Here is an acknowledgment that coffee, very much like all other agricultural (seasonal) products, are the result of keen human endeavors. That the distance between consumers and producers has obscured any clear appreciation of the stories it takes to bring anything of quality to the world.
It’s a call to slow your pace and appreciate where your morning ritual has come from, who it has come from, and take into account it’s place in the world.
You can find out more at the links below.
Slow Coffee
The Institute of Slowness
Kudos to 1000 Faces Coffee. It’s awesome to see this sort of involvement in coffee culture.
It’s been a super full week – taxes and other things – so it’s been difficult to make up some shortfall from Sunday’s roasting. So this morning pulled out a bit of the Aged Sumatra that I roasted a week and a half ago… this coffee has legs. Although it doesn’t have the freshness that it did a week ago, it hasn’t lost it’s depth either. Very very nice.
Aged. First cupping of a three year old coffee and I’m so happy with it. After a week of cupping good and decent coffees, with only one or two standouts, this one is a clear choice for me.
Intense, thick, pepper and spice – cardomon, brown sugar, burnt caramel, and a deep woody-earthy dry-chocolate base.
The roast could be brought a slight bit more – just touching second crack – to bring the caramelization out more, but other than that I am happy with the balance.
Be sure to give it 3 days rest.
Oh, and it lingers.
Just did a first cupping of a new Peru coffee – El Guabo… Very impressed. It was what I call a casual cupping, which means I don’t score it and just note my experience with it. It’s something I do with most all the coffees to get to how it strikes me emotionally than, say, the degree of complexity or whatnot.
Anyway, it was quite elegant – hazlenut base, smooth medium-full body with hints of vanilla and apricot (especially in the dry aroma). Great balance. I kept thinking to myself that I could simply drink this all day long and neither get bored of it nor feel that I had to pay attention to it.
From the Cerrado region in Minas Gerais, Brazil comes a wonderfully complex Brazilian coffee. Daterra has long been on the forefront of producer technology, but that isn’t why I am so fond of their coffees. It’s the flavor. A rich, full-bodied chocolate & cocao base that mingle with deeply fruited layers of raisin and black cherry delivers an extraordinarily balanced, structured cup with a long, sweet finish.
This particular coffee is a blend of three varietals, grown and selected from different plots on the farms, and although it has espresso in the name, it is equally suited for press and drip brewing.
And to top it all off, this coffee is certified by Utz Kapeh & The Rainforest Alliance.
Rich like the marbling of Kobe beef. Medium-heavy body. Stone fruits – like apricot and the light starch of a real good, I mean amazingly smooth and even textured, pear – weave complex, layered dolphin patterns through a bed of bittersweet cocao and chocolate.
(this coffee is currently sold out)
Similar to the Koratie Dry-Processes that sold out so quickly, but with more crispness. Lighter fruits are at play – starfruit, citrusy notes. But it’s sweet and aromatic, floral. Complex and delicate. Light in body. This is like the sun the last couple days, crisp, bright, but with a stark clarity to the air that is mesmerizing. Truly, this coffee is an amazing display of skill set to work amid the right environmental conditions. This is a very light roast, gingerly stretched at the right points to bring forward the floral and clear crisp complexity of its fruit flavors.
(this is currently sold out)
The ambiance set by clear morning light and this Kenyan from the Giakanja Cooperative Mill in Nyeri match perfectly.
Light Streaming through Ponderosa Pines along the banks of the Metolius River
This was a casual morning cupping – one where it happens as you wake up… The beauty of this coffee pulled me immediately out of my frozen slumber. Yes, the air was chilled, felt like dry ice, but with bright morning light glinting off the Metolius River as it burbled by the site. I got full round fruits, melons playing in a bed of rich stone fruit (without any hint of starch). Intense flavor mingled with the clear bright yellow, almost white light coming through the tops of majestic Ponderosa Pines along the Green Ridge line.
On a plate in front of me, a slice of pan fried (in butter, of course) sourdough bread topped with Cheddar and slices of real Tomato. The Satisfying tartness of the sour starter, crispy and chewy, the caramelized / browned butters sweetness supports the bright marmalade-like fruitiness of this Nyeri district Kenyan. The fact that I stretched the Millard phase of the roast a tiny bit, giving the fruits a bit less clarity, but more intertwined complexity works well with the acidulous nature of good fresh tomatoes.
I had just a small amount of the that San Ignacio left (~18g, to be exact) and it is hot as a mutha here right now, so I set out to make a delicate, fully satisfying iced coffee. (Vietnamese stye)
Bolivia San Ignacio as it's brewing, icing
Sweet isn’t quite enough of a word for it. The buttery body (mmm) that was in hot cup, completely turned inward, and became more of a perceived sense than actual flavor – like jabbing your finger in the stick of warm butter sitting on the butcher block, maybe even on a slab of Himalayan pink salt, and putting it in your mouth. Warmth. Oily. Yummy.
Then. And then… that delicate flower of sweetness takes off, floats lightly, and clearly above the cool ice and butter. Like finding lost berries and cream. Clear hints of cherry and super ripe raspberries (just like the amazingly juicy ones Christy just brought home from the Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island the other day…) ‘Twas beauty. Total beauty. ‘Nother please… If only I had some more.
I still need to post the roast notes from this batch…
