Friday, August 12, 2005


the nicaragua cup of excellence, part iii

i'm glad that tonx is also enjoying this coffee. i have to agreee with him: andrew b. of ecco "can do no wrong in my book" (er, blog); he's flatly putting out some of the finest coffee around.

following up from yesterday, i made andrew's nicaragua c.o.e. today in the cafetiére, because it does have the potential for a suprisingly heavy body, considering that it's a central. and i wanted to max that out to see just how thick it could be.

lemme step back a minute to talk about the coffee in a more organized way. got your scaa flavor wheel handy?

andrew's roasted this coffee to what i'd call full city; the beans show just tiny pinpricks of oil at 10 days old. as i've stated before, the fresh grounds are beautifully floral and due to its age, a tad round.

in the press, the coffee has low brightness, in fact i found it tasted rather soft. (i wonder if tonx would agree with me on this!)

the cafetiére just doesn't do this coffee's nuances much justice, to my mind -- i think its nutmeg-y, syrup-y feelings are muddied by this brewing method.

but the body is pretty amazing when made this way! as always, it's interesting to walk with a fine coffee through its freshness lifecycle and using different brewing methods.

at every age and with every brewing method, certain aspects of the bean come to the fore. it's just fascinating to explore the possibilities inherent in a truly great coffee this way.

thanks again for the opportunity to do so, andrew!

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