Friday, September 08, 2006


tracy allen's zoka colonel fitzroy

with many thanks to tracy, i leapt outta bed this morning, ran to fetch the chemex, and popped open his zoka colonel fitzroy blend. the bag's roast dated aug. 29.

i took a good look at the roast level -- a variety of beans, not all of which appeared to have quite the same roast, as some had much larger patches of oil than others (some showed only pinpricks of oil) -- making me think this blend might be a mélange, a blend of different beans at different roast levels.

i'd say the lightest were vienna, while the darkest were definitely heading into french. of course zoka uses a slightly different roasting terminology in-house. . .

long-time readers know that this is much darker than the coffees i usually describe. seeing a coffee this dark, i would certainly have expected it to be smokey, piney, perhaps even almost char-y.

imagine my surprise when, after brewing it to the so-called "oren proportion," it displayed a gentle bright taste! considering the age of the bean, i was worried it wouldn't bloom much in the chemex, a fear that soon eased.

it bubbled and hissed as if only 2 or 3 days old. the fragrance of the dry grounds definitely were sweetly spicy -- coriander maybe.

i also would say a light tobacco nose and deep dark chocolate -- unsweetened chocolate -- aftertaste predominated this full blend. as a general non-fan of dark roast coffees, i was surprised by how truly enjoyable this blend was: i liked it quite a bit.

if you're a real fiend for the dark side, a devotee of the "west coast" style, i think you'll find the colonel fitzroy deeply intriguing. especially in a french press.

thank you again, tracy! we should chat more often!

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