New release, Los Lajones, Panama...

We were excited to release our new crop offerings from Panama last week. A perennial favorite, Los Lajones hits us again with a predominant fruity flavor and meticulous processing, leading to a “clean” natural coffee.

Having had the opportunity to meet Graciano Cruz, the man behind Los Lajones, earlier in the year at the Nordic Barista Cup, we spoke about his new projects in Central America and also got further insight into this years harvest and how it progressed.

On the cupping table, this coffee is different from last year as it seems a little more balanced and in someway easier to roast. The tropical fruit notes are a little more muted, with present ripe fruit and citric orange freshness.

There are those who profess that naturals are inferior in quality, but again carefully processed, there are examples of quality “clean” natural coffees. Another element to consider about naturals is their impact on the environment, or lack thereof.

The fermentation process that occurs in washed coffees, and the amount of water consumed to process coffee in this method have harmful environmental repercussions. The water cannot be reused unless treated. There are also harmful carbon dioxide emissions that arise from using mechanical dryers, or similar.

Normally in natural processing, the berry flesh is reused as fertilizer, hence avoiding the farmer the need to purchase expensive pesticides and fertilizers.

This is certainly not a declaration that all farmers should start to process coffee naturally, but I think a little more open mindset should be had with naturals. Yes, there will never be as clean as washed coffees and the acidity is a little more muted, but they do offer a different type of coffee.

It goes without saying that not all naturals are processed equal. In order to achieve great results, meticulous picking and sorting has to be undertaken.

New release, Don K, Panama...

In addition to our juicy Los Lajones, we had the opportunity in securing a limited lot of Don Kotowa. Kotowa Don K placed 5th in the 2011 Best of Panama competition, and it represents the highest ranking, non-geisha variety in Panama.

The Kotowa Farms are located on a ridge of mountains, which benefit from a microclimate ideal for coffee cultivation. Coffee has been processing coffee here since as early as 1913, by Alexander Duncan MacIntyre.

Now into their 4th generation, they process the coffee in the same traditional way, with a few new interesting techniques. Every year during the harvest, the ripest cherries are selected and then pulped using mountain spring water. The coffee is also sundried on raised African beds in cool, dry climate.

The farms have a reputation for sustainability and traceability. The idea is to protect the surrounding forests and prevent the decline in the natural environment.

This particular lot underwent a new process for the farm, one that allowed the cherries to ripen on the tree until they were almost purple, and prune like. In this method, you do loose some of the cherries due to them falling to the ground, but what you do gain is a sweet, light and elegant coffee.

I guess this technique can be compared to the Late Harvest method that winemakers use.

The end result is a coffee that is superb, balanced with a smooth mouth feel and tea like tannin finish. The fruit-like flavors of stone fruit, pear and soft lime is offering a complex coffee showcasing the best of Panama.

Operation Cherry Red...

For those that have bought and tasted some of our Ethiopian coffees, you will notice that we have for some time offered coffee from a project called, Operation Cherry Red.

Operation Cherry Red (OCR) is a small-scale quality project to inspire Ethiopian producers to make the best possible quality washed, pulped natural, natural and trial coffees.

Before harvest time farmers/producers are invited to participate and produce micro-lots with only 100% red ripe cherries, carefully hand selected several times.

Assistance is made for pre-finance, new hardware and knowledge.

A big premium is given if the quality of the actual coffee arriving in Addis Ababa passes the quality standard on the cupping-tables.

This year the minimum score to be listed as OCR was set at 88 points. A lot of effort is made to preserve this beautiful quality by monitoring fast and safe transport, timely and proper processing.

As no two coffees are processed the same, our choice of Kebado Dara natural and Odoo Shakiso washed are contrasting examples of how two Ethiopian coffees can taste different largely due to their different processing methods.

Whereby the Odoo Shakiso is clean, crisp and offers a sweet, bright fruity flavor, the Kebado Dara is a little deeper, full-bodied and less vibrant, with more ripe fruit, gingerbread flavors. Almost like comparing a crisp Chardonnay to a deep Cabernet.

Mouthfeel & coffee…

A topic that is not often focused upon in coffee is overall mouthfeel. Yes there are descriptors such as smooth, silky, dry, astringent, but do we often actually think about this when drinking coffee and what causes this.

For sometime now we have made it our single purpose to refine our coffee to offer a total velvet-like mouthfeel. This has been a long process in experimentation in airflow and how we can manipulate it to offer such a tactile sensation in the mouth.

This created a dilemma. Do we want clarity of cup with a smooth finish or a full-bodied coffee with slight astringency and overall dryness?

Old harvest coffees tend to loose moisture and when roasting such coffees, they will tend to have a more pronounced woody-like roasty bite, hence more dryness. Funny enough, these are the coffees more entry-level coffee drinkers are used to. A current crop coffee will have a much softer finish and obviously more sweetness and vitality.

Granted in espresso, a thin coffee is often not looked upon as having a positive attribute, but certainly a fresh lively sweet vibrant flavourful coffee trumps a dull full-bodied coffee.

So the conclusion, are we so fixated with maximum strength that we are over looking the overall sensation it does in our mouth. Over roasted coffees never have positive tactile sensations, however a finely roasted coffee will offer a lingering vibrant aftertaste that is smooth and pleasant.

VST precision baskets...

A year ago when I attended the Nordic Barista Cup, Vince Fedele from VST Inc gave a presentation on a program he had been working with, in conjunction with La Marzocco, producing precision filter baskets.

It was surprising to see how our current stock of filter baskets were being affected during extraction. Vince explained that fabrication of the baskets were flawed and at times certain holes were not being punched through, causing uneven extraction, and an unbalanced shot.

The VST precision filter baskets are manufactured with zero defects and deliver consistent extraction performance. This is confirmed with each filter basket being delivered with a filter imaging system that grades the overall quality. If it does not pass, the filters are not sold.

The immediate effects of the craftsmanship are automatically visible. The coffee extracted differently, causing us to go finer in the grind, and the flavours showed up more balanced and sweeter.

We will have to explore more into maximizing the extraction, but can support the hype behind this product. As the saying goes… The difference is in the details.

Image courtesy of VST Inc.

Los Lajones, Panama...

It’s not often you get the opportunity to dance around like a lunatic when you secure a great lot of coffee. This is what happened last year when we secured a limited number of bags of Los Lajones Natural from Panama.

I tasted this coffee a few years ago in Norway and made it clear that if it ever came my way, we would purchase it. Albeit being rather expensive, this is worth its weight in (black) gold. It’s not a coffee that fits a particular stereotype, but hey, that’s what we’re about. Finding coffees that are unique and have a style of their own.

So what makes this coffee so unique? Well the farmer Graciano Cruz is a guy that is committed to the environment and also implementing new techniques to process his coffees, such as only using Honey and Natural methods. This results in almost no water usage during processing, thus protecting one of the Earth’s most treasured resources, water.

The effects of these processes produces a cup profile that is sweeter, and due to his thoroughness, a clean cup. Normally naturally processed coffees cup a little dusty. The following are our cupping notes on this coffee.

Floral fruity aroma, full body, medium acidity, dark chocolate, blueberry, tropical fruit, papaya, mango flavours.

I am describing this coffee as tropical fruit in a cup. As a standalone this is a stellar cup in any brew method, but stands out as Aeropress. We are currently using 20% of this coffee in our Seasonal Blend, which is giving the espresso a nice fruity bite.

Coffees like these are rare to find worldwide and we feel privileged to showcase the best Graciano Cruz produces.

New organic blend Esp015…

On Saturday we showcased our other new espresso blend Esp015, which is our blend based on two organically grown coffees.

The espresso blend is a straightforward combination of two stellar coffees; the award winning Serra do Bone, Brazil and the sweet tasting Adado, Ethiopia from the famed Misty Valley in Yirgacheffe.

Esp015
Organic
80% Serra do Bone, Brazil
20% Adado, Ethiopia

The flavour profile is a unique combination of caramel, praline, tangerine, ginger, lemon, mint, blackcurrant, woodland flavours.

Not as sweet as our current seasonal blend, but certainly robust and refreshing, considering the soft citric flavours that come through. There is a very present minty aftertaste that tends to linger, even when drinking this espresso blend with milk, which I am not a fan of. There is a saying here at the roastery – Milk is for babies, as coined by our colleague Lydia, whom is pregnant... :)

Anyway, what ever your preference, with or without milk, this is great addition to our espresso blend portfolio.