Since starting this blog series a few months ago, I've started to pay more attention at the cupping table. I try to make a note when we taste a coffee that I think will be fun to include in the monthly recap. Usually, it's new and exciting, something unusual or unexpected, or something that teaches us a new coffee lesson.
Colombia Pink Bourbon
We're already talking a lot about this new green coffee on our blog, but I would be remiss to not include it in the recap for July. Colombia Asociación Los Naranjos Pink Bourbon is a washed coffee we brought in as a retail green coffee and an addition to our toll roasting menu. It's a lovely single-origin that's right in the sweet spot between an affordable everyday drinker and a higher-priced special occaision coffee.
To build the green product page for a new coffee, we taste it at several roast levels within the range where we think it's best. For this green, that's around the 395°-405° range, a nice light to medium profile spectrum.
At the lighter end, we tasted green fig, green apple, rhubarb, and maraschino cherry. Taken a few degrees farther in development, the flavors of Hershey's syrup, red gummy bears, pomegranate, and guava were present.
Costa Rica SL-28
Another new offering on the greens and toll roasting menu is this Anaerobic Honey processed SL-28 varietal from Costa Rica. For coffee lovers, even just one of those terms will get their attention. We purchased this coffee specifically to profile and share during our educational sessions at the next few Coffee Fest events. We wanted a dynamic and exciting coffee that would appeal to real coffee nerds.
A welcome surprise we discovered on the table is that despite this coffee's boutique varietal (SL-28 is a highly prized coffee type that's seen more often in Kenya), it still offered familiar and accessible flavors that will appeal to all kinds of coffee drinkers. Notes of citrus, kumquat, Arnold Palmer, and white grape were detected at lighter roast levels. At a slightly higher finish temperature, we experienced red licorice, pink lady apples, and Lambrusco (a sparkling red wine often served chilled).
If you're planning to attend either Coffee Fest LA or Minneapolis (our hometown!) be sure to join us for our Sensory Skillbuilding class where we'll taste this coffee together and break down our approach to tasting and evaluation.
A New Natural
Every great coffee menu has a few awesome natural process offerings, and many times, coffee from Ethiopia takes that place. But with recent global shipping issues caused by political tension near the Red Sea, fresh crop coffees from Ethiopia have been delayed. We've brought in a few spot substitutes from Ethiopia to hold this place on our menu while waiting for contracted coffee to arrive stateside. This month, we found another great Ethiopia to help us close the gap between the coffees we've run out of and new ones yet to arrive.
Ethiopia Kayon Mountain is a well-known cooperative whose coffees have appeared on menus for many years, including a current spot on the Starbucks Reserve offering list. What we love about this coffee is its balance and restraint, it's a coffee that everyone can enjoy. It's fruity without being explosive, sweet without being saccharine, and very good across several roast levels.
The fragrance is floral and perfumed, like a classic washed coffee from Ethiopia. Sweetness like fresh raspberries and Fruit Stripe gum remind you that it's a natural. The body is juicy and fuzzy, like the skin of a ripe peach, and the finish has notes of chocolate with just enough bitterness to encourage another sip.
Sourcing for Dark Roasts
We tasted a few coffees from the Indonesia region intending to find another great offering for the dark roast crowd. Of two different coffees from Papua New Guinea, we preferred one that was earthy with notes of maple syrup and a lingering finish.
Between two options from Sumatra, the winner was a more complex coffee with some hints of fruit leather, red grape, and a heavy body. We'll still have to decide which of the two are joining the menu for Toll Roasting, but narrowing down the contenders is an important first step.
In August we're looking forward to another full Roasting 101 class, traveling to California for Coffee Fest, and FINALLY being able to start preparing for our big move to a new facility. Stay tuned for updates on the move and how you can come party with us in the new space this fall.
