Burnt out but still going ...

Had a rough last week that kept me quiet.

I am going to get some Bolivia CoE from Andew later and evaluate it. I am very enthused to break away from my usual coffee origins and try something else. I have not had a good Bolivian in some time.
I will update some things later and am pondering doing an multimedia update of my simple dosing concept with a video. FYI: No, I will not be using two tampers and cardboard paper.


-Jaime

and the peak expression is...

My simple thought is: What other brewing method is there right now that holds potential on the cafe floor, every decent shop has, and yet is not fully understood or effectively used in most cafes? Try espresso. Drip is a north american obsession and how much more can you really do with it. Even Clover is essentialy not drip because of the pressure from the vacuum like suction. French press, pour overs, what could these possibly offer that we have not already explored?

To say espresso has even come close to reaching it's peak expression is arrogance or simply ignorance. Saying that ideal espresso can only be 2oz or we can only use blends is really archaic thinking. The simple fact is that we have no consensus in the industry on even the basic fundamentals of espresso making or it's potential.


Not that espresso will be coffee's greatest expression but it's the one brewing method that really leaves so much unkown potential out there.



Rant over...

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

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"...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

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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

Espresso is not just another brewing method...

Most espresso, the crema tastes good, the remaining liquid is quite offensive. You get creamy mouthfeel but at the bottom of the cup, it's like bile. I guess the triple ristretto all crema pull makes sense for that. Get only the good stuff and avoid the bad. The reverse being where the crema is blah but the liquid underneath is excellent. People who fancy the coffee like wine analgoy lean this way. To me, the best espresso I have had are smooth and consistent from top to bottom. The crema is tasty and the resulting liquid underneath is excellent also. Not only that, but it also is enjoyable as it begins to cool. How many espresso really qualify as this?

Part of why I am such a fan of Andrew Barnett over at Ecco Caffe (besides his zen master knowledge and humble nature) is his roasting style lends to soft flavors in espresso, top to bottom. The coffees typically have flavor consistency from crema to last drip. Even as the coffees begin to cool, it's tasty. It's been part of my learning curve of graduating from kick in the face intense flavors for my beginners palate to the more subtle flavor profiles. I now have a strong desire for sweetness and complexity over sharp peaks and intensity.

I guess I yearn for espresso to be something so tasty that the average coffee drinker could have an espresso and go 'wow, that's tasty', not 'whoa that's intense'.



-Jaime

Fatigued in Porter Sq

Rwanda, Shanga. Yeah, that's what I want to talk about today. This Rwanda, I really enjoy whereas others I did not. As a drip it was light nut and dark berry but nothing that jumps out and no poetry here. Subtle but with defined body.

So Rwanda Shanga as a shot.... The thermocouple was registering at 172-4F. I freaked out a bit at first, but then it made sense, this is probably a really light roast and why not? I don't think anything shocks me anymore. Plush round, sweet, full bodied concord grapes with a hint of nut. Very signature clean grape, zero roast flavors. Problem is, it was a fine line between clean grape(yummy) and beefy savory grape(blah). The fact is you cannot take any coffee, any roast style, any machine to get the same results. Temperature specific, roast specific, coffee specific. It only works with super clean defect free coffees roasted to highlight the cleanliness and not to add roast (choco, etc) flavors.

So this got me thinking. Clarity. Clean. That is the essence of the coffee from Terroir(and quite probably why I can pull these shots). Some say over processed, some say too light, yadda yadda. That's the kicker though, if you cup super clean defect free coffee all the time, defects will jump out at you. Uncontrolled ferments, over roasting, unripe cherries, muddy cups all scream out at you like a muddled cup of unrefined flavors. When people talk about Harrars or Yemeni coffees and esprecially 'blueberries', I cringe. It's like eating a mouth full of slightly mouldy fruit and proclaiming the complex flavors therein. Well, I exagerate a bit, but you get the point. The truth is, if you didn't really know where the blueberry was coming from and couldn't associate it with rampant ferement, you would think blueberry. (Try draining your drip tray into a water jug for a week then smell it...) I mean, what if a lot of the body/flavors in your favorite coffee is coming from defects that have been roasted over to give a heavy bodied earthy/spicy flavor? How would you ever know the difference? What does this mean?

I guess what I'm saying is, at some point we need to really reevaluate what coffee is and what espresso is as cleaner and more defect free coffees enter the market(think CoE). Our traditional roasts and extraction methods may prove poor methods to create a diffinitive difference in the final cup for the consumer($5/cup for that?).




-Jaime