DaveLSM wrote: Will a single origin Colombian like this make good espresso?

Sure, I don't see why not. Many single origins work well for espresso and any brew method. But there's only one way to find out! Maybe you've already tried.

DaveLSM wrote:The eagle has landed!

Will try this tomorrow - actually, no, I'll wait a week. (roasted yesterday)

Will a single origin Colombian like this make good espresso?

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Please share your experience. I'm curious to read about this Colombian.

LOL - I could not resist and tried the med roast yesterday - before its time. My first time trying espresso from such a coffee, and I enjoyed it. Definitely hints of citrus, and with an attentively-pulled ristretto, flavours which can only be described as berry. This was not evident in a slightly longer shot. Interesting.
Very different and lighter than the coffees I have tried to date, and nice. Little of the rich chocolatey quality that I have grown to enjoy though.
One over extracted single (first shot) tasted only very mildly bitter.
That's as well as I can describe, and I am sadly lacking in vocabulary and comparatives, so you'd best order some and try it.

Dave

I only received my machine in the last couple months. The first bag of beans I went through was a throw in with my machine and there was no roast date on it so I question the freshness. There was still nice crema though but I wasn't blown away. My hope was that this was just the bean not being fresh.

My next bag was from Black Pearl in Winnipeg. Anyone ever try this? It is a local roaster for me so I figured it was a nice place to start. Now the crema and quality just went up big time! It is full bodied, rich, some baker's chocolate tasted in there and the Colombian in it really shines through. Quite a darker oily bean but overall was impressed. A solid darker roast.

Now onto something a little lighter and sweeter. Enter Intelligentsia's Black Cat espresso. I would love to hear some opinions on this one. Just drinking my first shot of it now. It required a much finer grind than the Black Pearl and I may still go a little finer with it next time. The brightness and sweetness was off putting at first. It had me questioning if it was too sour but I think it was all that red fruit and citrus flavors coming out of it. It will take some time to determine if I like it but I was licking my cup at the end so maybe that is a sign But boy oh boy this one hits the high notes! I can see it being a favorite to some and not to the palate of others. How it cuts through in a milk drink will be interesting to see.

And this is my first post in the Canuck drinkers forum. So hello. Let's drink, be merry and bounce off the walls.

Update on Chalos medium and dark.

Despite my earlier success I found I could not dial in a solid espresso shot with the medium today before I used up the bit I had. Required a much finer grind than the dark, or something. See thread: Medium roast fast, Dark roast slow, why?

The Chalos dark is very nice. Dialed that one in no problem and enjoyed a few shots this evening. Rich flavour, as you'd expect of dark roast, with minimal bitterness at the finish, and what I expect would be called balanced acidity. (in other words, not notably acidic). I did not clearly identify any fruit qualities, and can point to caramel but not so much to chocolate as with other coffees. That said, I am not clear yet on some of the flavour analogs, so I will stop there and stay away from the flowery prose until I know I can use the terms reliably. Maybe not even then. Anyway, it was delicious and I could make it work.

Learned more about the relationship with Chalos and Trebilcock today as I visited Trebilcock. One roasts, the other supplies (though not exclusively), and Chalos's story as related by David Trebilcock is pretty interesting - rehabilitating the family and community farms in Columbia. (Lives in Canada though, something to do with a good woman...) David Trebilcock suggested a med-dark roast Kenyan SO as something very different, and offered to take that coffee back in exchange if I tried and did not like it - he would use the open bag in-house. I'm sure I won't do that to him, but a nice offer. They are smart marketers and smart customer relations people.



Update - did try the Kenyan K, not hard to dial in and get a good tasting shot. Just finishing a spot-on "normale", nothing sour or bitter. Flavour is quite different from what I am used to, and quite good - I now understand the tasting analogs of "citrus" and "grapefruit" - cool.

Dave

Spitz.me wrote:
I'm not taken with anything provided by Detour and rarely go to Dark Horse Espresso.

Dark Horse now uses 49th Parallel Old School at least at the Queen east location.

I thought it was very good.

Has anyone tried Clean Coffee?

theespressoinstitute.com/clean-coffee/

They use this at arkandanchor.ca in Hamilton.

Sorry, I haven't. First time I've heard of them. Have your tried them?

http://www.everydaycoffee.com/

This place at St. Lawrence market. Any opinions?

Tx!

canuckcoffeeguy wrote:Have your tried them?

No yet may make a detour to Ark and Anchor soon.