I got a ton of Intelligentsia’s Black Cat espresso in the mail, so I took a bag to my friend’s cafe to play around with. They only have one grinder so I didn’t have much time to play with the grind, but I did have one of my hand mills with me (a Kalita with metal conical burrs), so I gave that a shot as an espresso grinder. Surprisingly, at the finest setting and dosed to 20 grams, it gave me a pretty decent shot (~45-50ml in 25-28 sec). Better than decent actually, it had a tangy sweetness and chocolatey finish; I enjoyed it. It just took a good couple minutes to grind it, haha.
I also got some coffee from Finca (Farm) Santa Teresa, in Panama; and Finca Matalapa, Guayabo, in El Salvador. I haven’t gotten into the Santa Teresa yet (I like to focus on one coffee at a time, trying different grinds and alternating between V60 and Aeropress), but the Matalapa, Guayabo is really nice – intensely tart fruity sweetness, definitely reminiscent of cranberries as mentioned on Intelli’s tasting notes. It’s really in-your-face, distinctive. As it cools it’s more like juice than coffee.
I’ll try the Santa Teresa at work tomorrow and update this post. :)
UPDATE:
Tried the Santa Teresa, Panama today on Aeropress and V60. The tasting notes on the label are spot on, “devil’s food cake” and “blackberry and concord grape.” To me it reminded me of a dark chocolate infused with merlot wine grapes you can buy at the convenience stores here. Really a nice, rich, layered coffee. I believe this is a blend of washed and pulped-natural/honey processed coffee from the same farm.
I picked up a couple bags of coffee on my last visit to Caffe Themselves (read my review here) – labeled “Indonesia Mandheling” and “Brazil Cup of Excellence #25.” It’s too bad that they aren’t labeled more specifically. After a little searching online I figured out that the Brazil is from Fazenda Djanira. Can’t tell anything else about the Indonesia.
The Indonesia Mandheling is nice, earthy, with notes of tobacco, and a complex sweetness that reminds me of good root beer — they describe this on the bag’s tasting notes as “herb, caramel, paprika.”
The Brazil Fazenda Djanira 2009 COE #25 is really chocolatey, with a nice dried fruit sweetness. The sweetness came off as date-like to me. On the bag the tasting notes are dried persimmon and jujube, which is similar to a date.
Good coffees! And after 1 week they are discounted 30% which makes it much more affordable to try a few.
In case you haven’t heard of it, Cup of Excellence is a prestigious award in which a country’s best coffees are tasted and then the highest scoring coffees are awarded ‘Cup of Excellence’ and auctioned off to roasters around the world. Caffe Themselves is offering quite a few Cup of Excellence coffees, and they’re all worth checking out.
I liked this video. I make coffee every day in my office, and lately I’ve been using the V60. I generally use around 18-22g of coffee and pour ~300ml to yield 250ml of brewed coffee (~8oz). I had been grinding fine and trying to mimic the pour-wait-pour-wait style I’ve often seen used with Melitta pourovers, but it results in an over-extracted brew. This continuous pour style, and a grind just slightly coarser than what i’d been doing, has produced much better results in the cup.
Coffee Factory is one of my favorite cafes in Korea. It’s in the popular Samcheongdong neighborhood around Gyeongbokgung palace, the Presidential Blue House, and a number of foreign consulates. It’s an upscale but unpretentious area that blends traditional and modern Korean culture with its various art galleries, old and new architecture, tea houses and coffee shops, boutiques, and restaurants putting their spin on Western cuisines alongside traditional Korean restaurants.
The area is full of Korean and foreign sightseers walking around taking photos. Coffee Factory’s inviting corner patio and warm brick decor seems to draw a constant flow of people in, creating a nice bustling ambiance inside.
I received these two coffees from Lee Jong Hoon (Korean Barista Champion ’09) and his girlfriend and partner Seol Mi Gyeong, who run Republic of Coffee together. Two great people and very dedicated coffee professionals that I feel privileged to have met!
The Kenya AA Top Mchana is complex and fruity. Dry red wine is the dominant flavor I picked up, followed by a mix of fruit notes that show themselves more clearly as the cup cools: tart grapes and berries, and notes reminiscent of slightly salty, tangy dried fruit.
The Flor del Cafe 2009 Costa Rica Cup of Excellence (COE) #15 was my favorite of the two. Straight off the brew, it hits you with a strong tea-like spice and sweetness. As it becomes cooler, a subtle roasty caramel sweetness and green apple-like tartness emerges and then becomes lighter, a flavor I can’t describe, but perhaps the melon descriptor on the bag is apt. The aftertaste is like black tea and spices. It really impresses as it changes temperatures! I made a cup right before teaching a class and kept sipping and making mental notes of how the flavor changed :)
I brewed these coffees on a Hario V60 using a variety of ratios and grinds, but generally around 18-20g coffee to 250ml water with a grind a bit finer than what works on a Melitta pour-over.
I also used an Aeropress and the upside-down steeping method (~2min steep, a little stir, then flip it and do a 30 sec press. 16-18g coffee with a grind similar to what works for V60, with ~200ml water.)
Great coffees! However, I’m not sure how to order them, as their website seems to require a Naver account. I’ll update if I find a way. Sorry :(
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