Wednesday, November 16, 2005


kello yrg, part iii & congrats

first of all, the nytimes has a great article today on long-time bccy pals, including mark inman, doug zell, and nick cho (use bugmenot). it's annoying that the times new publishing system doesn't put up many articles until the mid-morning, so if you don't see the page at first, check back later.

congrats to all! however, i do fear that the times misquoted nick, who surely would never say that coffee should be "hacked out of the jungle with a machete."

long-time readers know that premium coffee cherries are carefully picked branch by branch by skilled workers who can tell when the fruit is appropriately ripe. it's an acquired skill that's harder than it looks, as many -- such as long-time pal dougie -- have discovered for themselves when they visit origin!

this morning i followed through my promise yesterday to make scott & jessica's batdorf "latitudes" kello yrg in the chemex.

again, i brewed this coffee with 26 oz/769 ml water and .5 oz/43 g fresh-ground coffee for a total drip time of 4 mins., 40 secs. and the result was good, but next time i would definitely recommend moving up to 1.75 oz/50 g coffee.

(oren, jedi chemex master, believes 26 oz water -- a chemex half-pot -- calls for 1.85 oz/52 g to 2 oz/57 g fresh ground coffee. "stronger is better," for the chemex urges he; so go for it; i certainly will!)

um, where was that scaa flavor wheel?

a quick reminder: scott crafted this coffee to a city roast, and it's now 9 days old. the flavors of the coffee are definitely shifting in a beautiful way, like the autumn leaves changing color.

now a hint of the blueberry is easily discernible even in the fresh dry grounds, and when i stirred the bloom this morning, the strange sweetish wild aroma was replaced by a clear, light blue. say, a caribbean blue!

the chemex gave the kello yrg an interesting mix of its yrg-marries-harrar-and-wins-a-cupping-prize character. the blue barely made it into the cup, but that presence could be increased by using more coffee -- thus oren's dosage recommendation.

the coffee also displayed great molasses or maple syrup flavors in the middle of the bouquet and ended with a great chocolate harrar note. what was extremely interesting is that the yrg-type citrus also was clearly detectable as the coffee cooled just a bit.

so we had a rather blueberry-lemon maple-syrup coffee parfait with a dusting of chocolate. it's a yummy, if unusual thing!

the body in the chemex was a little heavier than when i brewed it in the vac pot, but was still a bit attenuated. again, going to oren's 1.85 oz would improve this.

the wine-yness of the coffee remained the same as the brew cooled. flat cold, the blueberry-lemon and wine-y taste became predominant, i thought.

again, a great coffee to drink black or with a little light cream and raw sugar. with cream and sugar the wine-yness and the lemon are rather obscured, i must confess -- but the chocolate feeling is enhanced and the caribbean blue haze hovers over a cooling cup. . .

posted by fortune | 7:18 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 6 comments