Deft. Coffee Roasters. » espresso

Maloolaba Plantation. Papua New Guinea.

Dave — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:48:38 +0000

This is smooth coffee. This is interesting coffee. This is beautiful coffee. Papua New Guinea can produce some of the most wonderful and unique coffees anywhere. This one’s vegetal, red bell pepper flavors mingle in a heavy, rustic sweetness and herbaceous bright tones – like the heady resinous quality of fresh cut rosemary. It doesn’t overpower though, it glides onto your palette, easing it’s complexity towards you… pauses, then sparkles, dangling its brightness in the finish like the scales of a fish glinting in the long sunbeams of winter morning light.

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Memories of Guatemala Huehuetenango Finca Vista Hermosa espresso

Dave — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:43:44 +0000

When I first met Edwin Martinez, he called me up asking if I’d be interested in trying his coffee. My first impression (don’t take this the wrong way Edwin) was that he was quite a bit older than I. It was the way he talked, with such grace and wisdom. He wasn’t frantic. He was certain of what he said. And he was generous in a way that I have really only encountered with people who have lived many lifetimes.

Without knowing what I was going to get, but knowing that at the time, I had almost no central american coffees (his farm , Finca Vista Hermosa, in Huehuetenango, Guatemala) I thought it was a good idea to meet. It was clear from what he said that he was as interested in finding out what I was doing as he was in selling me coffee. In other words, he was more concerned that if he sold me coffee, he would be selling it to someone that was going to continue to take car of it as he would. I respect that immensely.
So one Saturday, late morning, we sat down and chatted. The first thing I remember when I actually met him was woah. He’s like my age. Crazy. Anyway, we talked for probably an hour and a half… And thinking back to that conversation, I feel that the most important part of that conversation was about the nature of the relationship that we were forming. It was about trust, and equitable trade.

And I should point out that his coffee was pretty amazing as well… I still have such fond memories of how complex, clearly fruity it is. A true expression of it’s own land. It’s not exactly simple, but it approaches you much like Edwin does, calmly with a lot of history rolling around inside. I as very intrigued when he told me that Barefoot was using his coffee as a single origin espresso, and how it could hold up to any blend. I was (and am still) unable to justify blends if the intention is to produce and roast coffee of the utmost caliber. And the idea that I might offer exclusively single origins, even as espresso (which was the one method where I was, at the time, willing to compromise that position) was soo cool. In the end, I didn’t all the time, but in hindsight, I should have.

Anyway, that’s what I was thinking about when I got to this illustration. I’m not sure when I made this, but I think it was a little before I began carrying Edwin’s coffee.

[here is a transcript in case you can't read my writing (which is highly probable]
Guatamalan (sic) Huehuetenango Finca Vista Hermosa

Very Smooth – sweetish crema -> is okay not a lot of crema…

crema — sweet but not tremendous amount… more like mango than straight sweet – that slight tang of fruit acid juice.

Good body – but could be a lighter roast – slightly chalky

a real interesting, mild espresso

[I want to point out that at the time I wrote this note, I was serving Malabar Gold as espresso, which is pretty much the opposite when it comes to amount of crema. I was young, what can I say?]

Follow up on Carlos and Edwin

A drawing from my journal a couple years ago

Dave — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:45:25 +0000

I decided a bit back that I was going to go back through and scan, then post some stuff from my old coffee journals. They will be everything that seems a bit interesting, from sketched of diagrams for the roaster, to diagrams of tastes (I have been diagraming out how I wanted certain coffees to taste based on my initial cuppings or intention with it—like espresso), to attempts to organize, segment and otherwise understand the roast process. I have a lot of those. Some make no sense, though I bet they did at the time I drew them.So here is the first post, a drawing that I did while I was pulling (a lot) of shots of various origins to figure out the blend and roast profile for an espresso (I eventually called it Loam). I am pretty sure that at the time I drew this image, I was simply pulling shots from as many different origins as I could—whatever I had on hand and could get samples of at the time. This one was Sumatra Mandheling (PWN Fancy Select). I did end up using it in the final blend.

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