Cupping Esmeralda

Coffee: La Hacienda Esmerelda 2007, gesha varietal
Roaster: Simon Hsieh, Taiwan
Sorted with a 30% rejection rate

grounds aroma: Blueberry compote (fruity sugary - not rotten fruit ferment 'fake blueberry')

cup aroma: Distinctly floral, balanced, pleasant, sweet

hot cup profile: Distinct floral honeysuckle. Not the soapy perfume potpourri we expected. Reminiscent of chamomile. Clean and effervescent with a cream soda finish. Wonderful light berried fruits.
Very balanced character, drinks like an extremely high grade tea.

cool cup profile: Clean, clean, clean. Orange citrus. Sugary longan fruit.

So you are asking why I am posting cupping notes for this coffee after proclaiming no reviews? Largely to point out one thing, reviews are often bunk. Our cupping notes for coffees almost never are the same as other roaster's notes. While CoE notes have always proved valuable, it leaves us largely confused by cupping notes made by others on coffees like Esmeralda. The point is, it all depends on the roast and the cupper.

I read reviews about Esmeralda being so potent and intense with people layering descriptions on it about how they could not drink it everyday. I don't think they are drinking the same roast as this to make those statements. It's so balanced and clean, it makes you wonder what the others are cupping. I could drink this everyday. Part of that is the excessive sorting and a larger part is the roast. Simon does a unique roast.

I think half of the feedback I have given Simon Hsieh on his coffees probably would make/has made many roasters upset or simply stop talking to me. The reason behind that in this specific case is Simon's approach lets you evaluate the beans for what they are. It really is whether I like the coffee and not about what the roaster did to it. There are no complaints, merely observations about character which at times can be simply, I don't like this coffee even though you did a spectacular roast. There is no baking, tipping, scorching, dulling, muting, or dozens of other adjectives I can use to describe the hundreds of ways a roaster can mess up a coffee's potential. The Esmeralda Simon roasted/sorted is amazing and I look forward to trying to repeat it with our green samples of the lady Esmeralda.

Cheers to Simon for this coffee and a big thanks to Eugene for shipping and gifting it to us (~$35 for 100g[3.5oz] which is two brews of 2 cup vac pot and two 5oz cupping).

Atomic Cafe 14 School Street, Marblehead, MA

I have been to Atomic's old location a couple of times in the past and had sampled some of their roasts in the past. This morning, Ben and I decided to take a short trip around and drop in unannounced at both of their locations since it had been a while. Hong joined us and we set out after a quick drop into High Rise for a snack.

We arrived at the original location in Beverly on Cabot St. and decided to have lunch there. The focus of that location really is the sandwich menu and food service. We had some espresso and it was not really what we were looking for. We are picky about our shots though and that's well known. It was a milk blend so that's understandable as we are straight shot drinkers. The sandwiches were satisfying though and we quickly headed back out through Salem and into Marblehead to visit the new location.

The new location is tucked off next to a theatre and once inside, it immediately has a very comfortable atmosphere. The equipment is about as top of the line as you see in any north east cafe. Swift grinder, mazzer major, and an FB80?

I noticed the mazzer along side the swift and hoped we would get a shot of something besides a milk blend. Luckily, it was a roast of Daterra Reserve they served for straight shots. The barista took his time and pulled two or three shots to get it dialed in. He appeared to use an 18g dose, and was a bit enthusiastic in his rapping and tapping the portafilter. It didn't really hurt but the noise was shocking at first. We smiled but we were just happy to see someone level and tamp in a proper manner which is such a rarity in our area.

He served up a pair of singles to us and promptly apologized for the volume possibly being 'too short.' It was not too short. In fact, it seemed just right. It had all the tell tale signs of a great shot to us so we immediately dove in. It was great. Fantastic actually. In fact, it was the best shot I had been served of an all Brazil espresso in what seems like a very long time. You must understand how rare it is for me to go into a cafe the first time and be served something on the line with or better than most of the well known New York coffee shops, especially in what seems like a sandwich shop.

We promptly ordered a pair of doubles where I got a maybe 1.25-1.5oz shot that was thick and creamy bordering on intense peanut butter notes with only a hint of roast cocoa at the bottom of the cup. I would guess the machine temp was around 198F because the temp even with a warmed cup was not so hot to the tongue. It must be noted, it was not thin, it was thick having a desirable viscosity and complexity that was quite enjoyable.

Delicious.

The cup was very balanced and had such a smoothness to it, a smoothness I have missed in espresso recently. It was not ashy nor lemon as Brazils tend to get when the roast gets away.

I was content. I could drink that everyday and I honestly haven't said that about espresso lately. I passed it along to Simon who said Monday he will grab some to see if he can repeat what I was tasting. I think it's a good idea to sample it.

I don't know if many espresso drinkers will find their way out to Marblehead but it's worth the journey for those who profess an affection for the tiny beverage. Consider it a pilgrimage of sorts for a good shot. I don't guarantee your experience will be the same as ours but I do think it's worth a shot that whoever is on the machine may take the same care and that the roast may be just as good. I believe they pour latte art on milk drinks but make sure you confirm cup size when ordering to get what fits your tastes. The cup sizes are a bit larger as they are not an espresso bar so much as they are a traditional american coffee shop which luckily appears to also serve good espresso. I think a double machiatto in the demitasse requesting the Daterra or a single/double shot would be the way to go, maybe both!

Finca Vista Hermosa via Brown Coffee Co

---

"The lot that Aaron (Brown Coffee Co.) has I believe is from El Eden which means Eden. I think it was my aunt Delmi that gave this parcel it's name after the Garden of Eden in the Bible because it has two springs on it that yield 2 creeks that end up merging and it reminded her of the Tigris and Euphrates river in the middle east that is supposedly where the garden of Eden was. It is very very steep, but has great trees (non coffee) and of course the water and great partial exposure as it is it's own mini ridge...
This was 1 of 3 lots that Anacafe Awarded (the Martinez Family) earlier this year granting (them) the lock on this years supply to Ancafe for what they use to promote the region of Huehue with around the world at trade shows and such." - Edwin Martinez of Finca Vista Hermosa

---

When we first cupped this coffee, we were largely interested in why it was so even and how it was so clean. It seemed that for this price, this coffee was a heck of a steal. It was so evenly sorted and so few visible defects that we couldn't believe the price. When I got the low down from Edwin, the quality we were seeing made sense. The coffee is solid because it comes from an area with potentially good terroir and they must take care of it in processing.

We cupped this coffee and got a satisfying experience. It was clean and sweet, the roast smoothed out and the cup clarified as it began to cool.

The cupping notes yielded a light layer of roast cocoa, mineral notes, dark sugar, and clean fruit toned acidity underneath. The coffee could go lighter because of it's quality, but I would not enjoy darker. The roast was part of the flavor balance and did not overwhelm the origin flavors allowing them to show through.

Making a snap judgement on this coffee was hard, but it really seemed I preferred the clarity of filter over french press in this case. The 'El Eden' was very representative of what I have come to associate with the good flavor characters of the Huehuetenango region of Guatemala and I will probably sample it again in the future.

First look at Paradise Roasters

"FINCA HARTMANN is a small family farm owned and operated by Ratibor Hartmann and his sons and daughter. The land use is predominantly shade-grown coffee, under towering remnant rainforest trees, and intact pre-montane highland forest that serves as a buffer zone to Parque Internacional La Amistad. At elevations between 4000-6000ft there are a number of accessible dirt roads that pass through many habitat types that are excellent for birding, hiking, and exploring. The family is very supportive of conservation and research and often has Smithsonian affiliated researchers living and working on the land." - Paradise Coffee Roasters

A nice even roast that was clean and balanced and let the coffee speak for itself.

---

This is not a love letter to a coffee. This is about a roaster letting the coffee speak for itself.
In the last week I have been pleasantly suprised by offerings we sampled from Paradise and Brown Coffee Co(more to follow on Brown). Solid coffees where the roaster had a soft touch.
This Panama had that signature flavor you would associate with it's origin. Good terroir, if you will... It was pleasant and had a dark sugar sweetness. The roaster, Miguel Meza, did a great job on all the offerings we had. It really came down to personal preference in terms of the bean choices though. I didn't like the dry processed SOE Yirgacheffe, but it was honestly the most balanced 'strawberry' ferment(almost cherry-like though there was a lot of debate about potential blueberry!) I have tasted in a Yirg. I just don't enjoy that level of ferment in any coffee. A hell of a statement actually, where I didn't have to bemoan the lack of clarity in the roast and could just look at what I liked/disliked about the bean. When you have sourced from as many roasters as we have, this is refreshing to find.
Meza has this very round and soft flavor profile that leaves a very velvet texture to the coffee, even in drip. Kudos to Miguel Meza, we will be ordering some more in the future!

Late night Hines cupping...

Did quick small group cupping with the guys around 9pm. Alex scored some Hines c/o Bronwen. Not much to report. Too tired for notes or anything. Just got a taste of the 'spro, some other sample roasts, and a little perspective on how different things are in each region.

Tamper road show to Cambridge on the Horizon... oh yeah, Hong and I will catch up with Silas in San Francisco tommorrow.


-Jaime

Cupping 2 Ethiopian coffees

It is interesting how from the same region within a region you can get two completely different coffees. Everybody is getting their yirgs right now and I decided to reveiw the 2 closest to me, Peet's Ethiopian Super Natural and Terrior's Addis Ketema Cooprative. I'll spare the over-romantic description of the Super Natural, but mention they did have this coffee last year. It was in their African blend. The Terrior website has alot more useful info and not as much fluff, so take a look yourself for their description. Ok, I'll get right into this, and keep in mind I am really trying hard to be objective.


Peet's Ethiopian Super Natural:


Appearance- Dark brown, almost Black. Quite nice looking beans, not a typical heavy ferment look.


Aroma dry- (If I must call it aroma and not odor) Artificial blueberry smell, think candy or something to that effect. Incredibly awful burnt roast smell, mixed with some traces of other ferment funk.


Taste- Not as bad as the aroma might indicate. The roast covers most taste in the coffee good and bad. It has that awful ferment artifcial blueberry taste and a heavy roasty taste like all of Peet's offerings. Pleasant acidity though.

---

Terrior's Addis Ketema Cooperative:


Appearance- Small hard beans, lots of silverskin, roast a bit uneven looking.


Aroma dry- Like ginger and whole wheat toast. Traces of Acidity even in the dry unground beans.


Taste- Ginger, apricot, nice strong acidity, tea aroma, although not as interesting as last years.


Summary: I will be honest, I wasn't as blown away with Terrior's yirg as I was the last 2 years. I love the ginger but the tea aroma is not as perfumey. Keep in mind this is the drip we are talking about, not the espresso. The espresso, when done right is, unbelivable. The Super Natural is nothing super. It seems to be a bit higher quality than some of the other blueberry ferment coffees I have had and the roast, while giving it a burnt taste, hides alot of the off flavors. As a customer at Peets said to me, "It tastes like burnt blueberry pie". I wouldn't give it that much credit.


Tell me your opinion,


Silas

Ecco Reserve and Yirg SOS...

Waiting for the Ecco Reserve right now. Maybe monday. If you go into Simon's they still have some of Andrew's N. Italian running right now. Simon will order the Terroir Yirg SOS for next week but I am uncertain as Simon is getting two of his grinders serviced leaving him short on grinders.

Just had Denez pull me a great shot of Ecco N. Italin but I still like the Reserve much better.

-Jaime

Colombia - 2006 Cup of Excellence - La Virginia

Colombia - 2006 Cup of Excellence - La Virginia
$20.00/lb
Farmer: Olga Lara

Over at Ecco, Andrew is roasting this coffee right now for drip. No, I did not try to pull it as espresso!!! I only had half a bag to cup out and we really enjoy just breaking the crust in the cup like they do at the roasterie. I struggled a bit to find good descriptors. The fruit was a clean, not quite tannic in flavor, and I was thinking of these clean sweet pears I had growing up. The kind you have to store before they ripen enough to eat. Picked off the tree, they are crisp like an apple but too tough to enjoy. I also got this sugary, not quite caramel flavor as this is an intensely sweet coffee. It's kinda subtle but oh so nice. Andrew's roasts always have a little cocoa of some kind underneath in a soft manner that clears as the cup cools. Overall, I think Ben said it best... It's like a chewy sweet sugary candy with some dried fruit in there.

Andrew's notes on this "This gem snagged third place in the First Harvest Colombia CoE competition, but was our first pick when cupping the top lots! We were smitten by its tantalizing cocoa aromatics and unforgettable balance. Flavor highlights feature bing cherry, apricot, Muscat grape and a creamy Tupelo honey finish."

Right now I am patiently waiting for new shipment of Yirgacheffe from Terroir. Rumors are they will have an exceptional Yirgacheffe that will be great as an SOS. You can dose it to 16g and pull it under a better range of temps. I would love to see some espresso from them that has play. Where you could change the dose and get slightly different flavors or work the espresso through a variable temp range.

Food for thought anyway.


-Jaime

Cerrado, Cachoiera, Cruz Branca ...

Andrew over at Ecco Caffe sent me a bag of Cerrado, Carlos Diamante. Fazenda Cruz Branca (aacck, only three bags!!!) I know that these Cerrados have shown a great potential for a great many of us for SOS in the inherent sweetness of the coffees due to the controlled processing methods. I will pick Andrew's brain and report back with some info. Screen drying and some more inventive techniques are being used on these farms to produce some exceptional lots of coffee. I noticed UK blogger Hoffman is also enjoying these coffees and I feel the buzz as other roasters are beginning to take notice. It wasn't that long ago that Andrew was the only person I knew with this coffee and now you see more and more mention of it cropping up.


-Jaime

---

"...info on Gabriel Carvalho Dias's Fazenda Cachoiera.Gabriel processes
his coffees , employing both pulped natural and natural methods . He is a 4th
generation farmer and has had the brilliant vision to stay with his family's
bourbon stock when most Brazilian farmers were abandoning this gorgeous heirloom
for new hybrid varieties . The Fazenda Cachoiera has an ideal climate and
terroir . Coffees are grown at 1400 meters ( very high altitude for Brazilian
coffee . Gabriel is an artisan at processing and his meticulous growing
practices continue to produce numerous Illy and CoE winning lots .


Had been purchasing Gabriel's coffee from Stephen Hurst's Mercanta ( London
-also the source of James Hoffman's Canario , which is another Fazenda Cachoiera
offering - only 8 bags !) , We are both big fans . Stephen offers Gabriel's
pulped natural selections. Last year's Brazil CoE was very close to the
Fazenda Cachoiera. Spent some time with Gabriel at the farm and learned about
his screen drying ( African raised bed ) for his naturals ( pulped naturals too
). He told me that the screen dried coffees were being allocated for Japan ,
feeling that the intense cost of labor involved would prove too pricey for the
North American market. Anyways , he sent samples of 4 of his different bourbons
, screen dried pulped natural , pulped natural , natural and screen dried
natural . Our clear favorite in both cupping and SOS tastings was the screen
dried naturals ( we are working with Gabriel and Jason on this ). Word is that
the new crop is cupping out beautifully and will be much better this year. Hope
that is the case. If so , Ecco will step up with a big order." - Andrew Barnett

---

The Diamante which was awarded 1st in the 2005 Brazil Cerrado Quality Competition, is patio dried where the Diaz was natural screen dried. The drier weather puts the Diamante more in line with Daterra farm in terms of climate. Where the Cachoeira has lots of fruit, the Diamante is heavy on layered cocoa flavors. And I was able to confirm, yes, Cachoeira farm does have monkeys!


-Jaime

Gimme Coffee ... Ecco... Terroir... and then...

There is something heartening when I receive a package from a roaster. It's like a little gift sent down that I must open. This morning some more packages from Andrew arrived. Nice little gifts of retail bags and some poundage of his Northern Italian roast. We have been clearing the retail bags of Ecco very quickly. In fact, last weeks shipment cleared the same day.


Still, It's that moment when you open a new box of coffees you didn't quite expect to arrive and you are curious to see what's inside. Something unexpected but pleasantly appreciated. I am begining to think It's that constant flow of new coffees every week from different roasters that breaks the monotony of day to day work. I mean you can only polish your double and triple rosettas so many times before you get bored. (To you know who.... my latte art did not peak... my best days are not behind me... hehe) Knowing that each week can bring new espresso to try and curious new experiences. That is motivation. Only a few days ago we were so low on coffees(because of an unexpectedly busy holiday weekend), we had to have someone from Terroir drive coffees over to us.

I was down to S Daterra and Decaf. Now I've got some more Ecco. I also pulled some
shots of the Karindundu (consider it unorthodox).

As I was in my usual morning routine another package arrived from Gimme coffee via UPS. I was not prepared for the CoE Colombia that arrived inside. I remember Simon saying something about 'some SOS from Gimme' but with little or no details before he jaunted off to California. Typical Simon type stuff. So.... I moved Decaf over out of the way and ponied up some of the Colombia to evaluate it. yeah, we got way too much coffee. I may just have to sit on the coffees I pick up from Esselon Roasters when I visit Scott Rao's new project in Western Mass. I probably will offer it up and see how people like it anyway. Nothing worse than people coming in and saying what's the next guest.... better for me to have plenty to challenge them ahead of time.

Feeling good about coffee and espresso right now.

-Jaime