Counter Culture Coffee Washington, DC

Hello folks!  Great cupping today at the DCTC!  It was a blast with 4 new visitors and 4 baristas who did great today at describing the following 3 coffees:

Ndaroini– Nyeri, Kenya (2 fav)

Fragrance:  Chocolate, cherry/rasp/hazelnut/berry, cayenne, heavy fall forest, woodsy, autumn musk, tomato sweet.

Aroma:  Earth, currant, charcoal, rasp, dark chocolate, sweet, raspberry pie baking, high mountain snow

Break: Oatmeal, BKFST, toast, honey, cedar, green pepper, cooked carrot

Brightness: High, med-high, orange, light, muted citrus into super pop, sweet cherry tomato, initially, low and ramped as it cooled.

Flavor: Tinny-tomato, caramel, mulch, nutty, savory kombu, black peppercorns, popcorn, salty, lemons & citrus as cooled.

Body: Weak into chewy, silky, light, soft, thin, “feeling of a hand across a balloon–on my tongue.”

Aftertaste: Tobacco, greens, savory, well rounded, deliciousness, sour, longer as cooled.

Washed Shakisso–Sidamo, Ethiopia (5 fav)

Fragrance:  Cherry,oak, floral blossom, vanilla beans, orange blossom, plum, fresh linens, strawberry

Aroma:  All red fruits, cinnamon x2, raw hazelnuts, coffee liqueur, flowers, potpourri, green pepper, apricots, apple

Break: celery, sage, curry & caramel x 3, early morning dewy lake, roasted chestnuts.

Brightness: Dark red, medium, med-low, white outlined with yellow, warm, glowy, strawberry lemonade.

Flavor: Earth, dill, baked potato, roasted artichokes, honey, lime at cool, lemon-orange x 3, citrus, lime, pineapple.

Body: Thin x 2, old citrus dryness, medium x 2, blooming.

Aftertaste: MSG, Caramelly, nada, milk choc, lingered.

Natural Shakisso–Sidamo, Ethiopia (1 fav)

Fragrance:  Roasted apple/oak, grass, toasted sea weed, vinegar & raisins (malty mash sweetness), blueberry x 3, dried key-lime.

Aroma:  Blueberry citrus, cologne, black licorice, cereal, grains, fireplace, hops (pale ale), rubber, blood orange.

Break: Blueberry kamikaze, smoky cab, sav blanc

Brightness: Purple, low, medium, sharp into low smooth…sour as cooled.

Flavor: Walnut, durian, blueberry, woody, cocoa, brown sugar, berry clementine, whisky bitterness, chocolate, Cabernet.

Body:  Thick coating, waxy, more pop, malted, round, gritty

Aftertaste: Tannic, lingered, heavy/long, not as long lasting, deep fruity earthiness.

Hello everyone,

I will be on holiday from 12/23 and return to DC on 1/4/2010.  There will be no cupping on 12/25 nor on 1/2010.  We will be back to our regular Friday morning schedule on 1/8/2010 at 10am!

Happy Holidays

Alex

We cupped 3 coffees in the DCTC on Friday…

13 people cupped, and Los Luchadores won the favorites vote!

We began with Finca El Puente and dove right into some lovely fragrances and aromas:  caramel, vanilla, chocolate and earth.  The taste was sweet chocolate with nuts and it finished with a nice clean floral note.

Next up was Los Luchadores.  This coffee was beautiful today with lots of sweetness, some orange on the nose and a round body that satisfied all parts of the mouth in the aftertaste.

Finally, we tasted the Shakisso Natural.  This coffee had 2 diehard fans, 2 folks who couldn’t stand it, and about 6 who could take it or leave it…Such is the life of a natural coffee I guess!  The folks who loved it really enjoyed the blueberries and honey, the sweet milk chocolate, the full body, and the tobacco aftertaste.

Thanks to all who cupped with us!

…(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