El Conquistador Tarrazu - 2

Costa Rica

I presented this Tarrazu at a coffee demonstration the other day - it was a hit roasted at City. With this batch I roasted it Full-City+ to Espresso when the second crack was in full force and the beans displaying a beautiful oily sheen. I've been grinding just two cups of beans (very coarse) and soaking them in boiling water in the French Press.

This coffee is strong, straightforward, and possesses a flavor that is in full-swing. It is a very enjoyable cup when the temp cools a bit and it has a great body. It is unique in that it burps bacon (please forgive the unsophistication of this description but it seemed the best way to communicate it).

I am learning that there is a happy point with coffee. Too many grounds to water ratio and your coffee is too much like a bully forcing its flavor upon you but too little grounds and you have a cup of hot brown water that desires to be good coffee when it grows-up.

Coffee Demonstration

Today at church one of the guys asked me about how to roast coffee. So I volunteered to demonstrate the process using my popcorn popper at our small group bible study that afternoon - it was a hit. Not only was there a buzz at church about the roasting demonstration but everyone wants to roast there own coffee now. Hee-hee, I feel like the Brain who is attempting to take over the world.

To the left (from the left) are my popcorn popper, jug of filtered water, green coffee beans, 12 cup coffee maker with conical screen filter, aluminum pie plate to cool the beans on, and a burr grinder. I let everyone see and smell the green beans and then added 2/3 of a cup to the popper. With-in 10 minutes the beans were a nice shade of brown and finished having fully entered the First Crack.
Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the coffee.
My continued preaching of how it is a mortal sin to add cream or any flavoring to black coffee made people feel obligated to at least try it plain black. Afterward I heard from person after person that they did not need to add flavoring because the coffee was so good. Ahhh, converts. (Sidebar - Do you know why they flavor coffee? Because it is bad coffee in the first place) At least two people commented that they are going to seek out a popcorn popper of their own and so I am well on my way to starting the green coffee bean co-op that I need to help with my coffee bean purchases

This was my first coffee roasting demonstration and it turned out well. I had pieces of 72% and 86% dark chocolate to sample with the coffee which seemed to go over well with the ladies. I am looking forward to having more demonstrations like this so that more people can learn the joy of truly experiencing coffee.

El Conquistador Tarrazu

Costa Rica

As I have seated myself and am preparing to write this review I ask that you would bear with me a bit while I go get another cup of this Tarrazu.

O.K., I have returned. Thank you for waiting.

As a Full-City+ roast I find this cup to be very pleasing. The aroma is strong and spreads around the house like a fine linen blanket that invites you to snuggle in while it brews. Very smooth with a strong fragrant scent.

The flavor is very earthy, and (as someone else describes it) pleasingly straightforward. Straightforward is a great term that describes the flavor in this cup because other adjectives do not seem to identify the quality here. It really is a flavor that has to be experienced to be understood. I read that the Tarrazu is a classical bean that is known for its fruity and nutty attribute but I am afraid that the nut is lost on me - all I taste is the pleasing fruitiness that seems to make this cup "straightforward".

From 1 to 10 I rate this coffee a 6.