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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…)

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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…)

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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…)

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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.

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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…)

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If Kenya is the elder statesman of East African coffees, Uganda is the uncle that nobody talks about. You know the guy… he got in some trouble a few years back, he’s got a history of hanging around with the wrong crowd… and if he ever got around to really coming clean, nobody’d be likely to believe it.

While Uganda rubs shoulders with big brother Kenya–in fact, it shares Mount Elgon, the origin of Bugisu–the coffee of Uganda shares little else with its neighbor. Produced mostly by small crop family farms, this coffee has flavors and dimensions that are uniquely its own. (more…)

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