Kenya Nyeri Gatomboya Peaberry

Exotic Complexity - We were intrigued just by the thought of purchasing and roasting a Kenya peaberry coffee to see how dynamic the cup would be. Just the description of what the final taste could be teased us for 24 hrs as we let the fresh coffee de-gas. We knew peaberry are rare and coming from Kenya after some research peaberry is only about 6% of the entire crop. These beans are from Nyeri region and Gatomboya is a coffee wet mill where the coffee cherries are washed, pulped, fermented, washed and then dried.

Kenyan coffees as we know are the heavyweights of east African coffee and usually roasters use Kenyan coffees as a benchmark for comparing quality.

     We roasted this coffee ourselves this time using a plain ol' rival popcorn popper from your local vendor. They are nice and plump in the raw form and appeared slightly larger after roasting.  We took this coffee to a full city roast as documented on the left.  After letting the coffee sit overnight we took it for a course grind and noticed a very exotic fruit aroma. 

     As we let the grounds bloom for a minute with 8 oz. of water the aroma intensified and gave off a thick jam like scent of berry and possibly mango.  On first slurp these beans shine with an acidity that lights up your palate front to back and dissipates quickly with a mango/apricot flavor rolling in afterward.  Scents of red berries interestingly took over as the cup cooled and the acidity became balanced with the smooth body.  This coffee is very similar to a 3-piece jazz ensemble when it comes to complexity. It was clean as it cooled, bright up front when it was hot, fleshy stone fruit flavor in the beginning, exotic and berry tasting as it cooled.  We paired this Kenyan coffee with Raspberry chocolate cake.  The raspberry flavor gave the coffee a sweet delicate red berry taste with a subtly tart finish.

Guatemala Casi Cielo

     Almost Heaven - Coffee from the Antigua region represents the best of the best!  This coffee was created in collaboration and once upon a time served at Seattle's legendary Canlis restaurant to pair with their decadent pastries and also used as espresso.  Rumor has it that at that time Starbucks had a decaf version of  Casi Cielo for Canlis Restaurant as well.

     This coffee really highlights the aspect of blending/roasting to achieve a tapestry for your palate and showcase the signature style of Guatemala.  Antigua's coffees are grown above 5,000 feet and the coffee farms are in close proximity to three of Guatemala's 37 volcanoes: Agua, Fuego, & Acatenango.  There are four farms that make up this blend and all four were chosen because each farm has a long history of high-quality coffee.  Each coffee is a Starbucks exclusive and over the years, Starbucks has supported at least one social project at each farm.
The four farms are San Miguel, Entre Volcanes (Special Reserve Estate 2001, Special Reserve 2002), Santa Clara (Special Reserve Blend 2002,2003), and Bella Vista.
     We tried this coffee in a french press and noticed the subtle floral aroma as we bloomed our grounds then prepared our press.  It is described as elegant in flavor and that's exactly how the beans flourished.  Casi Cielo was balanced, very smooth, and medium viscosity.  This coffee definitely had character and wanted to flaunt an outstanding flavor profile on the finish.  There is a tangy acidity to it but it does not over take the experience.  We tried this first with homemade Lemon Bars made by one of our partners coincidentally that day. The lemony acidity was alive, but it was sweet and showed off a different layer of flavor in this complex roast.  Now, before we tried this with chocolate we made a new batch with our chemex brewer but this time we added La Espanola Choffy to the grounds

before steeping on 7 grind.  La Espanola is coarsely ground cocoa beans from the Dominican Republic.
All we had to say was wow.  The cocoa tones and the texture of casi cielo was unreal.  The chocolate taste was astringent and decadent, paired with rocky road cake pop and we had a brownie in our cup. Cheers!

Breakfast Blend

     Acidity 3 Ways - Starbucks breakfast blend was created for the New England Region as the preferred cup was a lighter roast.  Often in the Northeast consumers usually bought their coffee the same place they bought their newspaper, milk, and gas.

      We actually did our tasting of Breakfast Blend side by side with another brand of the same style of arabica coffee. We will refer to this bag as Test#1 and Starbucks as BRK. 

     Our goal was to see the differences in the roasters palate not to pick one over the other.  As we began to bloom Test#1 in our french press, the first thing we noticed was a green aroma hinting at under roasted beans.  The brk bloomed for one minute as well it had a roasty sweet aroma but not overwhelming.  

     When the french presses completed 3 mins afterblooming we began to observe the noticeable color differences.  Test#1 was lighter in color almost like a cinnamon roast and Brk was richer in appearance.  On first sip Test#1 has a big sour acidity also referring to under roasted beans it would make you shiver and caught us off guard.  The body was thin and dissipated quickly.  As for being 100% arabica coffee the taste was reminiscent of robusto beans and tasted like a brown paper bag or wet cardboard.  As test#1 cooled off the acidity stood out even more and made the sample unbearable.  

     After sampling test#1, it really made BRK seem like it was a dark roasted coffee.  The mouthfeel was smooth with a tangy acidty.  BRK really emphasized its roast profile by showing off a medium body in the cup. We paired these coffees with roasted almonds, cinnamon chocolate loaf, and lemon sorbet.  

 Acidity in breakfast blend is an important aspect of this brew.  Acidity gives the coffee life and allows food to be paired with coffee. 

 The roasted almonds reminded us these are high quality Latin American beans that were delicately roasted lighter to achieve a milder dimension and made the Breakfast blend taste like buttered popcorn.  The 

Cinnamon chocolate loaf made the cup slightly richer and smoothed out the acidity giving it a cleaner finish.  

The grand finale was the lemon sorbet.  After taking in a spoonful, each sip of the breakfast blend sung through and reminded us of fresh squeezed orange juice, picture if you will an odwalla with a hint of coffee.  The Acidity was vibrant and danced around your tongue but was very enjoyable.  This would be a perfect tasting for educating newcomers to enjoying the sparkling finish to coffee.