Thursday, July 13, 2006


to fisk or not to fisk?

that is the question: whether 'tis nobler to let misinformation and misconceptions stand or to engage in the strenuous parsing of phrase? seriously, there are a couple of people i'm tempted to completely fisk re recent coffee controversies.

except, who has time? esp. for the inevitable dull counterfisking. . .i think it's better just to drink the java you got.

which is why i turned my cafetiére this morning back to oren's yemen moka sanani. these beans come to oren via mohamed moledina.

and let me say from the start, it is without a doubt the cleanest, best quality sanani i have ever had. i could easily say -- as i usually do -- get your scaa flavor wheel.

or i could say, imagine a lovely clean yemen that tastes the way a sanani should. the way you've always heard it could be, yet so rarely is -- a yemen without groundy or clay tastes.

not woody. not thin-bodied. not bug-chewed.

the beans show just a little oil, so i'm calling this roast a full-city+, thank you very much.

it's pleasingly winey in taste, with a sweetly spicy fragrance, caramelly, and with a nice dry dark dutch cocoa aftertaste. when i opened the bag and just sniffed the beans today, i thought -- hmm, raspberries? -- but i haven't yet managed to get that delicate scent into the cup.

i gotta work out the grind issue for that, imvho: i think it's so light and volatile it just drifts away from the hopper, leaving the freshly ground beans smelling sweetly spicy. anyway, oren calls it a "fruit basket."

what is this fragrance in question? if we look at flament, he doesn't list raspberry per se in his organoleptic qualities of coffee, but instead uses the term, "red fruit."

however, red fruit is usally more a rounder, sweetish cherry-type quality, according to don schoenholt of gillies.

and going through his list of the compounds that naturally exist in coffee, his mentions a variety of Β-damascenone, a well-known chemical naturally present in rose oil. but that's probably not my raspberry.

don thinks it's more likely to be found headed towards the blackberry side of the aromas category on the flavor wheel. don thinks this is an acid taste (meaning i think it may find origins in something like an ester of pentanoic acid?).

and he says a list would be like: raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, blackberry as the coffee wanders down the line between wine-y and fermented.

but that's a different discussion. . .oren's sanani also offers a fantastic body, medium-heavy.

anyway, if you're a yemen lover and not a crazed romantic cupper, you'll be impressed by the positive qualities of this coffee. i urge you to pick some up before oren runs out; he told me there wasn't too much left. . .

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posted by fortune | 8:25 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 2 comments