Mexican Chiapas

On the Southern most edge of Mexico, just before you get to Guatemala, is Chiapas (chee-ah-pass).  Once there you may ask the locals for a cup of cafe and they will give you a brew from of their home-grown beans.

The Chiapas is a mild cup that sports a dominant fruit-wine flavor.  Roasted just 60-seconds into the second-crack this bean's profile was just slightly Full-City roasted.  Here the flavor of the roast is obvious while the intrinsic flavor of the bean remains present.

While this bean is roasted a strong smoky-nut aroma is revealed making the roaster assume that nut will be present in the flavor however that flavor never materialized.  Only a sweet aroma that had a dry-wine effect was present.  Overall it was a clean cup that nosed sweet and sipped brightly a midst a panorama of floral notes.

Salimba

Zimbabwe

As I sit here, my face is wet with tears for I weep at how good this coffee is.

I French-Roasted this batch and this Salimba is as good as anything that I have ever tasted. Its flavor is traditional yet not at all typical. Uh oh, I feel the bubblings of artistic expression rising in my soul.......

Hath not doth my soul to praise,
Your glory for I am made,
Creation cries out for salvation
And with Christ (and I believe coffee) you did save.

Phew, that needed to come out.

Anyway, if I were to start a coffee supply company, I am confident that this would be my number one seller and I am pretty sure that you would be a loyal customer.

Kahura Peabery

Kenya

I just roasted another Peabery - this makes the forth kind so far. As I type I am waiting for it to fully steep so that I can taste it. I am so excited I might just wet myself (ok, not really but I am excited).

This bean seemed to be more dense than any other bean. I usually roast 2/3 C of green beans without incident but this time the air was not moving the beans to roast them evenly. So, I did what anyone would do - I stood there shaking the roaster.

(Be right back, I have to get the coffee and I think I hear the baby crying)
(Alright, I got the coffee and the baby is babbling and contained safely in her crib)

This cup smells wonderful, like an autumn evening after the leaves have fallen. I mean, this cup smells "take her home to mother" good. It is a pleasure to just sit and smell her beauty and imagine that first kiss. When I dared to lean over for a peck on the cheek I was rewarded with a passion that only a woman can deliver. The flavor is woody and nutty with a depth that only Alice's rabbit hole can know. This flavor begs for a pallet to cause to rejoice and it makes the angels sing. If only I were in the business of roasting coffee - the world would know peace.

I highly recommend this Kahura Peabery...

CIAPEC (100% Organic) - 2

Bolivia

All I can say is "YUM!!!" I re-read the post of the original CIAPEC tasting and it still holds. This bean is a very flavorful bean roasted at Full-City and it smells wonderful. I know because my wife commented to the fact.

Nirvana? Have I Arrived?

I think I have made a break through. Today I went into the local Salvation Army store to look for a bread maker to convert into a coffee roaster (see left) but instead of finding a bread maker I found a popcorn popper for $2.50! So I bought it.

This evening I made a 1/3 cup of Mandehling and the results were much better than I had hoped for or even expected. I could hear the First Crack but the transition between the First and the Second was more difficult to hear. Between the noise of the popper's fan and my kids yelling and playing behind me, I was mostly flying by sight (ie. the chaff and the color of the beans).

The image to the right illustrates two batches of beans side by side. On the left are the beans from stove top roasted in a standard aluminum pot and the beans on the right are the ones roasted in the popcorn popper (Click the image to get a closer look). The beans done on the stove top are less uniform in color, some beans look under roasted while some shine with the oils of a dark roast. The beans from the popper are uniform in color and roast - These are a City to Full-City roast.

I made an 11-cup pot of coffee with 1.75 oz. of these beans. I set the grinder to a coarseness of 10 from Fine and the brew was great! I will admit that this was not the best cup of coffee that I had ever had but it was close. Now that I have the popper to roast my beans in I am looking forward to retrying my coffees and experiencing them uniformly roasted. I will keep you posted.

Tres Rios La Magnolia - 2

Costa Rica

With this second batch of Magnolia I went light on the roast in order to taste the bean's intrinsic flavoring. What happened was that I did not find it to be as dynamic as I had hoped. My first experience with this bean was wonderful but that was with a dark roasted bean. While I did not dislike the coffee I suspect that this bean needs to be roasted enough to have the sugars in it caramelized in order for the flavors to be exploited.

With that said, I like this bean because it seems to have a wide variety in the flavoring and I am left with much yet to explore. I think the next roast will be a very dark Espresso roast and then made into a cup of espresso. I 'll let you know how it turns out.

Bugisu (100% Organic) - 2

Uganda

I have drank this City Roasted brew now for the second and third pots. Again it was dominated by a woody unsophisticated flavor. After a few cups I found that I looked forward to the next cup but that is (I suspect) due to the fact that I love coffee and not because this coffee is all that special.

In fact, the Bugisu is quite boring in that it does not have any attributes that are worth exploring. The experience of this cup is only a bit slightly better than McDonalds coffee.

CIAPEC (100% Organic) -2

Bolivia

This round was roasted to firm Espresso. The beans were so oily that they stuck to each other when they dried. It made for a very dark coffee and it lost some of the nuance in flavor that it had before but it did retain its extravagant aroma.

The body was not as deep as I had hoped it would be with this dark of a roast. I am still trying to decide if Body quality is a function of the roast or the ground to water ratio.

All in all, not a bad coffee but not one that I consider great either. The next time I roast this bean I am going to try a lighter City-Roast to examine its more raw qualities.

Mogiana - 2

Brazil

I roasted 2oz of this bean (yielding 1.5oz of ground coffee) Full-City+ to make a 12 cup pot of coffee. And what a great pot it was!

This cup was nutty and earthy as before (Search "Mogiana") but much fuller this time. The darker roast works well with this bean as it makes a very rich cup that begs you to have more. I have not been rating coffees on the second time around but with the Mogiana I make an exception and give this roast an 8 when it was once a 5.

Tres Rios La Magnolia

Costa Rica

I roasted this bean to a City to Full-City and the smell of the beans was sweet and syrupy - like caramel corn. The ground beans were a bit less caramelish but it was still possessed a sweet smell that promised a very rich cup - it did not renege.

The aroma of the brew was very aromatic and pleasurable. It smelled sweetly fragrant, almost like milk-weed, and deep like a coffee shop smells.

This Costa Rican was very rich with a fine balance as the sweetness was evident and the complexity kept me guessing at what sort of flavors I was experiencing. Although this cup was not as distinct as the Peaberry it had a distinction that commands an audience of its own. I am looking forward to someday brewing this cup next to some of the other beans and making a side-by-side comparison

From 1 to 10 I rate this coffee a 8.

Aceh Gold

Sumatra

The flavor here is full with a Full-City roast - Highly chocolate, semi-sweet, and quite deep. The flavor lingers after the cup is gone suggesting a heavy body.

My lack of enjoyment of this cup is not because of the coffee but rather because I was not mentally prepared to fully experience it. I am learning, as I go, that I need to be ready to take some time to smell and taste the coffee that I make. Also, I think I need to drink some regular coffee for a while to find my baseline again.

I will post updates in the comments section as I try this bean again/

From 1 to 10 I rate this coffee a 4.

Mogiana

Brazil

Nutty and Earthy! Here is a great example of what Nut and Earth taste like in coffee. There is a bit of a wine attribute on the finish of this flavor but it is slight enough to leave you asking if it is really there. The dominant flavor is that of Nut with a fine compliment of Earth tone that balances off the taste.

The aroma is strong with a sweetend earth flavor which is pleasing but not fascinating.

The overall experience is good because this Brazilian bean is the best example of Nut that I have had so far. The flavor does not beg me to drink more but at the same time I like it enough to suggest it to you and to pour myself another cup.

From 1 to 10 I rate this coffee a 5.

Salimba

Zimbabwe

At city, to full-city, this is a very pleasing and surprising cup. You know that it is a good cup when you take a sip and say "wow" and you look for your wife to try it.

The coffee has a dominant floral quality that hits you with a definite floral sweetness right off. There is a nutty quality to this brew which is only slightly noticeable upon the finish.

The aroma did not stand out as one of distinction - smelled like coffee. I will comment later about how it tasted over ice.

From 1 to 10 I rate this coffee a 6.

Bugisu (100% Organic)

Uganda

I roasted this bean somewhere between city & full-city. The aroma was natural and the flavor was earthy and nutty. I liked this coffee, for the flavor was good and the balance was quite focused. However, there was nothing that screamed "drink me" as with say the Paupa New Guinea Peaberry. If you want a cup of regular Joe then this is the bean for you, however if it is uniqueness that you seek then you need not look here.

From 1 to 10 I rate this coffee a 2.

CIAPEC (100% Organic)

Bolivia

The aroma of this Bolivian brew was very enjoyable. If you have ever smelled chocolate pudding on the stove-top while it was cooling (but only not so sweet) then you can begin to imagine the richness of this brew's aroma.

I roasted this bean to a full-City roast and the flavor is earthy and floral with a touch of fruity sweetness which blends this coffee together nicely for a balanced feel in the mouth and palette. I like this coffee and really expect it to perform well when served over ice but I do not think it unique enough to enter into a contest.

What makes coffee organic? I will have to do some investigation into this question. In my naivete I have visions of Juan Valdez walking leisurely around a mountain picking a bean here and a bean there from wild coffee bushes to deliver to me organically grown coffee. I will post when I learn about this.

From 1 to 10 I rate this coffee a 4.

Gichi Kiambu

Kenya

First a little background...

There are two different species of coffee bushes, aribica and robusta. Aribica requires more care and produces less beans per plant so it is more rare and more expensive. The robusta plants produce more beans, require less care, and so the beans are cheaper and more readily available.

This Gichi bean, from the Kiambu region of Kenya, is a bean from the arbica species of plant. It is known as the "Kenya AA" and is noted for its fruity attribute. It is known as the "peachy gichi" (get it? It ryhmes - cute huh?) but I have not noticed this. However, this cup is vibrantly bold as a City to Full-City roast. The Gichi's flavor was unexpected as it possessed a lot of flavor for such a light roast. I noticed a dominant earthy tone which was slightly sweet but just noticeably so. Its aroma is inspiringly different but it did not seem to have anything that could be pinpointed as a noticeable attribute.

This would be a good cup to use as a taster against other cups as it is distinctive enough to warrant its own viewing.

From 1 to 10 I rate this coffee a 5.