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| You are browsing 2007 - A to COL Reviews |
| Australia |
| Australian Mountain Top Estate XF | |||||||
| Country: | Australia | Grade: | XF - Extra Fancy, Double Sorte | Region: | New South Wales | Mark: | Mountain Top Estate, Bin 431 |
| Processing: | Pulped-Natural Processed | Crop: | October 2007 Arrival | Appearance: | .6 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen | Varietal: | Bourbon-derived hybrid |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3 | Notes:Mountain Top is a farm in SE Australia, about 2 hours south of Brisbane and 5 minutes west of Nimbin. This selected area is unique because of the altitude and unique volcanic red soils. The farm itself is on the slopes of the extinct volcano, Mt. Warning. The area is a lush, subtropical environment, and is unique in coffee since this is the southernmost growing area I am aware of. It's also unique in that this growing area is quite distant from where most Aussie coffees come from, at least the Skybury from Mareeba in the north, which is a fully mechanized farm akin to Kauai coffee. And this is the first time we have bought an Aussie coffee, after years of evaluating Skybury samples and finding the flavors to be somewhere between copy paper and plastic wrappers, this is such a relief. What is Bin 431? It is a special designation for a lot that was screen dried directly after the skin was removed from the coffee cherry, and then double-sorted, meaning that it was run through the density sorting table twice to remove defects. It's a very sweet and rounded cup. It has a peculiar rounded form which is somewhat like Bourbon cultivar, and somewhat like Mundo Novo. Interestingly, Mountain Top is using the new mylar bag packaging pioneered by Daterra in Brazil to preserve green coffee as it travels across the equator and through greatly varying climates (namely, varying humidities). Now the cup ... the best part ... The cup has a unique sweetness to it. If you showed this to me blind, I would guess it was a mix of a super high-quality, sweet Brasil (body, rustic sweetness) and a Central (it has more bright, liveliness than most Brazils). But there is something of the Island coffees here too, a mild roundness to the cup. It's an odd term but very appropriate here: juicy! This cup is very juicy and has a very nice sweetness to it that is almost like pine sap, rustically sweet. How many times can I use the word "sweet" in describing this coffee? It would be a great training tool to show people what "sweet" coffee is... and it has brightness, something I have never truly experienced in an Aussie coffee. Overall, the flavors exist in a compact range, and the sweet aftertaste seems to linger for an appropriate amount of time given the quality of the body; viscous. | |||||
| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8.3 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.6 | ||||||
| Body - Movement (1-5) | 3.8 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.4 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 1 | Intensity/Prime Attribute:Mild intensity / rustic sweet, viscous-bodied cup | |||||
| add 50 | 50 | Roast:I like true Full City, just before 2nd crack. Even a bit into 2nd is nice - at this stage it is more bittersweet than sweet. I also notice that, with rest of several days, the body is much greater than I score here in the review. | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 86.1 | Compare to: Sweet Brasils in part, and Island coffee qualities in some regards, a sweet and straightforward cup that is, nonetheless, quite incomparable. | |||||
| Bali |
| Bali Kintamani Arabica | |||||||
| Country: | Bali | Grade: | 1 | Region: | Kintamani | Mark: | Kintamani Subak Abian |
| Processing: | Semi-wet-Processed | Crop: | November 2007 Arrival | Appearance: | 1.2 d/300gr, 18 screen | Varietal: | Typica Cultivar (selection 795 and USDA 762) |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3.5 | Notes:Bali coffees are hit and miss, usually suffering from transport damage (being held up in sweltering port cities). And they have also been, as a tradition, fully wet-processed. That means lower intensity, lighter body, and a very mild character … not things that people look for in Indonesian coffees like Sulawesi and Sumatra. There's a larger plantation, Shinzan, that has been the only mark available for some time, but there are also small-holder farms in Bali that belong to cooperative mills. These are called Subak Abian groups in Bali, and are actually a combined coffee coop and Hindu religious group, ruled democratically by a communally written set of rules called an "awig-awig." The basic guiding philosophy of the Subak Abian is called the "Three Happy Causes" (Tri Hita Karana) which stresses the importance of religion to man, to other men, and to the environment. Kintamani is basically the highlands of volcanic Bali, at the top of the island in the mountainous area. These coop groups have had trouble reaching a market for their coffee. The suggestion was, "why not do a more Sumatra-type process", something they call "wet-hulled," rather than a wet-process, to result in a cup with more Indonesia character. In this process, the coffee cherry is depulped out of it's skin, washed for a short time, then hulled when the coffee is dried to just 30-40% moisture (usually coffee is hulled out of the parchment shell only after it is dried to 12% moisture and the bean is hard). Then the green bean coffee is dried on raised beds. It is not sexactly a Sumatra process, where coffee is dried with all the mucilage on the parchment, but the effect is quite similar. And that's the Indonesia-type cup we have here. The dry fragrance has a great, rustic bittersweet chocolate character with melon fruit backdrop. The body is very heavy, and there's a very dark caramelized sugar sweetness (if you can call it that, almost carbony sugar tones.) It's pungent, with strong tobacco notes, a deep, brooding character overall. The acidity is very, very low, and along with the substantial body, gives the cup a syrupy aspect. I find that the light roasts are abit low in intensity, meaning that a heavier roast is really what gives this coffee some definition. | |||||
| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3.4 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 7.5 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.4 | ||||||
| Body - Movement (1-5) | 4.3 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.4 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 0 | Intensity/Prime Attribute:Medium-Bold intensity / Chocolate, tobacco notes, low acidity. |
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| add 50 | 50 | Roast:Full City+ is ideal for the cup I describe. This coffee can take darker roasts and develops a good chocolate bittersweet roast flavor. Vienna is great too! | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 85.5 | Compare to: Low acidity, good body, chocolate - very Indonesian | |||||
| Bolivia |
| Bolivia FTO SHG EP Caranavi | |||||||
| Country: | Bolivia | Grade: | SHG | Region: | Caranavi, Yungas | Mark: | Caranavi, Cenaproc Coop "de Montana" |
| Processing: | Wet Processed | Crop: | April 2007 Arrival | Appearance: | .2 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen | Varietal: | Typica |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3.6 | Notes:I have been waiting and waiting for a Bolivia coffee like this, and let me tell you, I passed up quite a few to find it. In fact, I suspected that the entire crop might be off this year, so mild and insipid where the Bolivia coffees I was cupping. And these were from the best small farms and cooperatives I had visited there. But here is a coffee that is everything a Bolivia should be, a lively, light-bodied, bright, dynamic coffee. What is up with that name? Well, I thought it would be a funny to include every proper type label that comes on the burlaps of this coffee: FTO SHG EP: Fair Trade Certified, Organic Certified, Strictly High Grown, European Preparation. The name is a mouthful - but I would rather just enjoy the cup... it's good. The Cenaproc Co-op has been doing such a good job with their coffees that it's almost unfair. They won the #1 spot in the Bolivian Coffee Competition in 2003 through 2005, and had multiple other lots in the Top 10. This co-op knows what they're doing, and while different lots have different cup characters (because they originate on the small farms of different coop members), the Cenaproc mill has nailed down the processing and preparation to maximize the cup quality for all their coffees. The "de Montaña" mill produces their best Strictly High Grown coffees. For me, a great Bolivia is not a powerhouse coffee, it's a fragile, fragrant cup that deserves the tasters attention. The dry fragrance is a little unusual here, having an unusual nutty sweetness to it. I found it a bit like Nutella, the hazelnut-chocolate spread. Evaluating the brewing coffee (i.e. wet aromatics, sniffing the crust, breaking the cup - not literally though), the floral, aspects come out, with a vanilla bean waft in there too. The cup flavors have sweet red apple, that same nut note, soft chocolate tones and vanilla. As it cooled I thought of praline and that reminded me that this flavor combination was a bit like Toblerone. Which one you ask? You know, the milk chocolate one in the tan triangular box, not the dark one. | |||||
| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3.7 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8.8 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.6 | ||||||
| Body - Movement (1-5) | 2.9 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.5 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 0 | Intensity/Prime Attribute:Mild intensity / Delicate balance of fine floral and fruit |
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| add 50 | 50 | Roast:City+, seriously … the bright notes are buried at FC+ | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 86.1 | Compare to: Bright, Lively Cup; comparisons to Typica-derived Centrals (such as Panamas) and such are worth making. | |||||
| Brazil |
| Brazil Coromandel - Fazenda Sao Joao | |||||||
| Country: | Brazil | Grade: | 17/18 Screen, SS, FC | Region: | Coromandel, Cerrado, Minas Gerais | Mark: | Fazenda Sao Joao, Reginaldo Silvoni |
| Processing: | Natural Dry Processed | Crop: | December 2007 Arrival | Appearance: | .8 d/300gr, 17+ Screen | Varietal: | Catuai (Selection 144) |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3.4 | Notes:Coromandel is a coffee from Minas Gerais, more speciifically from the savana-like area called the Cerrado. This Coromandel has decent altitude compared to other areas of Cerrado (1000 meters) and a very dry climate. To aid in the coffee production and help increase even ripening, Fazenda Arco Sao Joao uses an efficient drip irrigation system for their coffee. (Many farms in Cerrado, if the irrigate, use inefficient overhead spray irrigation). The farm is strictly a family operation: José Silvone is the father, working with his two sons Reginaldo Silvone and Cristiano Silvone. I was really impressed with the sweetness of this cup from the start, and floral aroma. The cup has the roast character you expect from good Brazil coffees from Cerrado, full body, nutty in the lighter roasts and good hefty chocolate in the darker roasts. But this lot also has floral aromatics, and a good rustic sweetness, honey-like at City+ roast, more bittersweet a toffee-like at FC roast. There's a hint of root beer and aromatic wood in this cup, and a mild tannin dryness in the aftertaste. It's almost a shame to use this in blends for espresso, but it does that service well. Howerver, I think the straight shots of FC+ roast are better than any blend, and I recommend you try this as unblended espresso. In fact, I had one of the most remarkable shots I can recall from an FC roast of this Sao Joao (which means Saint John, by the way). For brew methods or for extraction, it's a great Brazil lot. I like all 5 samples we were shown of this coffee, but this particular one, lot 283, was by farm my favorite, as it was with the other cuppers who evaluated them with me. | |||||
| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3.6 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8.4 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.6 | ||||||
| Body - Movement (1-5) | 3.9 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.7 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 0 | Intensity/Prime Attribute:Medium intensity / Sweetness, body, floral hint |
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| add 50 | 50 | Roast:For brewed coffee I have best results at City+, and Full City or FC+ for SO espresso | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 86.6 | Compare to: Excellent quality single-Estate Brazil, with nuanced cup profile. | |||||
| Brazil Moreninha Formosa WP Decaf | |||||||
| Country: | Brazil | Grade: | Estate | Region: | Serra do Salitre, Minas Gerais, Cerrado Mineiro | Mark: | Moreninha Formosa |
| Processing: | Dry-Processed on raised screens, then WP Decaf | Crop: | October 2007 Arrival | Appearance: | .6 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen | Varietal: | Mundo Novo, Bourbon |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3.2 | Notes:The Moreninha Formosa is from Serra do Salitre, a high plain in Cerrado Miniero, Minas Gerais state. It's the same micro-region where we bought the competition-winning natural dry process Fazenda Rio Paraná of Ricardo Torezan last year. At 1200 meters, the Serra do Salitre has better altitude than most of Cerrado proper, which averages 800-900 meters for coffee production. More importantly, this is a special dry-process done on raised beds ...well, screens, in the African tradition. This allows for dry air to circulate all around the coffee, evenly and thoroughly evaporating moisture from the ripe coffee cherry. And that's the second key here; ripe cherry. The owners of this mill advance 70% of the local price for coffee to growers who deliver red cherry coffee to receiving stations. The reason for receiving coffee in the form of ripe cherry is to ensure uniform processing, and to avoid the defects that usually end up on the patios in typical dry-processing. Therefore, expertise in coffee preparation is offered to the growers, and guarantees the best coffee quality. Your average decaf Brazil is a fairly neutral cup, and its main use is for decaf espresso blends, but can offer an interesting straight roast if you target the right roast level. It adds body and is a good "backdrop" in terms of roast taste. A backdrop coffee fills out the background of the cup and does not interfere with your "highlight" coffees, the ones that are going to be the exclamation point of your cup character. I think this cup is much better than a basic Brazil decaf! It holds up well to a little more roast than most decafs (I recommend FC to FC+) and has such good body and chocolate notes, with low acidity. may Brazil decafs are best saves for espresso, and mediocre as a brewed cup. But here there is a dark brown sugar sweetness lingering with mild chocolate notes. | |||||
| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3.3 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.4 | ||||||
| Body - Movement (1-5) | 3.8 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.2 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 0 | Intensity/Prime Attribute:Mild intensity / Full Body, low acidity | |||||
| add 50 | 50 | Roast:Full City to Full City+: works best as a lighter roast for brewed coffee. | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 84.9 | Compare to: Mild, full body, low acid cup profile, and a rare lot in that it is a single-farm Brazil decaf lot. | |||||
| Brazil Cerrado Screen-Dried Moreninha Formosa | |||||||
| Country: | Brazil | Grade: | Estate | Region: | Serra do Salitre, Minas Gerais, Cerrado Mineiro | Mark: | Moreninha Formosa |
| Processing: | Dry-Processed on raised screens, then WP Decaf | Crop: | October 2007 Arrival | Appearance: | .6 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen | Varietal: | Mundo Novo, Bourbon |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3.4 | Notes:The Moreninha Formosa is from Serra do Salitre, a high plain in Cerrado Miniero, Minas Gerais state. It's the same micro-region where we bought the competition-winning natural dry process Fazenda Rio Paraná of Ricardo Torezan a couple years back. At 1200 meters, the Serra do Salitre has better altitude than most of Cerrado proper, which averages 800-900 meters for coffee production. More importantly, this is a special dry-process done on raised beds ...well, screens, in the African tradition. This allows for dry air to circulate all around the coffee, evenly and thoroughly evaporating moisture from the ripe coffee cherry. And that's the second key here; ripe cherry. The reason for receiving coffee in the form of ripe cherry is to ensure uniform processing, and to avoid the defects that usually end up on the patios in typical dry-processing. Expertise in coffee preparation is offered to the growers via the mill, and guarantees the best resulting cup quality and better prices to the farmer. The cup is very rustic, fruited, chocolatey, and thick. I mean, this coffee has dense, big body. And the natural, somewhat earthy-tones in the the flavor made me (for a second) do a double-take ... was this a natural Yemeni coffee? No, the flavor is quite different, but it has that level of exotic, "wild" character. The chocolate character depends on the roast. At a C+ roast, it is quite nutty, and a long slow FC+ roast has a dense bittersweet character. In all cases, this is a low acidity cup. | |||||
| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3.5 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8.1 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.6 | ||||||
| Body - Movement (1-5) | 4.4 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.5 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 0 | Intensity/Prime Attribute:Medium-Bold intensity / Chocolate, rustic, nutty, full-body. |
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| add 50 | 50 | Roast:Full City to Full City+ | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 86.5 | Compare to: Great natural dry-process Brazil with lots of rustic chocolate, especially in drum roasts. | |||||
| Brazil Cachoeira da Grama Yellow Bourbon | |||||||
| Country: | Brazil | Grade: | 2/3s SS FC | Region: | Sao Paolo/Minas border area | Mark: | Fazenda Cachoeira, (Certified Organic for UK, not USA) |
| Processing: | Pulp Natural Process | Crop: | August 2007 Arrival | Appearance: | .8 d/300gr, 17-18 screen | Varietal: | 100% Yellow Bourbon, patio-dried in sun. |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3.2 | Notes:Fazenda Cachoeira has been in the Carvalho Dias family a short time ... just since 1890! Fazenda Cachoeira (it means waterfall, which is why their is more than one Cachoeira farm) is located in São Paolo State 3 miles from the border with Minas Gerais State. It enjoys the typical characteristics of the mountainous Sul de Minas regions that have made it the "heartland" of Brasilian coffee for amany decades. Gabriel de Carvalho Dias, the owner, is also one of the leading Brazil’s leading agronomists, an example of how it takes a very educated approach to tackle the challenges of organic coffee production. They recently celebrated their 106th crop, and recently their Organic coffees have acheived some recognition in the BSCA Brazil Late Harvest Competition, and it made the final rounds in the 06 Brazil CoE, placing 16 in the end. (Note that we cannot sell this coffee with "Organic" in the title, we discovered, because the certifying agency is authorized for the UK, not the USA). On this farm everything is done manually since its topography does not allow any kind of mechanisation as you might find in the flat Cerrado savanna terrain. With a total area of 417 hectares, Fazenda Cachoeira has a coffee area of 165 hectares, along woth other crops, ranch, and nature preserve. The dry mill is located in the spa town of Pocos de Caldas. The farm has other cultivars besides the Yellow Bourbon we offer here, but this is the most well-known. Organic Yellow Bourbon, a low-yield traditional cultivar grown using low-yield organic methods: its a formula for great potential quality but not a lot of coffee production! The Bourbon is prized for sweet balance in the cup, and rounded body; a great short description for this coffee. A roast note: I based my comments on the lighter test roasts I did, but keep in mind that this coffee has a very wide roast "window" and that an FC+ roast or even light Vienna produces an excellent bittersweet chocolate cup! At C+ the cup has an attractive, savory sweetness, one one hand herbal and sagey/rosemary, on the other a sweet cedar. The rounded, balanced personality of this cup is its most striking aspect, with a really positive woodiness (not a woody flavor due to oldness!). I get cedar and mesquite, but balanced by a rustic honey/toffee sweetness, and pralined nuts. The mouthfeel is silky, and the aftertasted has a hint of tangerine, with lingering clean tobacco and cedar notes. I don't mean to characterize this as a Sumatra- its not a musty, funky coffee; it balances its rustic components with sweetness, and that's why it also makes a great S.O. espresso. This lot is late 06 harvest and export, and is a special 100% sun dried/ screen-dried lot. It outcupped the mechanical dried lot by a hair ... but an important hair; it has more sweetness and more body. Every hair counts! | |||||
| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3.5 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8.3 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.4 | ||||||
| Body - Movement (1-5) | 4.4 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.4 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 0 | Intensity/Prime Attribute:Mild to Medium intensity / Balance, body, sweetness, rustic elements |
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| add 50 | 50 | Roast:City+ is the roast I described above but this lot excels under a wide variety of roasts, C+ to FC to Vienna | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 86.2 | Compare to: Excellent balanced sweet Brazilian cup profile | |||||
| Brazil Organic -Fazenda Jacaranda | |||||||
| Country: | Brazil | Grade: | Estate Organic | Region: | Sul de Minas | Mark: | Jacaranda Estate, Organic Cert. |
| Processing: | Natural Dry Processed | Crop: | Late July 2007 Arrival | Appearance: | .8 d/300gr, 17+ Screen | Varietal: | Icatu, Catuai, Bourbon |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3.2 | Notes:Fazenda Jacaranda is at 1200 meters altitude in Sul de Minas, Brazil. It's an old farm, 6 generations in the Franco family, founded in 1856! Carlos Franco and his sons now run the farm with a new, innovative vision toward sustainability, and Fazenda Jacaranda has Organic certification from the Biodynamic Institute of Brasil (IBD). This coffee comes fairly late in the season when most natural dry-process coffees have already arrived. It has a very clean cup compared to other naturals that are a lot more fruity-pulpy, or have more rustic earth notes or even medicinal flavor qualities. The fragrance from the dry grounds of a Full City roast sample have a dark sweetness to them, bittersweet chocolate and ground hazelnuts. There are warming spice notes in the wet aroma, dark malted sweetness, and caramel, with a touch of herby goldenseal. The cup has an amazingly balanced chocolate note, at first bittersweet, but more like a sweet milk chocolate as the cup cools. Ripe fruited flavors lurk in the shadows of the chocolate foreground taste. I have trouble defining this mild, clean fruited character, partly because of how well it integrates itself into the other cup flavors. It's ripe, winey, mature fruit though. Ever have chocolate with winey, fruit peeking out from behind the dominant bitter/sweet flavors? The body has a very silky-creamy quality, and lends itself to the subdued, tenor-to-bass range finish. Now, the real treat here is Single Origin espresso. I can't recommend this coffee enough for SO espresso, especially at a relatively light FC to FC+ range. It seems to draw out soooo much from this coffee: It has great aroma, sweetness, lemony brightness, dutch cocoa, long chocolate aftertaste. If you like SO espresso, you really *must* try this. | |||||
| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3.4 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8.3 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.6 | ||||||
| Body - Movement (1-5) | 3.8 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.7 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 0 | Intensity/Prime Attribute:Medium intensity / Balanced, clean, chocolate and fruit | |||||
| add 50 | 50 | Roast:For brewed coffee I have best results at Full City, or FC+ for espresso | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 86 | Compare to: Cups a bit more like a pulp natural process Brazil than a Dry Process, yet it is the later. | |||||
| Brazil WP Decaf - Mogiana | |||||||
| Country: | Brazil | Grade: | 2/3s SS FC | Region: | Mogiana, Minas Gerais | Mark: | N/A |
| Processing: | Dry-Processed, then WP Decaf | Crop: | June 2007 Arrival | Appearance: | .2 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen | Varietal: | Unknown |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3 | Notes:Decaf Brazil is a fairly neutral cup, and its main use is for decaf espresso blends, but can offer an interesting straight roast if you target the right roast level. It adds body and is a good "backdrop" in terms of roast taste. A backdrop coffee fills out the background of the cup and does not interfere with your "highlight" coffees, the ones that are going to be the exclamation point of your cup character. If you want earthiness in the cup, a Sumatra or Sulawesi can do this for you and provide body. But if you are not trying to develop an earthy "wild" blend, but want a cleaner espresso cup, then Brazil is very useful. It has great espresso use to create low-CAF or decaf blends with body and depth. If you like a very soft espresso cup, you will enjoy this Brazil as a straight decaf espresso (its a bit too mild for me). This Mogiana-region coffee is a traditional Brazilian dry-process coffee. What's that mean? Dry-process means that the rip coffee cherry is picked by hand, laid out on patios to dry and then the outer pod and inner parchment layers are removed in one milling process to reveal the green coffee seed. But the old traditional Brazilian dry-process was dried on the tree, not on a patio! When a coffee is 100% tree-dried it can be too wild and have unpleasant off flavors. So before decaffeinating this coffee originates with a good lot of coffee, and the new water processor in Mexico that is producing decafs with more origin character than the previous SWP sources. Although the aromatics are low, this is an excellent "special purpose" coffee, great for a lo-caf blend base, and it's a nice low acid brewed cup at C+ roast. For espresso, it produces adequate crema, and works as a backdrop for your caffeinated grace note coffees in the blend (Yemeni, Harar, Etc). The shots I have pulled with 100% Brazil WP decaf were very nice too, but would not cut through milk in cappuccino etc very well. Of course, if you make your cap correctly (1.5 oz espresso and a maximum of 4 oz milk) it will do fine. If you need an all-decaf espresso I would recommend 60% Brazil decaf, 20% of an Indonesian decaf like Sumatra, and 20% of a Central American decaf or Ethiopia decaf. | |||||
| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.4 | ||||||
| Body - Movement (1-5) | 4.2 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.2 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 0 | Intensity/Prime Attribute:Mild intensity / Full Body, low acidity | |||||
| add 50 | 50 | Roast:Full City to Full City+: works best as a lighter roast for brewed coffee. | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 84.8 | Compare to: Mild, full body, low acid cup profile | |||||
| Brazil Screen-Dried Moreninha Formosa | |||||||
| Country: | Brazil | Grade: | Estate | Region: | Serra do Salitre, Minas Gerais, Cerrado Mineiro | Mark: | Moreninha Formosa |
| Processing: | Dry-Processed on raised screens, then WP Decaf | Crop: | May 2007 arrival | Appearance: | .6 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen | Varietal: | Mundo Novo, Bourbon |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3.6 | Notes:The Moreninha Formosa is from Serra do Salitre, a high plain in Cerrado Miniero, Minas Gerais state. It's the same micro-region where we bought the competition-winning natural dry process Fazenda Rio Paraná of Ricardo Torezan last year. At 1200 meters, the Serra do Salitre has better altitude than most of Cerrado proper, which averages 800-900 meters for coffee production. More importantly, this is a special dry-process done on raised beds ...well, screens, in the African tradition. This allows for dry air to circulate all around the coffee, evenly and thoroughly evaporating moisture from the ripe coffee cherry. And that's the second key here; ripe cherry. The owners of this mill advance 70% of the local price for coffee (based on the Brazilian coffee index ESALQ) to growers who deliver red cherry coffee to receiving stations. The reason for receiving coffee in the form of ripe cherry is to ensure uniform processing, and to avoid the defects that usually end up on the patios in typical dry-processing. Therefore, expertise in coffee preparation is offered to the growers, and guarantees the best coffee quality. The mill helps the individual growers maximize their return by actually using the coffee market to their advantage. At anytime producers can fix the price of their coffee. When this special lot sells at a better price in the international market as compared to the local price, the profits obtained will be split between the coffee producer and the processor. The cup is very rustic, fruited, chocolatey, and thick. I mean, this coffee has HUGE body, and the natural, somewhat earth-tones in the the flavor made me (for a second) do a double-take ... was this a natural Yemeni coffee? At the roast level I recommend, FC to FC+ (light Vienna too), the fruited notes are diminished and a gigantic bittersweet chocolate emerges. The body is undiminished by a darker roast level, and has a thick, viscous mouthfeel. This is a great choice for SO espresso (Single Origin, straight, unblended, get it?) or as a blend base. We had a different lot of Moreninha Formosa earlier in the season, and I was so impressed I wanted to get more from a later shipment to extend our offering of this coffee. | |||||
| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3.5 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8.3 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.8 | ||||||
| Body - Movement (1-5) | 4.4 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.6 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 0 | Intensity/Prime Attribute:Bold intensity / chocolate, rustic, nutty, heavy-body |
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| add 50 | 50 | Roast:Full City to Full City+ | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 87.2 | Compare to: Great, fruited, natural dry-process Brazil, excellent body and chocolate notes with a fruited subtext. Perhaps a bit less fruit that our Poco Fundo lot, more chocolate, more balance. | |||||
| Brazil Organic Camocim Moka (Peaberry) | |||||||
| Country: | Brazil | Grade: | Estate Peaberry | Region: | Pedra Azul, Espirito Santo | Mark: | Camocim Estate, Organic Cert. |
| Processing: | Pulp Natural Process | Crop: | May 2007 arrival | Appearance: | .8 d/300gr, 17+ Screen | Varietal: | Icatu, Catuai, Bourbon |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3.2 | Notes:Camocim is an organic certified farm of some note in Brazil; every farmer I speak with from Cerrado to Sul de Minas knows of it, and their production is much sought-after. It might seem confusing, but Moka is what they call Peaberry in Brazil, just as they call it Caracol in Central America. Camocim Farm is in Espirito Santo, a coastal state north of Rio and to the west of Minas Gerais. In fact, it is not far from the Matas de Minas region where our Fazenda Brauna coffee is grown. Espirito Santo has a lot of arabica production, but also has a good low altitude region in the northern part for robusta. That does not concern us though, and "good" is a relative term when speaking of robusta, especially the rancid Brasil Conilon type. Camocim is a true Estate coffee that turned to organic production in 1999 under the ownership of Henrique Sloper Araujo. But the diverse environmental character of the farm, it's garden-like appearance, dates to the original owner in the '60s who planted exotic Pinus and Eucalyptus varieties, as well as Jacaranda. The farm is situated at 1100 meters and is near the famous Pedra Azul (Blue Mountain) monolith, a well-known land feature in Espirito Santo. This farm grows Catucai, Bourbon, Icatu and Catuai, and this lot of Moka Peaberry is a blend of these cultivars. The Camocim coffee is unique in the processing too; they use no water in peeling the skin off the cherry, nor it removing the fruity mucilage from the parchment layer that coats the green bean. Once it is dried, they allow the coffee to "rest" (reposo) for 3 months, much longer than the average 20-30 days at most farms. The result can be seen in the green coffee: a variegated and ruddy appearance that might, to the neophyte, seem like a mark of low quality. It's not. And given their special process methods, and the international competition to buy their coffee, we pay a healthy premium for our special lots from them; the Moka, the Bourbon and the Jacu. This lot was prepared just for us, and has as it's main feature a very thick, waxy mouthfeel, low acidity, good nut-to-chocolate tonality from the roast, and some floral-herbal hints and aromatic wood notes. I found a wide range of roasts that perform well here, but FC to FC+, just at the verge of 2nd crack or a few snaps into it, had greater intensity. The cup comes to life as it cools, and it's worth mentioning that I pulled some remarkable single origin, single farm espresso shots from this Moka lot on my Andreja. | |||||
| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3.4 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8.2 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.6 | ||||||
| Body - Movement (1-5) | 4 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.5 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 0 | Intensity/Prime Attribute:Medium intensity (brewed) / Low-acidity, nuttiness, excellent body |
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| add 50 | 50 | Roast:For brewed coffee I have best results at Full City+ roast, for espresso a light Vienna | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 85.9 | Compare to: Natural dry-processed Brasil, even though this is a pulped natural. Please Note: This coffee has a very ruddy appearance due to the special "resting period" of the coffee in parchment. | |||||
| Brazil FTO Dry-Process Poco Fundo | |||||||
| Country: | Brazil | Grade: | Non-traditional | Region: | Sul de Minas | Mark: | Poco Fundo, FTO (Fair Trade, Organic) |
| Processing: | Dry Processed | Crop: | March 2007 Arrival | Appearance: | 3 d/300gr, 16-18 screen | Varietal: | Mundo Novo, Icatu, Bourbon |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3.6 | Notes:Poco Fundo a cooperative, the "The Associacao dos Pequenos Produtores de Poco Fundo, " located in the south of the state of Minas Gerais and boasts 76 members. Annual production is relatively small; six containers of their best quality, the rest being sold off in the internal market of Brasil. The growing region, Sul de Minas, can be a challenging one to produce traditional dry-processed coffees; the main issues can be rain arriving while the coffee is on the patio to dry, or other weather shifts that prevent uneven drying. Add to that the problems of growing organic coffee in Brasil, dealing with pests and tree nutrients on a soil that needs amendment, and it's a miracle you can get good cup quality at all! But Poco Fundo has the potential to be a great, rustic, wild cup. At it's best it is like a dry-processed Ethiopian coffee, deeply fruited (plum and raisin) with great body, and roast taste ranging from almond to milk chocolate. But Poco Fundo is a shifty coffee, and some lots can be really defective too. That's why we offer it sometimes, but not that often. When the cup is good I grab as much of it as I can get! This lot of Poco Fundo has a clean cup, nutty (dry-roast peanut) in the lighter roast, turning to milk chocolate in FC+ roast levels. There is a clean fruitiness to the cup, something I love about natural dry-process Brasilian coffees, but something a cupper needs to be concerned about. Winey fruited notes can verge on ferment, and ferment in coffee will mean a month or two down the line the cup quality will tank! But this lot of Poco Fundo has a solid, clean berry-like fruit in it, and paired with the nut, chocolate roast tastes and creamy body, makes this one of the nicest natural Brasils as a straight roast drip coffees. You will pick up some tobacco notes and earthiness as the cup cools, in the aftertaste ... it is a rustic, natural coffee after all. This might be the only Poco Fundo lot we have all year; last year we had one great lot and the rest had off flavors, musty cups and such. | |||||
| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3.8 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.7 | ||||||
| Body - Movement (1-5) | 4 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.3 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 0 | Intensity/Prime Attribute:Medium intensity / Full body, rustic fruity notes |
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| add 50 | 50 | Roast:Full City is ideal, lighter for a nuttier roast taste, or FC+ for more chocolate roast taste. Expect some unevenness in roast color, and lots of chaff. | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 86.4 | Compare to: Natural, full body Brasil with rustic characteristics (but relatively clean!) I also do not recommend buying more that a 4 month supply of this coffee. It tends to experience a flavor shift after then, to fade quicker than other coffees due to the process method done in Sul de Minas - can't explain but I have noticed a drop off in the fruit notes in the cup over time. | |||||
| Brazil Minas Gerais Competition -3rd Place | |||||||
| Country: | Brazil | Grade: | Cerrado Competition Graded | Region: | Estrela do Sul, Cerrado, Minas Gerais | Mark: | Brazil Minas Gerais Competition |
| Processing: | Pulp Natural Process | Crop: | Late May 2007 Arrival | Appearance: | .4 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen | Varietal: | Unsure |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3.7 | Notes:This lot was my favorite from all of the dry-processed and pulped natural coffees in the 2006-2007 Brazil Minas Competition. It is from the same region as our Fazenda Sertao coffee (Nazareth Dias Pereira), and the Top Sky mark coffees. In fact, it is from the same group, Aprocam, that we get those lots from, and who placed so well in the Brazil Cup of Excellence. Other than all that, I actually don't know what farm in their "group" this coffee comes from. But the cup is excellent! The dry fragrance has vivid fruited notes, sweet natural honey, and hazelnut. Add water and the wet aromatics have an orangey note, jasmine tea, and unfiltered honey. Between the aromatics of the grounds and wet brew, you have a pretty good idea what is coming in the cup; silky sweet herbal, floral and honey notes, with a slight citrus hint. It sounds like a description that could be applied to Ethiopia coffees, but overall we are talking about the Brazil tonal range; in the scheme of things this is still a low-acid, full body coffee with in a mildly rustic hue. But put it beside another brazil, especially one we might say typifies a "good solid blend base" and this coffees unique nuances are dramatic and distinct. | |||||
| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3.6 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8.3 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.6 | ||||||
| Body - Movement (1-5) | 3.8 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.4 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 1 | Intensity/Prime Attribute:Medium-Bold intensity / Full body, sweet bright fruit notes |
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| add 50 | 50 | Roast:City+ to Full City is ideal for drip/press although darker is very nice too! For espresso, a slow-finish roast to a FC++ or Vienna is good. | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 87.4 | Compare to: Natural, full body Brasil with full body and intense chocolate. | |||||
| Brazil Organic Camocim - Pure Bourbon | |||||||
| Country: | Brazil | Grade: | Estate | Region: | Pedra Azul, Espirito Santo | Mark: | Camocim Estate, Organic Cert. |
| Processing: | Pulp Natural Process | Crop: | May 2007 arrival | Appearance: | .6 d/300gr, 17+ Screen | Varietal: | 100% Yellow Bourbon |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3.6 | Notes:If you read the Moka (Peaberry) review, I might be repeating part of this farm information: Camocim is an organic certified farm of some note in Brazil; every farmer I speak with from Cerrado to Sul de Minas knows of it, and their production is much sought-after. Camocim Farm is in Espirito Santo, a coastal state north of Rio and to the west of Minas Gerais. Camocim is a true Estate coffee that turned to organic production in 1999 under the ownership of Henrique Sloper Araujo. But the diverse environmental character of the farm, it's garden-like appearance, dates to the original owner in the '60s who planted exotic Pinus and Eucalyptus varieties, as well as Jacaranda. The farm is situated at 1100 meters and is near the famous Pedra Azul (Blue Mountain) monolith, a well-known land feature in Espirito Santo. Camocim coffee is unique in the processing too; they use no water in peeling the skin off the cherry, nor it removing the fruity mucilage from the parchment layer that coats the green bean. Once it is dried, they allow the coffee to "rest" (reposo) for 3 months, much longer than the average 20-30 days at most farms. The result can be seen in the green coffee: a variegated and ruddy appearance that might, to the neophyte, seem like a mark of low quality. It's not. In fact, we are paying a big premium for these coffees, partly for that extra restin g process that results in this odd, variegated appearance to the green coffee! This farm grows many cultivars, but this year we asked them to separate a small, pure-Bourbon lot for us. Bourbon is one of the most traditional arabica cultivars named after the isle of Bourbon (now Reunion) and know for high bean density and good roast characteristics. The trees produce less, which theoretically concentrates more positive flavor compounds into the fruit, into the green seed. This lot has a dynamic cup, brighter than the Moka or Jacu coffees. (In fact, it seemed as bright and vivid as a table of high grown El Salvador coffees I cupped alongside it - not many Brazils would hold up to that feat.) The dry grounds have that character I always look for: sweetness, in this case an almost buttery type. Add water and there is a clear floral-herbal scent: jasmine, sage blossom, and a malty sweetness. In the cup, the body and sweetness are at the forefront, with the sage flower aromatics come through as a secondary attribute in the finish. (Around now, any cupper would be convinced that the ruddy look of the green coffee was completely counter to the great cup quality). As the coffee cools, a honey graham cracker flavor comes to the foreground, and mild orangey notes can be detected. | |||||
| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3.7 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8.5 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.8 | ||||||
| Body - Movement (1-5) | 3.8 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 9 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 0.5 | Intensity/Prime Attribute:Medium intensity (brewed) / Brightness, sweetness, jasmine and sage |
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| add 50 | 50 | Roast:For brewed coffee I have best results at City+ roast, for espresso a FC+ roast | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 87.9 | Compare to: A refined, brighter cup than many Brazils. Please Note: This coffee has a very ruddy appearance due to the special "resting period" of the coffee in parchment. | |||||
| Brazil Daterra Farms -Yellow Bourbon | |||||||
| Country: | Brazil | Grade: | Penta Grade System | Region: | Minas Gerais State, Cerrado Region | Mark: | Daterra Farms, Yellow Bourbon |
| Processing: | Pulp Natural Process | Crop: | Late March 2007 Arrival | Appearance: | .2 d/300gr, 16-18 Screen | Varietal: | 100% Yellow Bourbon |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3.5 | Notes:Daterra Farms is a remarkable force in the Brazilian coffee world, and the entire coffee world in general. Here we find one of the most innovative coffee cultivators, where each step is scrutinized, rethought, reinvented. It is more of a coffee research institute than a farm! Well, that's not true ... like all farms the coffee tree predominates, but here we have each plot marked off in terms of what "experiment" is currently being conducted to improve cup quality. When I visited there were plots of huge 20 foot tall "native" coffee trees, then pure Catuai cultivar areas, Icatu, Mundo Novo and other cultivars I have never encountered. And then there were the old traditional cultivars, Typica and , pure Yellow Bourbon. They blend the various plots, like a vintner might blend their grapes from within a farm, to get the desired results. They sell these blends (such as Sweet Yellow, Reserve, Santa Columba, etc) but I prefer the pure Yellow Bourbon cultivar, unblended. We arranged for this coffee to be imported for us, and it underwent the same special Penta system preparation as the Reserve. What's Penta? It's Daterra's system to sort coffee under black flourescent lights, with added defect removal steps, store in special warehouses optimized for coffee, locking in the moisture content in the green coffee with vacuum packaging, boxing and shipping. Perhaps it is the future of green coffee, primarily because coffee must be trasported through humid zones in the origin country and (especially if the container of traditional burlap bags gets waylaid at port) can result in the coffee taking on moisture; it's a bad thing. I could go on and on, to the extent that I made a separate page about Daterra Farms to save space in this review. The cup has a strong almondy fragrance from the dry grounds, with a suggestion of sage. These are caried through in the wet aromatics, and through the entire cup; herbal notes and nuts. The cup features a rustic sweetness (what I describe as Bee Pollen in another review is fitting here) and suggestions of graham cracker. There is a pleasant dryness I would describe as almond skins, which become more like hazelnut in the finish. I find a citric trace in the the lighter roasts, and across the board there is more brightness here than in most good Brasil coffees. It is a tribute to the farm, to the owner Luis Norberto Pascoal, and his crew that a coffee can be so expertly prepared, so carefully handled, and have such defined cup character. | |||||
| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3.6 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8.4 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.8 | ||||||
| Body - Movement (1-5) | 3.9 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.7 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 1 | Intensity/Prime Attribute:Medium intensity / Almondy, herbal, rustic sweet notes |
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| add 50 | 50 | Roast:City+ is most intense, and also somewhat bright for a Brazil coffee. FC+ converts nut notes to chocolate notes, but is actually slightly less intense and complex than C+ | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 87.9 | Compare to: Dynamic, vivid Brazil cup with even roast results. | |||||
| Brazil Fazenda Boa Sorte Natural Bourbon | |||||||
| Country: | Brazil | Grade: | Estate | Region: | Campos Altos, Minas Gerais | Mark: | Boa Sorte Estate, |
| Processing: | Dry Processed | Crop: | January 2007 Arrival | Appearance: | .6 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen | Varietal: | 100% Red Bourbon |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3.4 | Notes:Boa Sorte is a small coffee farm (fazenda) in south Minas Gerais state. I visited there a while ago and checked out the samples last year, but felt there were some improvements to make in the coffee and the processing. It is owned by a young couple, Bethania and Junior, and they have a lot of enthusiasm for improving the farm. It has good altitude for the region of Campos Altos, 1050 meters. They made improvements to their mill, sorting, and drying, and it really shows this year. What we have here is a separation of their 100% Bourbon cultivar trees (Bourbon, the traditional seedstock that was the first brought to the Americas from the East, originating on the Island of Bourbon, now known as Reunion). This is also traditional in another way: patio-dry-process coffee. In this, the whole cherry, picked red and fresh from the tree, is promptly laid out to dry on special patios at the mill. The result is heavy body, low acidity, fruited tones in the cup. It's a rustic profile overall: The lighter City roast has sweet, rustic fruity fragrance from the dry grounds nut hints, papaya, very winey fruit aroma. It seems like it might go over the edge, , become overly fruity, but doesn’t. There are suggestions of cardomom and fresh ginger. With a bit more roast there is a heavy, rustic chocolate aromatic with winey tones (think Scharffen-berger chocolate); totally different than City roast but not unexpected at all. Perhaps the FC+ roast is more what people expect from a true natural dry-process Brazil, and why it forms such a good espresso component, especially for the darker Southern Italian style espresso. | |||||
| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3.6 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8.1 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.6 | ||||||
| Body - Movement (1-5) | 4.5 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.6 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 0 | Intensity/Prime Attribute:Bold intensity / Chocolate, fruit, wineyness | |||||
| add 50 | 50 | Roast:City+ to Full City++ | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 86.8 | Compare to: Traditional natural dry-process Brazil, and Bourbon to boot! | |||||
| Burundi |
| Burundi Buyendi AA, FWS (Fully Washed Super grade) | |||||||
| Country: | Burundi | Grade: | AA, FWS | Region: | Buyendi, Central Plateau | Mark: | Buyendi |
| Processing: | Wet-processed | Crop: | 2001 | Appearance: | 1d/300gr, 16-18scr | Varietal: | Jackson Bourbon |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | NA | Notes:Burundi has been unavailable for several years in the US while the ethnic problems divided the country. You can read the presence of this coffee as a sign that those problems are reconciled to the point that the small-holder farmers can get their cash crop to market, and hopefully the economic benefit of this will shore up stability. But the most interesting aspect is that the preparation and cup quality of this lot of Burundi is really excellent. It is a milder coffee, not as edgy as an abided Kenya, but with great balance. And yet it has that distinctive "wild" note in the finish to keep the cup character interesting ... a similar flavor as you will find in Zambian and Zimbabwe coffees. It is not a sweet cup, more pungent than fruity, and roasted to a Full City + it has great bittersweet roast tastes without the loss of body (as can happen as some coffees are roasted darker. A very nice cup, an encouraging sign, and a hope that we see this nice coffee with the 2002/3 crop too! | |||||
| Wet Aroma (1-5) | NA | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | NA | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | NA | ||||||
| Body - Movement (1-5) | NA | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | NA | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | NA | Intensity/Prime Attribute: | |||||
| add 50 | 50 | Roast:Full City. I like this with a darker roast on it as it maintains the body, but develops some nice pungency and bittersweetness. It is also neat as a straight-roast espresso when roasted to Full City+ or beyond | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | NA | Compare to: A Kenyan with much less refinement | |||||
see the 2001-2002 Archive
| Cameroon |
| Cameroon Caplami Java | |||||||
| Country: | Cameroon | Grade: | 1 | Region: | West Highlands | Mark: | UCCAO Caplami Java |
| Processing: | Semi-washed Process | Crop: | April 2007 Arrival | Appearance: | .8 d/300gr, 18+ Screen Longber | Varietal: | Java Longberry |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3.5 | Notes:Cameroon is an oddball in the Specialty Coffee terms. For starters, this is West African coffee, not East African like most other arabica offerings such as Kenya, Zimbabwe, Rwanda. And a large percentage of Cameroon’s coffee has traditionally been robusta, grown in all provinces except the north, while arabica is mainly produced in the high altitudes of the west, northwest and east. The western highlands of Cameroon, where much of the coffee is grown, averages about 5,000 feet above sea level and has two distinct seasons, the rainy season and dry season, which benefits quality arabica. This lot is from the UCCAO Caplami Cooperative, and is an unusual longberry Java cultivar, quite similar in appearance to the long, pointed Java Longberry from Placeres Estate (Nicaragua) that we offer. In terms of the cup, the dominant qualities bear resemblence to Indonesian cup character, with some distinct differences too. The dry fragrance from the grounds is chocolatey, a bit earthy (a la Sumatra) and has a molasses sweetness at FC rast, and a nutmeg/mace spice hint at C+ roast. Wet aromas have chocolate, gingerbread, aromatic wood, and a mild earthiness. The cup has a molasses sweetness, a dense, thick body, and an earthy-woody dimension. There are spicey "cinnamon stick" notes, and a mild lemon oil brightness that you would not find in the Indonesia coffees that the intial flavors bring to mind. The finish has a tobacco and aromatic wood suggestion to it ... and there is also a very odd green flavor that, in some roasts reminded me of chayote and in others a green tea note. I found one defect cup in 10 I brewed, with a strong grassy flavor ... but I think this coffee is worth the risk. It's unusual, and worth the risk of an occasional stinky cup. As an interesting side-note, I made some unbelievably good Single Origin espresso with this coffee at FC and FC+ roast. Fruit and floral aspects emerged that were quite unexpected, alluding to Yirgacheffe! | |||||
| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3.6 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8.2 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.7 | ||||||
| Body - Movement (1-5) | 3.7 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.6 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 0 | Intensity/Prime Attribute:Bold intensity / Rustic sweets, spice, chocolate, high body. | |||||
| add 50 | 50 | Roast:C+ FC, FC+, Vienna - interesting coffee at a wide range of roasts. | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 86.3 | Compare to: Like an Indonesian coffee in it's basic attributes, but with unusual differences | |||||
| Colombia |
| Congo |
| Congo Kivu Peaberry | |||||||
| Country: | Congo | Grade: | Unsure! | Region: | Kivu, Eastern Congo | Mark: | Kivu "Katana" Peaberry |
| Processing: | Wet-Processed | Crop: | Nov 2006 Arrival | Appearance: | .8 d/300gr, PB 15-17 Screen | Varietal: | Unsure |
| Dry Fragrance (1-5) | 3.6 | Notes:It's been 7 years, but here we are with a Congo coffee again! The problems with securing a source for Specialty grade coffee from the Kivu region (East Congo) are innumerable. Politics and the struggle over mineral wealth are at the top of the list, and farmers are the first to be displaced when unrest comes to the region. So we hope the offering of this very nice lot of Congo symbolizes the greater stability that has come to the area since the cease fire has been in affect, and the democratic elections held this month. Because this is an early attempt at offering Congo coffee again, and there is more development needed in terms of improving the milling and processing of the coffee, it does have a more rustic cup character than you find in the finely processed Rwandas from just across the border (and the lake, Lake Kivu). But I find the cup compelling. The dry grounds are intense, with fragrant cocoa, nut (macadamia nut), and vanilla notes. Add water and the rustic beast comes out a bit: fresh tobacco, wet earth but still a sweetness (molassesy) resides there. The cup is bright, as an East African coffee should be, but there is that unpredictable wild note too. Again, fresh tobacco with an earthy twist is the best descriptors for it. It's a little hidey, as a Yemen is, but there are delicate tea notes (Darjeeling), and even a trace of floral sweetness too. It lands somewhere between a more refined African coffee (Kenya) and a rustic Indonesia (Mandheling). For those who like either of these coffees, you will find something to hold your interest in this cup, as well as the fact it holds up well to a darker roast level. | |||||
| Wet Aroma (1-5) | 3.4 | ||||||
| Brightness - Acidity (1-10) | 8.5 | ||||||
| Flavor - Depth (1-10) | 8.4 | ||||||
| Body - Movement (1-5) | 3.5 | ||||||
| Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) | 8.4 | ||||||
| Cupper's Correction (1-5) | 0 | Intensity/Prime Attribute:Medium Intensity/ Cocoa |
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| add 50 | 50 | Roast:City+ to FC+: I actually find it more intense in the lighter roast, but like the heavy bittersweet chocolate of the darker FC+ too. | |||||
| Score (Max. 100) | 85.8 | Compare to: Somewhere between bright, cleaner African coffees and funky, earthy Indonesians. | |||||
2005-2006 | 2004 -2003 | 2001-2002 | Pre-2000 Tom's Sample Cupping Log | Moisture Content Readings This page is authored
by Thompson Owen and Sweet Maria's Coffee, Inc. and is not to be
copied or reproduced without permission
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