Nueva Llusta - Counter Culture Coffee

Coffee from Bolivia usually benefit from great altitudes and organic farming. Bolivian coffee also tend to have fruity notes and rich chocolate characteristics in the cup. Much of Bolivia’s coffee production is organized into regional cooperatives. This coffee from Las Yungas Region of Bolivia, on the Nueva Llusta farm fielding the historical Typica and Caturra varieties. 

We prepared this coffee two ways. The first (pictured) was with the Kalita Wave pour over with 32 grams of coffee (18 grind on Virtuoso) and 500 ML of water.  The second method was the AeroPress with 24 grams of coffee with 12 grind setting on Virtuoso.

With the pour over the bloom and slurry did have a sweet aroma similar to raisins.  In both brews to Baking chocolate taste stood out and had delicate finish when hot. Latin American coffees usually dominate as the coffee cools to showing off the roast profile.With the medium-coarse grind in the Kalita Wave the extremely bright acidity took over the cup as it cooled with subtle semi-sweet chocolate taste. The AeroPress really allowed for the smooth body and baking chocolate taste shine through with still a hint of the juicy acidity on the finish.

I did not experience dried cherry notes from this coffee however I did enjoy the almost raisinet taste and texture of this brew while it was hot.
I tend to get the most enjoyment from counter culture coffees with finer grinds in pour overs or espresso. We paired this coffee with chocolate which paired briliantly driving the sweetness of the Bolivian coffee. We also paired it with a "Caramel Chocolate Pretzel" Krispy Kreme doughnut. The saltiness of the pretzel and caramel sugars muted the acidity and enhanced the cup to an almost dulce de leche taste.

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.