Monthly Archive for May, 2009

Cupping 5-29-09

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Alex
on May 29, 2009
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6 cuppers in the DCTC.

Ndaroini

Nyeri, Kenya

With a fragrance of plums, ginger, guava and lemon, we really got excited about this coffee right away.  When we added water, we smelled anise, sweet fruits, chocolate, and berries with a lemony tomato break.

The acidity of this coffee was gentle but higher reminding us of citrus fruits sweet apples.  We found many flavors including some tasty fruits (apricot, melon), sweet things (raw honey, milk chocolate), and some savory things (tomato, vegetable stock).  The body was agreed to be light but not thin (1%milk), full, and good.  We tasted a small amount of astringency,  sweetness, cereal, and fruits to make for an overall pleasant finish.

1 Favorite

Nyakizu

Butare, Rwanda

This coffee had a great nose of grassy/earthy notes balanced with sweet chocolate and fruits.  There were also toasted walnuts and graham crackers with vanilla, caramel, and some “chef boyardee” undertones.  The break on this coffee was vegetal and cocoa powder.

We found this coffee brighter than the first one, with a more lemon-focused brightness that was zippy.  The flavors were really nice and developed as the coffee cooled.  Some specifics include citrus and tart, bar-b-que, earthiness, cereal, rye bread & sourdough, molasses, cinnamon, and a general sweetness.  This coffee really showcased its extremely nice balance of flavors!  The body was so pleasant and was described as “coating, but not oily.”  Cuppers also said it was light, silky, and 2% milk.  The finish was muted and fleeting and tasted of buttered toast, chocolate, fruits, and nuts.

5 favorites

Gayo

Aceh, Sumatra

Warm spices, tobacco, chocolate, and woodsy are the notes we had for the fragrance of this coffee.  The aromas were roasty, smokey, and chocolate with a spicy pine forest and nutmeg break.

The brightness was heavy, muted and low.   Flavors were “of the woods” (di bosco) containing cedar, leaves, spices, and fruits.  Everyone said dark chocolate, and on cupper was reminded of an old wood stove or a forest fire.  The body was heavy, round, and creamy, and the finish was dark, smokey, and bitter.  We also got heavy chocolate and felt there was a lack of sweetness.

0 Favorites.

Cupping 5-22-09

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Alex
on May 22, 2009
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Hello folks!

Here are the notes from the cupping this morning:

We had 4 cuppers and no first timers.

Ariel Pajoy Microlot, La Golondrina

La Plata, Columbia

Fragrances on the nose this morning were citrus fruits (orange zest, grapefruit) with a chocolate and nutty platform.  The aroma and break brought out the savory characteristics (tobacco, smokey, bitter chocolate,celery) and some spices (cinnamon, fennel seed).

The brightness was soft, light, low, and muted.  We tasted 80% Cacao dark chocolate, bitter orange, herbs, citrus, raw green beans, and nuts.  The body felt light and soft, and the after taste was short with notes of dark chocolate, smoke, and hay.

The coffee was described as a “good afternoon cup, a coffee coffee.”  Cuppers wanted a little more punch and sparkle, and this was slated as a good “rainy day coffee.”

Lot #8, Bwayi

Kayanza, Burundi

Fragrance was woodsy with some dusty fruit and bananas.  Aromas were of fresh cut wood, chicken soup, and oranges.  The break was grassy, broccoli, stir-fry, and light florral.

The acidity of this coffee was medium high, mediocre, subdued, but sparkled when cool.  Flavors were woodsy, nutty, dried fruit leather, and honey with a milky and smooth juicy body.  Aftertaste was drying with unanimous fruit with some black tea at the end.

Idido Misty Valley

Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia

This one wins for favorite on the table with 4 votes.

Fragrance was of bananas, anise, musty decayed wood, rotting vegetation, lemon, jasmine.  We got some exotic sweet spices, tonka beans, and bubble gum in the aroma.  The break was grapefruit, dark berries, black cherries, and spices.

We all agreed the brightness was medium-high, and tasted of sweet fruits and flowers.  The flavors were clean and fresh, fragrant, dried fruits, blueberry, yogurt, and honeysuckle.  Body was medium and creamy/round with a cherry, chocolate(!), lingering fruity aftertaste.

This coffee tasted really great today and cuppers thought the Misty Valley is a great coffee for a sunny summer day.  lemons and flowers, blueberries and chocolate, this coffee is truly shining bright lately!

Esmeralda Pre-auction Cupping

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Alex
on May 19, 2009
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It was a lot of fun to taste the 7 different auction samples from the Esmeralda cupping.

1.  Reserve la Senora

0 favorites

This coffee had a nice citrus (lime, orange) and savory (chicken broth) nose and a lower brightness than some of the other coffees on the table.  Flavors included spring onions, honey, strawberries and their stems, and sweet citrus.  The body felt soft and round and the aftertaste was mellow.

2.  Caballeriza

3 favorites

Cuppers described this as the zippiest aroma on the table showcasing berries, cherries, honey and swimming pool.  The brightness was thought to be a clean, and quality brightness and was tied (with #5) for the brightest on the table.  Flavors were fruit centered including plum and applesauce (from Pink Lady apples) layered with notes of black tea.  The body was juicy and the finish was clean and smooth.  One cupper declared this coffee as the “most balanced” on the table.

3.  Mario Carnaval

.5 favorites

The first pick of this coffee had rich aromas of berries, plums, beef stew, and malt.  The brightness was intense, sweet, and sour all at once.  flavors of lemon, bergamot, and chocolate were most popular and the body was described as thinner and juicy.  This coffee wins the award for favorite aftertaste with heavy lemon-tea flavors.

4.  Mario San Jose

0 favorites

With a floral, rose fragrance and a strawberry-jasmine aroma, this coffee really showed a beautiful nose.  the brightness seemed to dial down from the previous harvest, but still described as medium high.  Flavors were fruity (oranges, raspberries) to savory (spinach) to sweet (milk chocolate, caramel).  The body was heavy and the finish was tobacco.

5.  Mario Pascua

2.5 favorites

Dark chocolate, earthy, woody, and citrus described the fragrance and aromas.  The break was herbaceous and fresh.  This tied (with #3) for the brightest coffee on the table and was light and pleasant.  This coffee tasted like a strawberry banana smoothie, honey, and a clementine.  The body was creamy and rich with a nutty, toffee, aftertaste that was voted most pleasant.

6.  Naranjo

1 favorite

The nose for this coffee was fully a sweet one: chocolate, caramel, and pipe tobacco.  The break was all honey and carrots.  The brightness was dominated by citrus (grapefruit, orange peel) and the flavor by chocolate and malt.  The body was creamy and the aftertaste was oranges.

7.  Colga

0 favorites

Cran-Apple Blast (trademark, Ocean Spray), tropical fruits, and mango over veggie broth and toast were the main aromas for this coffee.  It had a medium brightness and the flavors were all savory including oregano, broth, and dark chocolate.  The body and aftertaste were emphatically described as “creamsicle.”

Hacienda La Esmeralda

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Alex
on May 15, 2009
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Monday, May 18

3-5pm

Counter Culture Coffee DC Regional Training Center

1840 Colmbia Rd, NW Ste 202

Washington, DC 20009

dial #202 on the call box and go to the second floor when buzzed in.

Please join us at the DC Training Center on Monday afternoon for a very special cupping of coffee from the world famous Hacienda La Esmeralda.

The Peterson family’s Hacienda La Esmeralda in Boquete, Panama, has broken record after record for price paid for green coffee.  Once you taste it, you might understand why; coffees from the Petersons’ hand-cultivated Geisha variety trees have mesmerized us, as well as the rest of the coffee world, with their intensely floral notes of jasmine, honeysuckle, and citrus.

We will be tasting seven lots before the auction on Tuesday.

Please join us in the training center on Monday for a chance to taste this once-in-a-lifetime coffee.

Cupping May 08, 2009

Published
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Alex
on May 9, 2009
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8 cuppers

4 fav’s for Tegu

4 fav’s for Valle del Santuario (decaf)

0 fav’s for Cenaproc (French Roast)

Tegu

Nyeri, Kenya

Fragrance:  Fake cocoa mix, graham, spice, nutmeg, sumac, freshly fertilized earth, nutty, woody, ripe black cherry, sweet, sour

Aroma: Green pepper, hardwood, flourless chocolate cake, pudding, baker’s chocolate, canned peaches, cooked rice, floral

Break:  Candied orange, ginger, spiced tomatoes, veggie, fennel, celery

Brightness:  Bright, high, grapefruit, orange (color), candlelight

Flavor:  Deliciousness, umami, beets, warm pepper, plum, pinewood, citrus, orange, tangerine, Dr. Pepper, malty, savory beef broth, Kenyic, Tomato paste, tart, sour cherry, chocolate, preserves, concentrated, tangy fruits, rhubarb

Body:   Clean, flat, thin, watery, soft, velvety

Aftertaste:  dark chocolate, dark, clean (astringency), acidic clean, wet, musty

Valle del Santuario (decaf)

San Ignacio, Peru

Fragrance:  Sweet, fruity, corn, tobacco, toasted rice, wine, raisins, plum, tangy, twangy, gentle approach

Aroma:  Chocolate, buttered zucchini, sweet butter, orange peel, sweet plum wine, hand lotion

Break:  Sour cherry, butternut squash, bay leaf, baked pasta, sweeter tomato, unsweet cocoa

Brightness:  Med-medium high, nicely balanced, brighter as it cooled, indirect lighting, medium, banana bright

Flavor:  Chocolate, lemons, melon, salty, popcorn, subtle, sweet spice, muted strawberry, Extra dark brown sugar, maple, nutty, malt, puffed wheat

Body:  Rotund, velvety, coated, dusty, smooth

Aftertaste:  toasted oats, nutty, pleasant chocolate, full

Cenaproc (French Roast)

Caranavi, Bolivia

Fragrance:  Burnt sugar, diesel, mineral, dark oats, almond extract, outspoken

Aroma:  Piney, earth, wet clay, roasted eggplant, brownie, bitter grapefruit, resin

Break:  Oil paints, linoleum, mild & sweet tobacco, cedar smoke, CO2, astringent, chemicals

Brightness:  Dark, sludge, black, 60 watt CFL lighting

Flavor:  Carbon, Ash, pungent, plastic, industrial, carob, mineral, nutty, chocolate, dark fruits, smokey

Body:  Filmy, oily, long-lasting, medium thick, too aggressive, tannic

Aftertaste:  Radicchio, endive, residual, Valdez spill, cigarettes, old stale tobacco

Black Gold Documentary Screening at Busboys & Poets, May 6

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on May 5, 2009
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black-gold-film-still-coffee-sortingAs part of their new eco-living series Green Resources and Sustainable Practices (G.R.a.S.P.), Busboys & Poets in Shirlington, VA, will screen the 2006 documentary Black Gold Wednesday, May 6, at 7 p.m.

The documentary chronicles Ethiopian coffee farmers struggling to overcome the hard realities of the international coffee trade. Counter Culture Coffee’s own Sustainability & Producer Relations Manager Kim Elena Bullock will lead a discussion after the screening.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information and directions, please see the Busboys & Poets events calendar.

Cupping May 1st, 2009

Published
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Alex
on May 5, 2009
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10 Cuppers

3 coffee

Valle del Santuario,

San Ignacio, Peru

Fragrances and Aromas included: Warm peanut sauce, plums, toasted cereal, muted fruits, cinnamon, cooked onion, walnuts, and apples.  The break held some ginger, apricots, and soy milk.

We tasted things like Amaretto, Macintosh apples, graham crackers, puffed wheat, and earth.  Unripe melon and orange zest described this medium high brightness, while the body of this coffee was soft, creamy, and light (but not thin).  Sweet, dry, soft, and dusty were the final descriptors referencing the aftertaste.

An overall go-to coffee that is easy drinking, sweet, and pleasant with some great complexity in the cup.  This coffee is in season and killin’ it!

Sadly, no favorites.

Nyakizu

Butare, Rwanda

We smell savory! Tomato, vegetables, Slim Jim, cumin, soy sauce, red curry paste, squash

We smell sweet!  Blueberry, maple, dark floral, grape jelly, fruits, blueberry

We smell sour!  Marmalade, sourdough, tart

Then we tasted lots of pretty things that were a combination of all three.  They included caramelized apples, meyer lemons, cascara, caramel, fruits, berry, raspberry jam, citrus, baked squash, syrah, cooked carrots, sweet stew, dried fruits, and pancakes.

The body was like cranberry juice and the aftertaste was a juicy, lingering brightness.

This coffee was bursting with flavor and made us all want to come back for more.

10 favorites!

This coffee will be available May 11th.

Gayo

Jagong, Aceh, Sumatra

Chocolate, chocoalate, chocolate for everything!  Every time we tasted or smelled this coffee, we had to dig down through the chocolate to find other things.  We did manage to come up with a few other yummy descriptors.

We smelled habenero, mace, soil, rubber, perlite, cinnamon, tobacco, roasted nuts, and brulee sugar.

We tasted pencil, tobacco, ash, vanillin (imitation vanilla), cherry cough syrup, root beer, licorice, peppers

We felt a heavy, buttery texture with a gritty, chalkiness at the end.  The aftertaste was equated to having just finished a cigar.

I am in love with the chocolate this coffee has to offer.

No one chose this as their favorite.