Tuesday, April 18, 2006


congrats to scott & jessica

and in more exciting news from the cupping pavilion at the recent scaa conference, i've confirmed that the number one coffee in the cupping competition there was the petersons' la esmeralda panama geisha. which you and i, dear readers, know from scott & jessica of batdorf.

you may recall how i just couldn't stop writing about this coffee -- and for good reason. here, here, here, and here. . .

alas, this spectacular, benchmark coffee's long gone; intelligent coffee lovers snatched it up fast. we can only await the new crop with hope.

however, there is still a bit of the fabulous batdorf ethiopian kello left, and if i were you, i'd catch that before it too vanishes. . .

as promised yesterday, i did brew up a half-pot of andrew b's ecco santa terezhina in the chemex this morning. this coffee's roasted dated apr. 13, making it now 6 days old.

for half-pot chemex brewing i've pretty much converted to what i call the "oren proportion," or 2 oz/56 g fresh ground coffee to 26 oz/769 ml water. my total brew time was 4 min. 27 secs.

andrew roasted these beans to what i'd call city; there's not a speck of oil anywhere. i'd like to note that this coffee came in at number 23 in the 2005 brazilian c.o.e.

this is high-quality coffee, and as a result the farmer received US$3.85 a pound green. let me note finally that this coffee is of a variety called "mondo novo."

this is noteworthy because this cultivar has a reputation for producing coffee with a tendency toward brightness and a somewhat light body. so let's go ahead and talk about this coffee, with the scaa flavor wheel.

freshly ground, this coffee has a wonderful floral bouquet. when the water hit the grounds in the chemex, the coffee bloomed beautifully, revealing what seemed to me to be an unusual aroma -- i know it sounds crazy -- but it really did remind me a little of hot fried plantains (maybe because that scent was in my mind from dinner the night before?) -- a starchy banana quality -- i thought the rest of the bouquet was malty and slightly woody-spicy.

and of course it had the dutch cocoa aftertaste so many of andrew's coffees have; i just think of it as the "ecco aftertaste" practically. the chemex gave the coffee a medium-light body.

the taste hovered between sweet and lightly bright, i thought.

a very nice breakfast coffee, i'd say, with dry toast. add a splash of light cream and splenda, and the chocolate became milky.

i think this coffee would have a wide appeal. yummy.

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posted by fortune | 6:45 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 2 comments