Strange Blend

I have been thinking of ideas to help customers develop their coffee palate ever since a conversation with a regular at my coffee shop, Intelligentsia's Broadway location, about our tasting notes. Tasting has always been one of my weaker points of brewing insofar as being able to distinguish very specific distinctions of flavor. I pitched my idea for a Slow Bar presentation to my educator Jeff and he loved the idea and thought we should do a trial run as the public cupping on thursday. After cupping and brewing a few different coffees, I decided on our Kurimi Limited Release Ethiopian as well as our La Perla de Oaxaca from Mexico. My thought was that these two coffee had very distinct flavors that were different enough to compare. 

The Kurimi Limited Release is from the Shegole Cooperative in the Limu Kossa Region of Ethiopia. It came from a pilot project within the cooperative that consisted of 30 farmers, who were identified by the coop president Aba Nega to be dedicated to the coop and high quality. A group of workers was formed who could only handle these specific indigenous crops. The result was 20 bags of intrinsically sweet and complex coffee that was a result of the attention given during the growing and processing. The flavor notes I picked out were blueberries, tangerine and a crisp sweet lime flavor that I could not really place. 

The La Perla de Oaxaca is from the CEPCO cooperative in Oaxaca, Mexico. The bean varietals are Typica and Bourbon. The La Perla project started in 2001 and was the first attempt to work directly with farmers to develop a superior crop. It was the start of Intelligentsia's Direct Trade model. This specific coffee reminds me of an apple pie, with a chocolate finish. The apple pie is due to the vanilla bean and tart apple I detect. 

For the setup we had two different types of apples and oranges, as well as blueberries and raspberries, in an attempt to distinguish between different types of the same fruit -- the aspect that I personally struggle with the most. We also had chocolate from Tcho in San Fransisco, vanilla bean, and Rosehips tea, which I steeped 10 grams of form 20 minutes. The idea for the Rosehips came from Ashley, another educator who described that crisp, clean, sweet, lime flavor as reminding her of rosewater. We also cupped and brewed both coffees using a Kalita Wave (50g of coffee, 800g of water). 

There were a few things that I found really worked. First of all, I was ecstatic about the Rosehips tea. It produced a delicate, clean, rosewater and lime flavor that was exactly what I tasted in the cup. Second, I was worried going into the cupping that tasting the food would overpower the delicate flavors in the coffee. This happened but it allowed me to change my perspective a little on flavors. It is true that eating blueberries overpowered the blueberry flavor in the Kurimi but it also made the other flavors in the coffee more distinct which is something I never thought about. It also seems to support the blueberry flavor in the coffee seeing as that specific flavor was gone but other flavors were still there.

Here is a great collection of photos.... While I would love to visit many of the places or experience many of the things depicted in them, For some reason, snowmobiling down this path seems like the way to go.