Friday, June 16, 2006


nice chat with oren & the groundwork tarrazu dota

and oren was so kind as to leave his aerie on the upper east side and drop by with some kona from greenwell! much thanks to you, o!

normally i would brew this in the vac pot, but after o's recent discussion of the chemex, that's where this will go tomorrow.

i started this morning with scaa pro member ric rhinehart's groundwork costa rica tarrazu dota shb in the chemex, at 1.75 oz fresh ground coffee to 28 oz. water with a brew time of 4 mins. 35 sec. dota, as i've said before, is a prized micro-region of the famed costa rica tarrazu coffee area.

the trade esteems dota because of its naturally high humidity and unusually rich volcanic soil, says don schoenholt of gillies. these are just extra-wonderful growing conditions for the bean, as is the general altitude, which tends to average about 3,300 ft.

this coffee was definitely roasted darker than ric's granadillo. all the beans showed large patches of oil; say, if you turned the beans over and looked at the backs, up to 1/2 to 2/3s of that surface showed oil.

so i'm calling it espresso. and maybe he intends it for single-origin espresso shots?

as you would expect from the roast level, the brightness was lesser than you might expect, so i'm calling it barely nippy. when ground, the coffee was still floral.

obviously, the major feeling was roast coffee notes (the cupping handbook lists this as a subset of malty, and i'd say the aftertaste is definitely in the pungent, clove-y region of the flavor wheel. the body stayed nice & silky, however.

long-time readers know that i'm not a big fan of the dark coffees personally, but if you love the west-coast dark style, i predict you will like ric's dota very much. i'm tempted to try it as an espresso this weekend. . .

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posted by fortune | 8:38 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments