Wednesday, May 10, 2006


kevin's gimme mao horse harrar

the past 10 coffee days or so here at bccy have been rather andean: several types of colombia (and here), some bolivia. just a quick visit to rwanda.

but long-time readers know my heart lies closest with blue coffees (for example, here). thus i just can't tell you how thrilled i was yesterday to come home and discover that kevin c. of gimme had kindly sent me one of my most favorite coffees, the m.a.o. horse harrar from ethiopia.

mille grazie, k! the last time i saw this gorgeous coffee was from stumptown.

as is my wont with fine blue coffee, i whipped out my vac pot to maximize these fruity nuances. i brewed at my usual test 60 g. fresh ground coffee to 1 l. water.

kevin's package describes the roast level as medium-light, which it is for him, since he tends a little darkish. i'd call it full-city, because many of the beans showed a dot or two of oil.

the second i opened the package, i could smell the blue and the dried apricot. didn't even have to grind it.

sniffing the fresh grounds -- ok, ok, i cop to completely stuffing my face into the hopper and practically snorting the wonderful blueberry-floral fragrance -- was just a delight. as the water hit the top globe, the dried apricot aroma came back strongly.

kevin's horse also offered dark vanilla syrup-y aromas and a very surprising aftertaste. normally, i'd be expecting a dark dutch cocoa aftertaste from a harrar.

but no! kevin's aftertaste is different -- he calls it "essence of port" and i agree there's something dried grape-y aged in wood. but there's something a little spicy in there too, i thought, maybe "dry marsala aged in wood?"

the taste was wine-y as expected, and the body medium. but of course the vac pot attentuates body; if i 'd pressed this in the cafetiére it would have a fantastic body.

of course, i love this coffee, even tho' the blue didn't come out into the cup as strongly as i might like. that's probably a grind issue.

will press this tomorrow at a slightly finer grind and report back. . .

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