As the liquid and foam that collects on the back of the spoon sits waiting for the next dip in the liquor, liquid draining off across the silver, the bubbles begin losing internal cohesion and increase in size, number and spacing. It’s also likely that the foam is dehydrating some. You can see – beginning near the edges and moving inwards – how the liquid begins to show signs of drying and thickening as it clings to the surface with increased urgency.
If nothing else, this points out how quickly it changes.
*This isn’t crema, rather it’s the foam that forms on the surface of the coffee liquor after steeping. Times are approximated from adding water. 
I’ve been playing around with macro images lately, preparing for a larger project. For the most part, what I’ve shot is just experimental, but sometimes these images open up new ideas about coffee. When you come closer, that detail and intimacy gives you a chance to develop a richer understanding of things you thought you already knew.
Coffee oils dance on the surface of a bubble buried deep in the coffee’s crust.
Cupping spoon dips into the tan seafoam left after the break, oils still visible as they spread more evenly across the surface.
Grower: Maria Zelayas Aguirre
Farm: Hacienda Carmona Pulcal
Origin/Region: Antigua, Guatemala
Processing: Wet
Varietals: Bourbon & Typika
Description
Clean, and not overly complex and comforting. It has a real nice, round, mellow chocolate with hazelnut tones that moves forward over grapefruited citrus while your coffee cools a bit. The sweetness isn’t what I’d call profound, though it’s raw and agave character does creep up on you as well, finally leaving you with an effervescent, lingering sense of strawberries in chocolate.
Deft Coffee Roasters has its own, growing line of tees and mugs! How about that. Peruse them below or just link to our store here.
Look for a personalized gift at Zazzle.
I love the Vacuum Pot. I love the clarity of the brew, and for certain coffees, it is the best way, I think, to make coffee, bringing out certain nuances that in other methods become lost.
But there’s a downside. It can easily bring a feeling that it is more science experiment than sensual esperience… enter the Syphon Project from Jacob Forrest. I close up, even emotional view of the meticulous process of making syphon coffee. he gorgeously shot the entire process close-up. Just watch…
The Syphon Project from Jacob Forrest on Vimeo.
Grower: Oscar & Olga Mendez
Farm: Finca Genesis
Origin/Region: Lourdes de Naranjo, Costa Rica
Processing: Miel
Description
Crisp, clear jasmine and cane sugar aromatics dart among light nuts and sunflower seeds. Slight bodied, with a gentle, but substantial finish. The structure is a bit like what I imagine something built a group of Dozers would be: crisp, ordered, layered, almost airy, but sweet and compelling; a crisp spiny fruity tang that sits neat with the basic structure. Brisk apple (braeburn, fuji) and grape skin.
Grower: Maximino Gutierrez
Farm: Finca Florestales
Origin/Region: Tolimo, Columbia
Processing: Wet Process Varietal: Caturra
Description
For years, I’ve cupped past Columbian coffees – not because they haven’t been good, some have been excellent, but because I only keep a relatively small selection of coffees at any one time and they have lacked a distinguishing quality that separated them from the other good and excellent coffees. So I bought other coffees.
But this one, grown by Maximino Gutierrez, is different than that. Possibly because it so cleanly caught my memory of first drinking good coffee. There’s a peculiar, subtle coffee-ness in it that encourages its flavors gently on the palete. Nuts – pistachio in particular – bring a buttery sweetness, tentatively salty, floated by sweet rose aromatics. This isn’t the more boastfully acidulous and structured coffees that I normally gravitate towards, but more like gracefully balanced Rwandan.
Lot: (Aged) Peaberry ’07 Crop
Origin: Lintong, Sumatra
Processing: Aged (’07 Crop) Varietal: ?
Description
This’ll lower you into the soil, and wrap you with loamy goodness. Carefully stored for the past 3 years to develop a pretty unique coffee, it’s earthy, deeply peppered with woody cardamon, burnt caramel and brown sugar. It’s intense and lovely all at the same time. Aged coffees are a treat for me that hasn’t been much available for several years and am pretty excited about this little bit. Quite a treat for those who love the deeper, richer coffees.
*Limited availability
Grower: Duhingekawa Women’s Coop
Origin: Rushashi, Rwanda
Processing: Wet Process Varietal: Bourbon
Description
Here is one of those seasonally appropriate coffees, perfect as sun begins creeping around the clouds… earlier and earlier till you’re actually waking up sun sunlight. A touch of moist chill hangs still, but it’s a hopeful moment, where the comfort in the evenness of pralines and hazelnut flavors balance almost exactly with the highly structured, acidulous, tart-like sweetness. Jazz apples at their peak. White Peaches. This isn’t a dance of complexity, but rather a perfect arrangement of what is great about having both natures in a coffee. It wakes you up gently, but with purpose. And that’s what I am loving about this coffee. It’s gentle, exacting. An easy-going perfectionist.
Additional Notes
The Abakundakawa Cooperative mills coffee at the Rushahsi washing station. This particular lot is separated by the Duhingekawa Women’s Group.
