#squaremilecoffee

The Flat Café in Vršovice, Prague I’m a fan of James Hoffman, and it seems not the only one in Prague. The Flat Café carries Square Mile coffee. S. at the Vrsovice café and I talked about favorite Hoffman YouTubes when I visited. It also qualifies as a literary venue because of its “No laptops/No studying” signs.

All about Cascara.

“cascara kasˈkɑːrə/ noun noun: cascara; noun: cascara sagrada; plural noun: cascaras 1. a purgative made from the dried bark of an American buckthorn. 2. the tree from which cascara is obtained.”

So last month I was asked to bring some alternative beverages to our London SC. This was a great opportunity to share the things that I’ve seen over the last 6 months or so and also what I’m interested in; I’ve always got an eye on the speciality coffee scene, I love it’s constant vibrancy and willingness to challenge and dive further into coffee exploration.

I’ve seen a lot of uses for Cascara. It’s the dried cherry of the coffee plant. The one pictured is one I picked up from Union Coffee Roasters. It’s their Los Jones Geisha from Panama, and it was delicious brewed straight up. A 4 minute brew gave a delightful cup - notes of apple and prune. It’s got a raisin like sweetness and I also found the aroma to be reminiscent of fresh dried tobacco.

Cascara Soda - I’d also read about making a Demerara syrup out of brewed cascara; I brewed cascara for around 20mins to get it as strongly steeped as possible, before adding Brown Sugar and boiling water. This is then left to cool. Simply put - fill a tall glass with ice, add 3 parts sparkling water and top with 1 part Cascara Demerara syrup. I played around a little more and actually topped the beverage off with 2oz of cloudy lemonade - and just 2 parts sparkling water. It was incredibly refreshing and the Cascara flavours still came through.

This is the first time I have tried Square Mile coffee at home and I have to say, this is possibly the best Kenyan I’ve ever tasted. This is what Square Mile had to say about it:

“On the slopes of Mount Kenya at about 1600 metres above sea level, some 1200 small farmers grow coffee that they deliver to the Gicherori factory. A majority of farmers in Kenya are members of cooperatives who process the coffee for them, so they deliver cherry and get paid by weight, with a higher price paid for the ripest cherry. The factory then looks after the pulping, fermentation, washing, soaking and drying of the coffee, a process that can take up to three weeks from start to finish. Between the unique Kenyan varieties, the soil and climate of the region and the processing methods applied, the best Kenyan coffees showcase a very special flavour profile unmatched elsewhere in the world.”

This coffee is typically Kenyan with buckets of fruits hitting your tongue. Notes of blackberry and red currants hit you first, complimented by the silky mouthfeel that reminds me slightly of melted marshmallows. It has a slight Tannin dry finish that is contrasted with the juiciness that carries the whole way creating a  coffee that if it were wine, would be described as Medium-Dry. 

The summer berry juiciness of this coffee is balanced by a strong backbone of super dark chocolate that has subtle hints of a light wood and brown roasted flavours. The heritage of the coffee beans used to produce this cup are very interesting as it consists of SL34 & SL28. Both produced by Scott Laboratories after the Kenyan government came to them to survey each coffee strain for its commercial viability. Whilst SL34 is capable of growing at lower altitudes and SL28 at higher ones, the latter is infamous for the quality of cup it produces. Despite both having genetics from Bourbon varieties the SL28 varietal provides stunning acidic complexes that will consistently blow your socks off. 

I brewed this coffee using a V60 with 20g of Medium-Fine ground coffee and 320g of water yielding 280g of brewed coffee. I believe the pour-over method really highlights the juicy components of this coffee whilst maintaining some body to hold the dark chocolate backbone in place.