Bloggle

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…)

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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.)

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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…)

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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…)

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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…)

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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.

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