Saturday we cupped a little of Stumptowns Hairbender and Sidamo. Sidamo we tried before and I think we all were a bit reminiscent of the Yirg hama we got from Ecco caffe as opposed to our memories of the Sidamo before. I still have some and could revisit it. The hairbender needed to degas but I feel like we are in a different place than these types of blends right now. There was nothing wrong with it but it was not working the lineup we had that night. We also tried a bit of Ecco Cachoeira and it was Peanutty yummy. It gives you a better understanding of the Almondy Citrus of the Daterra paired with the smooth buttery peanut of the Cachoeira making the Ecco Reserve so flexible but complex. I must say having Silas' input as an experienced cupper was informative.
We also had a bag of Dancing Goats from batdorf and bronson but we passed on it as we wanted to play around with shots of Yirgacheffe. The Yirg was again excellent (Dried fruit and tea ) and I am actually looking forward to the other drip offerings that work on this coffee shot thing. We pulled a round of Terroir's Nicaragua SOS that rated 92 on coffee review. It was nice and easy to pull. We originally pulled it at 192F due to Terroir recommendations but I have since bumped it to 198F so I can offer multiple espresso. The higher temp seems to be fine. In fact this is a much easier espresso to pull than previous Terroir SOS. Most of the group had already tried it and it was a warmup tasting. BTW, due to two machines down, we were pulling shots at the shop with the new mazzers on the 4g LM.
I will post notes later in one big update from the last several weeks.
I've been thinking about Daterra. What I really want from a Daterra as espresso is that one experience I had when I was in Charlotte at the Daterra booth. They gave me a french press of a yellow bourbon and it was a smooth tawny almond liquor with mellow citrus. I've gotten that from Ecco before from the espresso and it really is enjoyable. When you have an excellent espresso, tasty from front of the mouth to the back, and then there is this kinda gulp when it goes down and your mouth waters and the immediate aftertaste is nice. Lingering aftertastes are usually unpleasant but short ones are often tasty. For me pleasant cirtus, the often misunderstood component of coffee is like eating a bowl of tomato soup, a tangerine, or an equally pleasant traditional food citrus. It is not that bile sourness you get from poor beans/poor extractions/or poorly processed coffees. If you taste pine flavors or cedar notes, that's a different thing from what I am usually describing but can also be present in coffee.
Something to think about.
-Jaime
