OFFICIAL Coffee Crew: Bold Black Coffee Edition

[Horse86]

Stayed at Hotel Heshey in PA over the holiday weekend. 4 star hotel.....very very nice. Anyway had the breakfast package and they had some amazing coffee. I asked what it was and they told me Ellis Coffee from Phila. If anyone tried I'd like to hear your thoughts. I thought it was fantastic. The server must have poured me 4 cups.

Unfortunately I didn't ask what roast/brand it was

[jamalfudge]

Fuark, too many pages to look through for an answer..

Any of ya'll use a Moka Pot?

I bought one awhile back after putting up with pretty awful watery Keurig crap (had already moved on to grinding my own beans, but the Keurig itself just kind of sucks).

When I get the heating of the water just right it makes some delicious coffee, pretty strong too. I just find it hard to be consistent with the heating process.

I watched some videos on YT, picked up a couple tips such as pre-heating the water before filling the reservoir, and not being too aggressive with the heating process.

Just wondering if any of ya'll have tried a Moka before and if you've got any tricks for consistency.

I have one, break it out a couple times a year. You do have to heat it up gradually and it largely depends on your stove setup at home but it's not rocket science. Hate the cleanup aspect of it, but I know that's just splitting hairs.

[Robmnrd]

I have one, break it out a couple times a year. You do have to heat it up gradually and it largely depends on your stove setup at home but it's not rocket science. Hate the cleanup aspect of it, but I know that's just splitting hairs.

Yeah I probably should have clarified, I have a dumb electric top that does that annoying on-off-on-off at different intervals to heat the stovetop, which is my biggest hassle.


Any recommendations on coarseness of grind? That was another tip I found, that Mokas in general work best with a more coarse grind, not a fine grind, but I haven't played around too much with specific levels of coarseness.

Probably more of a trial-and-error thing to find what I like best, but I haven't seen this thread before so I figured I'd make some conversation in it lol.

[poison]

We are back up and roasting in the new space, after 2.5 months of down time! I just added 2 new coffees as well!

Mexico San Mateo Yoloxochitlan Double Fermented and Washed!

This Oaxacan coffee is carefully sorted, and fermented twice, and oozes clean, decadent sweetness. Many Mexican coffees are monotonously 'chocolatey and caramelly', but this one stands well apart: deep, rich, and decadent all apply here, and while the typical cacao and caramel notes are present, they are overshadowed by candied citrus peel, juicy nectarine, and stewed plum notes.

Ethiopia Dry Process Hambela Buliye

This coffee comes from the processing site Hambela Buliye, owned by Kedir and Esmael Hassan. They only use dry-processing for their coffees, and the ultra-high altitude makes for short dry times, and this coffee is impeccably processed. Super-fruity and leaning heavily into berry territory, with notes of strawberry preserve, blueberry, apricot, and golden plum, with pervasive brown sugar and Valrona chocolate sweetness. Acidity is moderate, and it makes a wildly beautiful shot of espresso.

[poison]

We ripped through that Mexico, and are on to the next one!

Tanzania RFA Karatu Vohora Family Natural!

Tanzania is one of the great African coffee-growing countries, and this coffee hails from the Ngorongoro crater, a stunningly idyllic spot. Not only is this coffee an original Ethiopian heirloom varietal, but it's naturally processed, and Rainforest Alliance Certified, which is not surprising when you consider the setting, near wildlife conservation areas where zebras, prides of lions, hippos, and black rhinos roam, alongside a population of Maasai. The farm has corridors of native forest set up to allow free flow of the wildlife through the plantation, and it's fair;y common to find damage to the coffee trees from them.

This coffee expertly highlights terroir, cultivar, and processing method in equal, balanced measure. Brown sugar sweetness supports juicy pineapple, nectarine, and purple grape fruitiness, with delicate cherry blossom and rose-like floral notes rounding out the cup. This will work well with any brew method, but should be fun for pourover fanatics, and make for an exciting espresso!

[poison]

New coffee time!

The exporter of this coffee bought the Gogogu washing station in 2022, and over growing and harvest time, set the processing parameters. The results are OUTSTANDING, and just so happen to be the top scoring lots of my supplier's whole sourcing trip, from any exporter. While novel processing methods are fun and trendy, there is none of that here: painstaking bean selection and traditional natural processing bring the heat at the cupping table. Supremely balanced, creamy molten milk chocolate segues to loads of Concord grape, red delicious apple, and ripe mango, and wraps up with an effervescent Hi-C Fruit Punch acidity.

[poison]

New Limited Release Costa Rica Santa Maria de Dota El Vapor Natural!

We've carried coffees from the supplier Coo****ta, and they are always great. They're the world's first carbon-neutral coffee exporter, and put time and money into improving the lives of the locals (managing local trash in the town of Santa Maria de Dota, and investing in renewable energy). This natural is a jammy festival of fruity delight: cherry, watermelon, and peach abound, with stewed raisin sweetness, caramel, and nougat notes keeping it balanced and good for some scintillatingly fruity espresso, as well as drip.

[poison]

New Sumatra Kayu Aro Nusantara Wet Hulled!

This coffee is traditionally processed (wet-hulled), but exquisitely outside the Sumatra wet-hulled norm. Excellent growing and processing practices create a symphony of balance and depth: thick caramel sweetness holds center stage, while persimmon, guava, honeydew, and lime zest provide support, and fairly intense spice notes of clove, nutmeg, even a hint of cardamom round things out, creating a super-balanced cup that will brew amazing drip or espresso.

[poison]

New Guatemala RFA San Miguel Duenas The Falla Family Natural!

From the Falla Family farm, El Tempixque, comes this traditional natural process coffee. The Falla Family has an oversized impact on the surrounding area, providing an education, as well as medical and dental coverage for not only their 160 employees, but 500 additional smallholder farms. They also look after the environment: this coffee is Rainforest Alliance Certified. In the cup this coffee straddles the summer >> winter transition, with both fresh strawberry lemonade and kiwi notes, but with loads of classic Antigua chocolatey, apple pie and cinnamon notes, along with purple grape and blueberry, even delicate florals. Complex, elegant, and superbly quaffable!

[poison]

COLOMBIA EL EMBRUJO “SHAMAN” CARBONIC MACERATION
This coffee is from Hacienda La Palmera, which started as a 6 hectare farm in 1969, expanding to the current 161 hectares over time. La Palmera was created by a doctor who's love of coffee drove him to purchase the land, which is now under his son's management. Ignacio has built a cupping laboratory and a microbiology laboratory to help him better understand the process at the biological level, expanding the possibilities for quality, production, and flavor profile. They employ 48 women full-time, many of whom are single mothers, and their coffees are hand-sorted for quality. Processing heavily recycles water, and is 100% solar powered.

This coffee is fully hand sorted, then fermented for a lengthy 170-190 hours using carbonic maceration, a technique borrowed from the wine industry, and only utilized in coffee processing since 2015. Carbonic maceration ferments the ripe cherries in a carbon dioxide-rich environment; many fermentation techniques use yeast, and occur externally, but carbonic maceration occurs inside each cherry individually at the cellular level, creating intensely fruity notes that cannot escape the cherry, which are subsequently absorbed by the parchment and bean, before being naturally dried in silos where brix, TDS, and pH are monitored.

What does that all mean? It means 'hold on, you're in for a ride'. Panela sugar and toasted hazelnut are the backdrop for intense fruit, like Welches grape juice, Belgian elderberry Lambic, cherry pie, and baking spice, with floral elements in the background. This will be amazing as drip, and adventurous as espresso, highly juicy either way.

[poison]

New Costa Rica Solis & Cordero La Maquina Honey/Natural!

Ivan Solis worked for years at Coo****ta, a supplier I've used many times, and in 2017 opened Solis & Cordero Micro Mill, both to provide opportunity to his children, as well as the local community. For this coffee, cherries are hand-picked and sorted, washed, then transferred to tanks for anaerobic fermentation using yeast for 96 hours. The cherries are then pulped, and laid out to dry on raised beds, African-style.

The effect is unique and almost startling, with buckets of candied orange peel, port wine/grape, tropical notes of dragon fruit, and pineapple-y IPA-like herbacious notes. Amazing for drip, and an entertaining, juicy espresso.

The Holiday Release and this Limited Release have ALL THE FRUITEZ! If you like fruity coffee, enjoy seeing how processing affects flavor, and want to see how far away from 'it tastes like coffee' coffee can get, well, you're in luck. Buy these coffees, they are insanely, intensely, madly fruity, and I love it.

If you want some moderation, the Ethiopia Gogogu is great, and if you're not about that at all, the Brazil and Sumatra will knock your socks off.

But good lord, these special release coffees are exciting!

[poison]

If you're paying attention, you've seen a few of the latest Ethiopias we've carried come from the Daye Bensa Export team, and probably that these tend to be some of the best Ethiopias I get. This coffee is grown by smallholders at extreme altitude in the Ethiopia Highlands, then processed at the Rumudamo station, which was recently purchased by Daye Bensa, and operates under their supervision. Coffees from Rumudamo Station won 2nd and 3rd place in the 2020 Cup of Excellence. This lot was the best Daye Bensa import the importer cupped this year, and I'll just say it's very expensive, but shines with loads of dense, silky caramel sweetness; deep, fresh, juicy blackberry notes; notes reminiscent of Fruit Loops; and bright lime zestiness hovering in the background.

[weiss1967]

roastInACastIronPan crew. New here. I need a short and precise brief on previous 78 pages.

[poison]

roastInACastIronPan crew. New here. I need a short and precise brief on previous 78 pages.

Haha, time to upgrade to heatgundogbowl, then maybe <gasp> popcorn popper!

Thread cliffs: fresh roasted coffee = GUD!

[poison]

New Colombia El Embrujo 'Wizard' Aerobic Natural!

This completes the trifecta: we carried the 'Shaman' carbonic maceration version of this coffee in December, then the 'Witch' anaerobic fermentation version last month, and now the 'Wizard', an aerobically fermented coffee that spends around 40 hours in the fermentation tanks, while being monitoring Brix, TDS, and pH, then laid out to dry in silos where the cherries are mechanically stirred until they reach the optical moisture level. This farm is on point ecologically, being the first small farm in Colombia producing microlots like these to be IMPACT certified; he employs 48 women year-round; he saves the pulp from processing as fertilizer, and plans to use to process pulp into fertilizer; water from processing is used to water his corn crops; and the whole operation is solar powered. But nevermind all that, I purchased this based on the unbelievable quality of the previous two 'magical' offerings, and here we have tasting notes of grape candy, pink Starburst, strawberry cheesecake, raspberry, fresh lime zest, and light florals. As with the previous 2 coffees, I expect it to be amazing as espresso or drip.

[poison]

New Brazil Carmo de Minas Luiz Paulo Pereira Natural Sudan Rume!

Sudan Rume is a rare, wild varietal from the Boma Plateau in, you guessed it, South Sudan. Rarely used commercially, due to it's low yield, it's hardy disposition and resistance to coffee rust make it a common component when making higher yield, hardy hybrid strains. However, Sudan Rume is really unique in flavor, and tends to be hugely fruity (in the tropical vein), and explosively floral. This farm and grower have won the Cup of Excellence and Carmo Best Cup in the past, and suffice it to say this coffee is spectacular: floral notes greet in the aroma, with rose, bergamot, lemongrass, even a hint of cardamom. In the cup, salted caramel, plummy sweetness, ripe apricot, and guava notes abound, while the florals carry through, and it's all tied together with an effervescent quality that's the antithesis to the mass quantities of 'chocolate/hazelnut' coffees Brazil is mostly known for.

[poison]

New Colombia Santa Monica Natural 200HR!

This coffee is grown by Jairo Arcilo, a third generation coffee grower with over 40 years under is belt, whos children started the export company, Cofinet, which imports this coffee. Jairo has effectively used alternative processing and types of coffee to boost profits, offering unique coffees such as this wild one here.

This coffee is 100% Castillo, not unusual in the least; what is unusual is the processing. The coffee is carefully hand-picked, aerobically fermented for 24hrs, then bagged in grainpro bags and fermented for 200 hours for further fermentation (no typo!). This makes for a fat, thick, fudgy, chocolatey coffee, like molten 72% Valrhona, with oozing raspberry preserves, orange marmalade, gummi bears, and orange blossom notes. I'll go out on a limb and say this is going to rock as espresso as well as drip.

[poison]

ETHIOPIA URAGA GOGOGU WASHED

This coffee is grown at dizzyingly high altitude (over 7k feet!); the higher the altitude, the slower the coffee grows, and the denser the beans, in general, allowing for more sweetness and acidity in the profile. This coffee is grown by small holders with less than one hectare each, not large farms. The coffee is washed, but exhibits fruit and floral notes rivalling many natural Ethiopias: floral notes are potent in the aroma, both grounds and brewed, and in the cup the florals are followed by super-clean melon, tropical fruit, dried pineapple, and sweet pomelo acidity.

[poison]

New Peru Challhuamayo Edith & Ivan Meza Sagarvinaga Natural!

This coffee is from Finca Tasta, a small farm focused on elevating specialty coffee, and sustainability. Nine of their 23 hectares are left wild for local animals, and they grow several crops on the remainder as part of a push to move away from monoculture, growing plantains, yucca, beans, corn, tomatoes, pine trees, sugarcane, raspberries, blackberries, and pumpkins. Using traditional natural processing methods makes this coffee an ultimate crowd-pleaser: coffee is a fruit, and this coffee has loads of notes reminiscent of the cherry it grew in, with apricot, mandarin, blackberry, lychee, and subtle notes of lavender and lemongrass. It should make a thick, sweet espresso as well as delicious drip. Fince Tasta? No, Finca TASTY!