Colombia El Quebradon

I love this coffee.  It’s flavor notes are: Berry and Brown Sugar.  It’s a medium roast with medium acidity.  It is grown at altitudes of approximately 5,500 – 6,000 feet. It’s really, really tasty.

Quebradon means hilly terrain, and this coffee is grown in a rugged mountain area in Colombia in volcanic soil.  These beans were chosen because of their superior quality.  They come from 12 specific farmers, chosen from a potential of 90 in the Huila region.

It’s definitely my favourite of the new Reserve Coffees we have in the store right now.  To me it is the darkest of the three, which I really enjoy.  As you’d imagine from the tasting notes it pairs really well with strawberries and pastries that have brown sugar in them.  I haven’t tried it, but suspect that it would be really great with strawberry shortcake. 🙂

Rwanda Hingakawa

When we read about this coffee we were really excited to try it!  Here’s the reason why:

The group of farmers known as Hingakawa are all women.

We thought that was pretty cool, and promptly dubbed it ‘The Lady Coffee’.

Rwanda has gone through an exceptionally difficult time, but the farmers of Hingakawa have created a positive experience through coffee.  They have a very close community, where they grow exceptional coffee.

Rwanda Hingakawa

 

This coffee has a medium acidity and a light body.  It’s grown between 5,500-7,200 feet.  And the cherries are removed using a washed method.

Instead of making a coffee press, I had it made on our clover brewer (which is kind of like a reverse coffee press, but it makes a really nice rich cup of coffee).

I usually really like African coffee, so I thought I’d really like it.  But it’s a little light for me.  Tasting it right now for a third or fourth time, I’m actually enjoying it more than I did on my first or second try. It definitely is acidic, it has a really bright feel in the mouth.

The flavor notes on this are oranges and ginger snaps. I’ve had this with the Starbucks ginger molasses cookie as well as the cranberry orange scone.  The scone was a far better pairing in my opinion.

I’m not sure I’d drink this every day, but once and a while it would be nice.

Colombia Santana El Bolson

Mr. Rojas worked on a local coffee farm, but had a dream of one day owning his own.  He worked hard and saved his money and one day his dream was realized.  He is now the man behind Colombia Santana El Bolson.

Colombia Santana El Bolson

 

The Rojas family gives back to their community by hiring local workers and have also helped to build new homes for those who live in the area.

This coffee is grown between 4,750 and 5,400 feet.  It has a medium body and acidity (supposedly) and the cherries are removed using the washed method.

I’ve tasted this several times now and until yesterday I really didn’t have any use for it.  When hot, it’s a strange mix of Kenya (very acidic and juicy) and Sumatra (herbally).  I find it light in my mouth, but it has a strange aftertaste.  What turned me around on this?  This is absolutely delicious iced.

I was at work when I tasted this, and I was with my boss, so I didn’t take photos as I usually do. But trust me, get this and drink it iced.  I haven’t had a chance to try it yet, but it will also be amazing made as cold brew.  If you happen to be in a Starbucks store while you’re drinking it? You should have a spinach feta wrap with it. YUM!

Ethiopia Guji Bilida Bukisa

As I was waiting for the kettle to boil I smelled the coffee.  It didn’t seem like it would be too dark. Which makes sense to me, most of our Reserve Coffees aren’t dark roasts.  If I’m perfectly honest, I don’t know why. (Something to learn)

There is a lot of really great information about this coffee, as well as a great audio file at this site. Rather than me regurgitating it, I highly recommend going there to take a look.  And listen to what Arthur has to say about going to Ethiopia.

This coffee is named after  washing station it comes from.  It has an interesting story. The man who owns it has fulfilled a longtime dream to own a washing station.  If you go look at the site I mentioned, you will see that Mr Tufiri is quite innovative, and that he treats the coffee very well.  Which in turn gives it great flavor.

The flavor notes are – lavender, lemon and black currant

I really smelled and tasted the currant in this coffee.  It has a pretty light feel in the mouth, and it felt like it had high acidity.  The digital coffee passport suggests that the complementary flavors for this coffee are: Lemon, Herbs, Berries, Baking Spices.

I had it at breakfast with waffles that I’d put apricot jam on.  I wouldn’t suggest that pairing again, it didn’t go – at all.  I thought the apricots might fit into the lemon/berry kind of profile…they did not.  Overall this one was not my favorite, and I would not get it again.

East Timor Oriental Peaberry Sangria

I’d like to promise that this is the last time I’m going to write about East Timor Oriental Peaberry.  But…you never know, right? 🙂

In my last post about the ETOP made as cold brew, I mentioned that I thought it would be good made like a sangria.  I figured I’d better try it.  This is how I made it:

1. I squeezed one orange into the pitcher
2. I sliced one lime and added the slices
3. I sliced one grapefruit and added juice and slices.
4. I put in my coffee concentrate and equal parts water
5. I chilled it for an hour

When I poured my glass I made sure to add some lime slices & grapefruit slices to the glass as well as a bunch of ice.

You know? It’s not half bad.  I think if I was going to make it again I’d add more orange to it (in fact, I’ll add more to what’s left in the fridge)  The grapefruit in particular is very pronounced.  It’s a bit tart, but the extra orange will help sweeten it up.  I could see drinking this on a lazy afternoon while sitting out in the sun.

East Timor Oriental Peaberry Cold Brew

 

East Timor Oriental Peaberry Cold Brew

I’ve run out of current Reserve Coffee to taste.  The next won’t arrive until sometime in July.  So, I’ve had to be creative to satisfy the blog post requirement for my class. I won’t get to where I’m supposed to be by the end of the day, but this is something I’ve been wondering about ever since I did my tasting  of the East Timor Oriental Peaberry two weeks ago.

At that time, I wondered what it would taste like iced.  And I could have done just that, made it hot and put it over ice, but why would I do that when I could make cold brew instead?  I had a meeting with my boss last week and I was going to do this tasting for him, but I was a dummy and mixed up the days, so we ended up doing something else instead.  I didn’t have 10 minutes to prep, let alone 20 hours! (whoops)  So, I’ve been doubly curious since then.

I mixed the coffee and water as soon as I walked through the door last night, so that it would be ready for mid-day today.  And, now it is!

This smells very sweet – I did not add anything to it except water and ice.  I do get a hint of citrus from it. And the malty sweetness the package mentions is very evident in the cold brew version.  It has a bit of a ‘cola-y’ flavor to it. It is full of flavor when it’s in your mouth, but the flavor does not linger.

I would drink this every day. It is fantastic.

Now, because I like to wonder…  I bet it would taste fantastic if it was made like a sangria.  With orange, grapefruit and maybe lime slices inside and a bit of sweetner added.  Something else to try!

 

Brazil Fazenda California

This is the newest Reserve coffee we have in the store. We got it in before we received the fact sheet or signage, so we tasted it and made our own opinions of it before we really knew anything about it.  The description on the card says that it has “Layered flavours of lemon, brown sugar and toasted hazelnuts”  We looked at that and immediately thought we’d pair it with our toffee doodle cookie.

Tasting it again today, my impressions are:  When I smell it, I definitely get hazelnuts.  The coffee is well balanced and I don’t pick it up in any particular place in my mouth.  It has a really nutty flavor.  It’s a medium roast, but I’d say on the lighter side.  There’s a finish to it that I would describe as ‘tannin-y’.  It really feels like the finish of a black tea to me.  There is a very low acidity in this coffee, which is what I would expect from a coffee from Latin America.  Incidentally, it tasted fantastic with the toffee doodle cookie.

The farm where these beans were grown was once a research farm for the University California Davis. (This is the reason California is in the name) They stopped using it and the farm fell into disrepair and in 2004 Dr. Rodrigues purchased the farm.  Since he purchased the farm all of the equipment the farm uses has been upgraded and he has put a focus on sustainability and high quality.

 

East Timor Oriental Peaberry – Part 2

It’s been quite a while since I mentioned that I’d follow up with the tasting of this coffee in a couple of days.  It’s actually been a lot of days, so without further ado…

I’ve been meaning to get back to this for a week or so, but I get distracted at home. So yesterday, we did a coffee tasting of this at work! I didn’t take photos, as I was in the middle of a meeting when we tasted it, but I did write notes.

The tasting notes on this coffee are “Citrus and malty sweetness” The coffee itself has a medium body and a medium acidity.  These beans were grown between 4300-5900 feet. The coffee was prepared for us in a French press.

I had a hard time distinguishing anything when I smelled this coffee if I’m perfectly honest.  I wasn’t alone while I tasted it though, so I was told that there was a floral aroma to it. You know how when someone suggests something to you, suddenly you smell it too?  Well, that’s what happened to me.  After I was told that it had a floral aroma, I smelled flowers. When I tasted it though, I immediately tasted grapefruit.  The malty flavor mentioned in the description appeared in the aftertaste to me.  Because of the grapefruit flavor it has  a bright taste. Which makes me wonder how it would taste iced…something else to try!

Jared asked me in the comments of my last post if the peaberries gave the coffee a different taste.  I didn’t know the answer to that. I’ve looked at the materials I have at work on this coffee and it doesn’t mention that. So I popped the question into my search engine and Wikipedia gave me this answer:

 

East Timor Peaberry

What the heck is a peaberry?  It seems as though I wasn’t the only person to ask this question, as Starbucks made a YouTube video to explain it!

 

So, basically when  you take the cherry off of the bean, you get two flat coffee beans.  But sometimes you get a full round bean.  These are rare, so it must have been pretty difficult to find enough to make this small lot coffee.

One of the things Starbucks cares about deeply is helping the farmers who grow the coffee they buy.  There are many examples of this.  Since this is about the East Timor Reserve, I will share what they’ve done in this community.

In 2004 a coffee farmer co-op started giving weekly mobile health services to this area. Unfortunately they were working in locations that did not provide much privacy.  Because of this, sometimes people wouldn’t come.  Last year, Starbucks partnered with the co-op to help fund four medical clinics. Now they have somewhere for the mobile clinic to operate.  Now all members of the community have access to regular medical care.

I will leave this here for now, but I do have the coffee and will taste and describe it later this week.

Malawi Sable Farms

I have to be honest, I had no idea where Malawi was until I saw the map that I’ve included. I’ve learned that Sable Farms are located in the southern part of the country which is landlocked.  As a result, the owners of the farm have had to be extremely creative environmentally to be able to grow their coffee.

They use drip irrigation systems, solar coffee dryers, and they compost the cherries after they’ve removed them from the beans.  They also filter and reuse the water that they’ve used to wash the cherries from the beans.  They really are as sustainable as they can be.

Reading about their operation, it makes me think that they are a fairly large farm. This is the case.  As well as growing coffee they have a very large tree nursery.  They have about 1,800 people on staff.

Malawi Sable Farms

The tasting notes on this are “Citrus & Chocolate”, which to me are contradictory. Which makes me pretty interested in how this will taste.  This coffee has a medium body and medium acidity.  It is grown at about 3,900 feet.

I prepared the coffee in my French press, using 6 tablespoons of coffee and 18 ounces of boiling water.  It steeped for 4 minutes before I pressed it.

I definitely get notes of chocolate when I smell it.  When I first taste it, I also understand why they talk about the citrus. This is a very acidic coffee.  I would say that it’s probably more than ‘medium’ in the acidity department.  It feels very smooth in the mouth, and does have a bit of a fruity finish.  I decided that I would try this with a chocolate croissant since it talked about chocolate in the description.  I wouldn’t say this is a perfect pairing, but it’s pretty good. I feel like it needs something just a little sweeter, to be perfect.

I really like the coffee, and I love that the farm is watching their environmental impact, employing so many people and helping the surrounding community.