It's the beginning of a new year here at Mill City Roasters, and we're already off to a great start. This January, we hosted our very first Roasting 101 class in our new Coffee Campus, we announced a brand new advanced roasting class (registration is open now!), we roasted almost 3,700lbs of coffee for wholesale and private label customers, we shipped about 20 new roasters to folks starting or growing their coffee businesses, and we cupped 53 different coffees for production, purchase, and education.
Here are a few highlights from the table:
Ethiopia Guji Arsosala
It feels like we're constantly searching for the "next" washed Ethiopia offering to bring in. That's probably because we go through a lot of this kind of coffee, and shifts in the market over the past year or so have made competition steep for coffees from this origin. Prices are higher than ever, and just when you think you've found the perfect fit for your menu, someone has swooped in and bought all available bags overnight.
When we first sampled this washed coffee from Guji, we knew it was an immediate "yes". Intensely bright citrus notes and classic floral bergamot meant it would work as a traditional light roasted single-origin Ethiopia option. After we confirmed the purchase and brought in the first few bags, profile roasts showed even more complexity and sweetness.
On subsequent cuppings, I kept forgetting this was a washed coffee. Sticky sweet notes of peach gummy rings and candied mango, along with a juicy body, could convince you that this was a naturally processed coffee with tons of residual sugar and fruit characteristics. But this coffee's squeaky clean profile and clarity in the cup were there to reassure me that it was, in fact, a washed coffee with a fantastic "natural" personality.
For the first time ever, we opted to keep this coffee as a single-origin exclusive, meaning we're not blending it into our Espresso for Lighter Roasts pre-blend where a washed Ethiopia is used to provide brightness and red fruit flavor. Instead, we're using a different coffee from Ethiopia in that blend and letting this Guji Arsosala shine on its own.
Mexico Chiapas CESMACH Cooperative
If you've been following us for a while, you know that our roasting team loves coffees from Mexico. Our North American neighbors produce some incredible coffees, and the ones grown in the southern state of Chiapas are particularly great. Similar to coffee from Guatemala, which shares a border with Chiapas, chocolate and nutty notes are common.
We've carried coffee from the CESMACH Cooperative in the past, so when samples were available for a fresh crop we brought one in almost automatically. The initial sample was pleasant and mild, with familiar notes of sweet malt and milk chocolate. We purchased a few bags to add this coffee to our toll roasting menu. Coffees like this, what we refer to as "crowd pleasers" and "all-day drinkers" are super dynamic offerings that taste great at multiple roast levels. We like it best profiled to a nice medium roast, where the sweet aroma intensifies to a floral apple blossom and the chocolate flavor moves towards a rich dark cocoa.
Green Samples from Yellow Rooster
We're planning several events and special projects for this year, and we're on the hunt for a few very unique coffees that we'll use as sensory tools and conversation starters. As part of his search, Bryant reached out to specialty importer Yellow Rooster Imports, based in Florida. Yellow Rooster is well-known for importing small lots of coffees with special processing (think anaerobic lactic and fruit co-ferments). We brought in 5 samples from Guatemala and Colombia to taste.
These coffees were wild! One offering from Guatemala, a 7-day Anaerobic processed from producer Carlos Roldán, had notes of cooked fruits, cinnamon, candied cranberry, and wildflower honey. The most interesting coffees were the fruit co-fermented ones, coffees that are fermented with additional fruits added during the inoculation period to add flavor (here's a PDG article about the process and its mixed reception in the market).
The two co-ferments we tasted were both from Colombia. The first one was fermented with peaches and tasted, unsurprisingly, peachy. It also tasted intensely sweet and fruity with notes like Hawaiian Punch, Zebra Stripe Gum, and raspberry sorbet. The other co-ferment used Papaya in its processing and the result was even more unique and unexpected. Our cupping notes mentioned Thin Mint Cookies, lime zest, craisins, and a flavor that could only be described as "cheese gum" as in, if gum were made to be intentionally cheese-flavored.
We actually really liked the peach coffee, but all the bags were sold out by the time we completed our cupping. The search for more interesting and novel coffees continues!
