Alchohol-Free Limoncello

Episode 46

Coffee: Nicaraguan El Limoncillo Pacamara Peaberry
Special Notes: Matagalpa, Dr Erwin Mierich
Cup Profile: Zesty, big body, controlled  sweetness, herby, parsley, funky, overripe fruit

OK, so it’s limoncillo, but close enough.
As much as everyone wants summer to last, I think there is no denying that autumn has arrived, and so this week’s coffee is well timed indeed.  The front palate is rich overripe fruits, with dates definitely springing to mind (disclaimer: I very rarely eat dates and had some two days ago, so that may be why I thought of them).   There is some acidity there as well, but just a hint.

In the mid palate there is a real meatiness like a rich beef stew and yet at the same time it remains light with quite a strong floral note. It is a very pleasing combination.

The finish is smooth and unassuming, neither making the experience or interrupting it.  In some ways I think this is what the ideal finish should be, a gentle fading of the earlier components rather than something new and distinct.  And yet I think I am a sucker for the big finish.  I will need to bare this in mind in the future.

The other component of this coffee which lasted throughout was a really strong buttery almost greasy mouthfeel.  At first it was so strong that I wondered if it was contamination from my earlier slice of toast, but it lasted through the whole cup, so I guess it really was the coffee.  Perhaps a bit too overpowering, but mouthfeel is a really big part of what I look for in a coffee, so to get something so distinctive is a very pleasurable experience.  I just hope it wasn’t the toast all along!

Wey hey it’s tango!

Episode 45

Coffee: Guatemalan Finca Vista Hermosa
Special Notes: SHB Huehuetenango Michicoy Micro Lot
Cup Profile:

For an interesting story about how this coffee was bought, check out this weeks InMyMug. 

This is an incredibly orangey coffee.  I am used to citrus in coffee, but I don’t think I have had such a strong impression of oranges before this.  I first tasted this coffee in espresso, and although it is a touch on the acidic side for me, the intensity of the sweet orange flavour in the front palate really won me over.

As with last week, this coffee is on the sweeter side of the spectrum, which isn’t my favourite.  For my first attempt at a filter coffee, I tried a higher grinder setting than normal, and ended up with quite a light insipid cup.  I’ll have to try with my normal settings before I post this.  What was interesting though was how strong the oranges were still.  I think the perfectly brewed cup of this coffee could be quite special, even though it will probably never be quite to my taste

Having now tried this again, I think I might have gone too far the other way.  I have the feeling I will spend the whole week searching for the perfect balance.  Perhaps I will do the same as last week and stick to espresso.  Either way, I will be enjoying it very much.

Comfortable Slippers and Loveliness

Episode 44

Coffee:El Salvador Finca La Fany Bourbon
Special Notes: Santa Ana Region 100% bourbon
Cup Profile: Sweet, caramel, creamy, great mouthfeel, great espresso

For an explanation of the title you will need to watch this weeks InMyMug.  This is another coffee that I like rather than love.  It is incredibly sweet, making it the perfect coffee for someone trying to wean themselves off of sugar.  For me however, I actually found it too sweet and had I not made it myself would have wondered whether it had somehow been contaminated, perhaps by a dirty spoon.  I think the fact I couldn’t bring myself to drink a cup of coffee with sugar in actually inhibited my enjoyment.

Other than the sweetness, this coffee is very nicely balanced,  light and big bodied.  As Steve mentioned, this is not a showy coffee, but it is a very drinkable everyday coffee. 

I think I will be drinking mostly espresso this week, as I am hoping that the sweetness will be much more welcome there than in the French Press.  I have been ignoring espresso for these write-ups for a while now as I find too much of what I end up tasting is down to my barista skills or lack thereof, but if I find myself having any strong feelings one way or the other with this coffee as espresso, I might come back and add to this post.

UPDATE: I did indeed drink the remainder of this coffee as espresso, and towards the end of the week not only had I drunk some stonking espresso, but I had also started to get a taste for the sweetness in it.  I suspect it would still be too sweet for me brewed, but the fact that my tastes are evolving as I expose myself to these coffees is just great

It’s like early in a spring morning in an orchard after a stormy night

Episode 43

Coffee: Brazil Inglaterra Acaia 2008-2009
Special Notes: Pulped Natural
Cup Profile: Chocolate, creamy with hints of parma violets and a little tea like

There are two big things of note with this weeks coffee.  Firstly my description of this coffee is nothing like the cup profile.  I’m not sure what happened, but it is almost like I got the wrong coffee.  I’ll have to wait and see what Steve says when I watch this weeks InMyMug to see if that helps explain.

And secondly, I have come up with the most pompous sounding description of this coffee ever (this posts title), something that in general I really hate because I think it serves no purpose other than to inflate the ego of the describer, but somehow in this case it feels right.

In my defence, the problem with a description such as the above is that it condenses a lot of information into a small number of words, and has no real meaning unless you can uncompress it back into the original meaning.  Since I am about to do that now, I hope I can get away with it.

The first thing that hit me when I tasted this coffee as a big hit of apples (crunchy juicy green apples, not those horrible red ones).  So, plenty of nice bright acidity on the front palate.  This was followed by a hint of twig, and wet grass.  I am trying to avoid adding “but in a good way”, but somehow it was, and I can’t think of a better way to describe it.  And finally, a fresh clean finish.  When I have used tea like as a descriptor in the past, I have meant this sort of clean finish, but with a hint of tannin bitterness left in the mouth.  This has the clean finish, but without the bitterness which is why I avoided using the term, but at least it matches up with the cup profile.  I tend to use tea like as a backhanded compliment I guess, whereas I liked the crispness found here.

So to recap, we have apples and twigs, orchard – check!  bright and crisp, early spring morning – check!  Wet grass, well perhaps stormy night was a bit of a stretch, but with lots of dew isn’t as succinct!  In retrospect I’m not sure if I can justify the title after all, but at least my ego is feeling suitably inflated.

Wow, what a mouthful

Episode 42

Coffee: Costa Rica La Candelilla Tarrazu El Quemado Lot. 
Special Notes: 100% Geisha
Cup Profile: Very crisp, citrus acidity, notes of lime very juicy, hint of molasses and lemon.  Very aromatic and elegant and wickedly clean.

I was quite worried when I heard about this coffee that I would be lead into loving it by how much Has Bean Steve likes this coffee, and also that I would acquire a taste for coffees with higher price tags.  Sadly(?), that wasn’t the case with this coffee at all.  In fact even completely ignoring the price tag, this was the least enjoyable coffee I have had form InMyMug in quite a while.  I would have liked to spend more time playing with this coffee to see if I could find in it what everyone else seems to love, but it ran out before I found a magic formula.

I’m going to be forced to dive into wine metaphors again, so apologies for that.  I suspect this coffee was the equivalent of touring a new world wine region such as California (the only wine region I have been to other than Sussex), and being served bigger and bolder reds, each one trying it’s best to overpower the previous one.  And then at the end of the evening, your host proudly pulling out an exquisite old style Bordeaux.  So to try and save the honour of my host, I will try and put a brave face on it.

This coffee is very floral and aromatic, with lots of brightness, with a clean crisp finish.  Actually perhaps my metaphor above is not quite right, and it is more the equivalent of switching midway through an evening from red to white.  I am actually surprised at how well that fits now that it has occurred to me.  I have often talked about identifying two broad categories of coffee, one that tastes like you would expect coffee too, with lots of chocolate, caramel, vanilla etc, which I am now going to have to avoid calling my “red wine” coffees, and bright acidic coffees, with citrus, berries, flowers etc, which are my “white wine” coffees.  Hopefully I can avoid bringing that up again as I don’t want to start pigeon holing coffees, but it is an interesting fleeting thought.  I just hope I never get sent a sparkling coffee!

I am not going to touch on the price here, as I would rather discuss that in a separate post, although whether I ever get around to doing that is debatable.

Buy this It’s Yummy!

Episode 41

Coffee: Brazil Rancho Sao Benedito 2008
Cup of Excellence Award Winner 2008
Special Notes: Mariana de Carcalho Junqueira Cup of Excellence
Cup Profile: Caramel and chocolate with slight acidity

I haven’t done this in the past, but from now on I will be including links to the coffees each week.  I was just going to do it for this week, as I genuinely would recommend buying this, but figured that it makes sense to include it every week.

Recently there have been quite a few coffees featuring chocolate and caramel flavours.  Of those coffees, this one is definitely the pick of the bunch.  This is rich, creamy and smooth all at the same time.  The acidity counterbalances the richness and makes for a very balanced flavour.

As I have commented in the past, this style of coffee is what I would serve guests, as there are no funky flavours that will shock, just great coffee flavours but brighter richer and smoother.

This is a terrible write up of such a lovely coffee, but as I have fallen behind in the drinking as well as the writing up of these coffees, I have been drinking next weeks coffee as well as this one, and so my head is full of what I think about next weeks.  The bottom line is if you are considering buying this one then do.  If you think it is a little pricey then for the love of god don’t look at next weeks!!!

Thank Brazil Fazenda Sao Judas Tadeu it’s Friday!

Episode 40

Coffee: Brazil Fazenda Sao Judas Tadeu
Special Notes: Pulped Natural UK Exclusive coffee
Cup Profile: Chocolate and cocao sweetness with a crunchie chocolate type honeycomb aftertaste

OK, I'll come clean, it isn’t Friday and I didn’t taste honeycomb in this coffee, but cut me some slack :-)

I’m not sure if the lack of honeycomb is a difference in the cup or in the mouth.  One thing to note is that I first tasted this coffee over a week after it was roasted, so even though the coffee was sealed for that period I am sure there was at least a small amount of ageing.  I tend to find it harder to detect those signature flavours as I get to the end of the bag, so perhaps something similar is going on here.

As for what I do taste, this coffee is all about aftertaste and mouthfeel.  The initial taste is bright and fresh, without being overly lively.  There is also a hint of tea in there, which I think might be a result of the natural process?  I will need to come up with a way of tracking such things at some point, but for now I’ll just put it out there and wait to get shot down.

Anyway, just as this coffee seems to be showing itself as a fairly run of the mill albeit pleasant coffee, it dissolves into one of the sweetest chocolaty aftertastes I have come across.   Think Galaxy melted in the mouth by a swig of coffee.  The way it coats the mouth is straight out of a Galaxy commercial too.  Smooth, silky, velvety, etc.  The difference between this and the bitter aftertaste that I used to associate with coffee is simply stunning. 

I’m not sure what goes into the judging of what makes a great coffee in official circles, but I am starting to think that finish should be considered one of the most important factors.  I am sitting on a train right now, but if I was at home I would definitely be thinking about brewing some more, as I have this lovely memory sitting in my mouth.  Of course in order form me to consider this to be a great coffee I would be looking for a better initial taste, but pair this finish with the best initial flavours, and I would be talking about something truly spectacular.