Counter Culture Coffee Washington, DC

…(in my best Alan Ruck (playing Cameron Frye) impression) “David Fritzler, you’re my hero!”

I had the pleasure of attending the Friday cupping today at the DCTC.  That’s right, I said “attending.”  I was given a most enjoyable break from leading cuppers today by David Fritzler of Tryst Coffee.  He was a most dashing leader facilitating a wonderfully smooth cupping and an engaging post-slurping discussion.  He even wrote it all down on the whiteboard…

Coffee # 1 hails from the members of Organica co-op in the town of Timbio just south of Popayan in Cauca, Colombia.   This is our La Golondrina coffee.

Lots of  ”things found in a bakery” notes on the nose (yeasty, warming spices, caramel, oranges, sour-nutty, bread, sweet, chocolate, cocoa, hot cross buns) with a savory orange sauce (duck sauce) with a touch of Grand Marnier.

Brightness was agreeably medium with apples and a muted oranges.  We also found Oranges and apples in the flavor along with flowers (Lilac), honey, and cream…and some more bakery (bread, vanilla, brown sugar, spices)!

The body was very milky (2%) & coating and the aftertaste was mostly of dark chocolate stimulating both the sides and backs of our tongues.  Some found it enjoyable, others a touch bitter.  There were 3 votes for favorite.

Coffee #2 was a microlot of the coffee above from a farm called Finca Villa Maria owned and operated by Husband and wife team Manuel Melenje and Ines Borrero.

There was an epic battle in this coffee of Savory versus Sweet.  We are still not sure who won, but I think we can all agree that it’s ok to call it a draw–especially if this wonderful coffee is the reward!

Savory started the fight with a muted chicken soup punch, but Sweet was right there to deliver the old strawberry cobbler and whipped cream one-two!  Still stunned, Savory started to falter, but snapped back just in time to dodge a vanilla tangerine that just brushed by.   It was impossible to dodge the next move that Sweet had in store:  a barrage one after the other including honeysuckle, jasmine, flowers, honey, and sweet cream butter!  Just when we thought Savory was down for the count…THE BREAK!

Back on his (or her) feet, Savory came back with a spicy flurry–masala, cumin, celery!  Sweet took the blows full on, but stayed true as steak, tomato, and pepper came rushing in.  On the defensive now, Sweet just had to stay steady and watch for an opening…There!  Throwing everything into the brightness, Sweet delivered a glorious hit of nice cherry tomato , but it lacked the zip it needed and fell short of felling the opponent.  With a shake of the head, Savory was ready for more bringing some beef jerky and punchy cheddar to the fight, following it up with lentil soup umami combo.  But Sweet was ready to give some back with figs, melons, sweet cream and ripe fruits!

Both opponents were tired and neither seemed to have the upper hand so cuppers called the match and agreed that a tie would be best–savory and sweet could dominate this coffee together and create a harmonious blend that could further be accentuated by a great mouth feel (heavy, satiny, and soft) and a beautiful aftertaste (delicious and sweet; clean and long-lasting).  All is happy for coffee and cuppers alike!  4 favorites.

Finally, the 3rd coffee on the table was up:  Jagong from the Jagong Mill part of the Gayo Co-op in Aceh, Sumatra.

The fragrances for this coffee started with smokehouse wood, leather, vanilla and genmeicha tea.  The water brought nice wet earth mixed with a chocolaty (Oreo cookie, just the wafer part) medicinal aromas.  For the break, we found wine, brownies, carrots, and sweet chocolate.

The flavors in this coffee were dark (soil, rubber, beans, chocolate) with brighter highlights (green cabbage, ripe fruits, and dried apricots).  Heavy and full went the body, then we finished off the coffee with a grassy, bitter, cacao nib aftertaste.  1 favorite.

Quote of the day, “In the aftertaste [of the Jagong] , everything went away except the bitterness…just like in a bad relationship!” - Bob

Today, each coffee on the table was described in one word by 11 different people, and I chose my favorite 3 to put together a summary of each coffee.  Then, I asked for overall impressions and we made a sentence describing the coffees…

1. Finca Mauritania:  Sweet, chocolate, and malt.  This is a “cuddle”* coffee with impressive aromatics and great balance, but some felt it didn’t fully deliver what it promised on the nose into the finished cup–drink it in the morning time!

2. Shakisso:  Jasmine, candied orange, and floral.  A wonderfully heady aroma meets you in the beginning and the fruits and flowers really come through to make a sweet cup with brilliant acidity and a silky body–Afternoon refresher over ice!

3. Los Luchadores:  Brown sugar, citrus, and custard.  This coffee began with a complex spicy nose with hints of orange and pumpernickle and the taste fell slightly short of our expectations; however, the body delivered a nice creamy quality and it finished nicely with and orange  and apple combo–Drink this on a frigid morning out on the porch with breakfast!

*you guessed it, Uncle Rich strikes again!

This great cupping table brought to us by Finca Mauritania, a good friend of CCC and a producer of amazing coffees.  Serendipitously (I swear this was not planned by me), Woodberry Kitchen showed up with 7 bartenders/baristas/servers led by Spike and Allie.  The serendipitous comes in to play because Finca Mauritania is very close to the heart of Woodberry.  They are always serving up some of their coffee (when seasonally available) and doing a great job with it!  They have been great supporters of FM and relay the story of the farm frequently to customers.  Such a pleasure to have everyone here to taste and discuss this coffee!

So all the following coffees that we cupped were from Finca Mauritania, Santa Ana, El Salvador.  The only differences are in the processing methods…

1. Washed Process (removal of skin and pulp using water)

Cuppers found this coffee to have wonderful fragrances of butter, brown sugar and roasted nuts.   The acidity was very nice and mellow with a soft, sweet lemon and was unanimously the brightest on the table.  We tasted red fruits and heavy sweetness and other complex berry/nutty/slightly spicy things.  The body was nice and silky, a little lacking in some cuppers opinions, but the aftertaste was perfect–clean and refreshing with just enough sweet nuttiness to make them want another cup.

2.  Pulped Natural Process (removal of only skin, but leaving pulp for a determined amount of time, then removing it as well):  We noticed less acidity, more simple sweetness and a heavier body.  The flavors seemed to be very simply nutty and sweet with a little savory happening in the background.  The aftertaste wasn’t memorable, but not offensive, either.

3. Sun-dried Natural Process (leaving coffee cherry intact to dry completely on stone patio)

This Coffee was much more sweet on the nose with fruits and berries and just a touch of that snappy lemon-yogurt acidity.  The chocolate and thick, sweet body helped make it a very rich coffee and the body was very syrupy and nice.  We really dug how the berries were persistent throughout the taste, but not overpowering.  The finish was heavy chocolate, but very nice and clean!