankfully — short-lived. Now a cold most any time is an inconvenience. This time it was distressing. The coffee delivery man had just left some excellent beans on my front porch, and doggone it, I was really looking forward to giving them a taste. And the simple truth was I couldn’t taste a thing. Zero, Zilch. Nada.
So I brewed some coffee anyway. (more…)
Posted on July 31, 2006 - by deCadmus
Tasting: Kenya Gethumbwini Peaberry
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So many Kenyan coffees of late cup heavy on citrus notes (lemon, and in particular, grapefruit flavors abound right now) so it’s a real pleasure — and a welcome change — to find a richly fruited coffee that features a different hue from Kenya’s vast palate (palette?) of flavors. (more…)
Hello.
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
