Colombia La Manuela (Ep29)

Wow, what a great coffee to get things started, probably not my normal style, but one I really enjoyed thinking a bit about. I guess the 2 main reasons I want to do this are to keep a record of which coffees I enjoy, and also to get me thinking more about the coffees I am drinking which will hopefully enhance the experience. Anyway, I don't want to turn this post into an essay, so onto the coffee.

Aroma of the beans (snozzer time)

As Steve noted, there is a real pea-like aroma. I definitely picked up yellow split peas, or perhaps lentils. It's something I have not picked up on before with other coffees, so hopefully not just something I got through the power of suggestion.

Aroma of the ground

The peas have disappeared and been replaced with a light sweetness, and a promise of acidity. Not something I can come up with a good analogy for (this is my first time, be gentle), but clearly a very different aroma from before.

And finally the coffee itself!

A very mellow aroma, almost bland even. It's certainly not a punch in your face. And the taste is similar. In espresso I was very surprised to get a real dark roast flavour from what is clearly a lightly roasted bean, but for me, it was the good of a dark roast without the bad. Very little bitterness, with a really good balance of sweetness and acidity. In terms of flavour I think this is what I thought great coffee tasted like before I encountered the world of speciality coffee via an office move that meant Monmouth coffee was the nearest decent coffee shop (sorry for walking past you Cafe Nero). The only negative I found was a slight bitterness to the aftertaste

I guess where I am going with this is that the taste of this coffee while pleasing is nothing special. Where this coffee really shines is in it's mouth feel. It doesn't come through massively in an espresso, but turn it into an americano and the sensation is just beautiful. Steve mentioned toffee, I think I would go with caramel, or to lose the plot in over-specificity, the caramel layer of an ice-cream Mars Bar. Anyway back to reality, there is a real sensation of a rich velvety coating being left on the mouth, something which really makes this coffee stand out.

I should probably investigate more brewing methods for the future, but since I am still very much learning the craft of espresso making, I have been choosing to immerse myself fully into that method. I suspect the rich velvetyness that came through in the americano will be even more of a factor in a french press or similar.

Summary

Overall, this is a very nice coffee, although not one that has blown my socks off. I suspect that if I had not being trying ot start this blog, this coffee would have passed me by without making much of an impact. As it is, this is definitely one I would be interested in coming back to in the future, particularly if I ever start to play with different brewing methods. I also wonder whether this coffee might be a good base for a blend, although I know nothing about how/why blends work. I just like this idea of the texture of this coffee combined with the chocolatey vanilla tastes I particularly like.

I'm probably not going to score coffees as a regular thing, but since I haven't fully decided the format yet, and also I think this is a really good baseline coffee, I am going to give it a very solid 7 out of 10.