I agree about the short cappuccino and that has been my fave... 2oz shot with 2.5 to 3oz microfoam. Very nice and the berries still stand out.

I get strawberries consistently too. This makes me want some Idido Misty Valley. I enjoyed it throughout the life-cycle. In fact my two best shots were on days 3.5 and 12.

brad

"not outrageously fruity" means that it wasn't a "fruit-bomb." it was certainly fruity, maybe very fruity, but not "outrageously fruity". for me, Wondo Bonko, misty valley, beloya, etc. are in the "outrageously fruity". For the record, i like outrageously fruity, but then again, i like espresso.

I got a lot of cherry flavors from this in an espresso

I really liked it in a latte.. I was surprised that the natural sweetness of the coffee that i saw in the espresso shined right through the milk

Definitely one of the nicer SO's I have tried

Hey, I have some comments and a question.

I've been enjoying CC's wet processed Shakisso in an Aeropress. It's rather delicious too, by the way. I'm assuming it's a bit more muted than it's natural dried cousin. Well, that's what I'm tasting anyways...

About 5 days post roast I got the absolute cleanest coffee I've ever tasted. The package talks about jasmine blossoms I think, but it reminded me a lot of eating Honeysuckle as a kid. Later on now I understand the strawberries allusion, but it's softer like a melon with a tiny bit of lemon-tart at the end.

I would say it's almost tea like, but only in the best ways. It really just feels good for the soul.


Anyways, to the question. Does there seem to be an outrageous amount of chaff to you guys? Perhaps I'm simply inexperienced, but it really surprised me how multicolored my grind was. And how much chaff was stuffed in the bean...


There might have been a little bit more even before the static blew it away.


It's a light-medium-ish roast, right?


It's kind of wild looking, isn't it?

Like I said above, I really love the flavor. I also know that chaff doesn't usually affect the taste, if at all. I'm just wondering if it struck anyone else as unusual. Is it just because it's a lighter roast? Maybe Ethiopians varietals are commonly like this? Am I just a noob?

You have a light roast there. The easy way to tell is to look at the split in the bean. If it is white, the coffee was pulled before the oils started browning, before the first pops of the second crack. At first pops of the second (medium roast), the split starts darkening to a tan color. When the split gets as dark as the bean, you are getting well into the second crack. The chaff also goes through this color change.

The amount of chaff depends on the way the parchment is removed after the beans are completely processed and dried. Hand removal leaves all the chaff behind, while mechanical removal also removes some or all of the chaff. Your beans are hand-made.

During roasting, the chaff gets drawn off by the ventilation air. I'm not sure, but it could be the Shakisso was roasted with low ventilation.

Matt, are you using the Shakisso Natural Sundried or Shakisso Natural Sundried Single Origin Espresso? The former is a lighter roast than the latter. It's a little hard to judge from photos, but yours indeed looks pretty light.

shadowfax wrote:Matt, are you using the Shakisso Natural Sundried or Shakisso Natural Sundried Single Origin Espresso?

Haha. I'm actually using option #3, plain Shakisso.

For clarification, that means that Counter Culture sells Shakisso, Shakisso Natural Sundried, and Shakisso Natural Sundried Single Origin Espresso, all from the same farm in Ethiopia.

Sorry if there is any confusion, I probably should have been clearer at first.

A closer reading of the description on the website mentions that the beans are hand-washed and then laid outside to dry (...naturally in the sun ). So I believe you are correct, Jim, that the parchment is removed by hand. That is probably why there is more chaff than I usually see.

shadowfax wrote:It's a little hard to judge from photos, but yours indeed looks pretty light.

Yeah... my camera isn't that great, and true color photos are difficult in general.

On a side note, it's always fun when a pro echoes your own opinion. Peter's description of "a particularly intense and beautiful take on the classic Southern Ethiopian honey-lemon taste" matches some of my own tasting notes!

Ah, thanks for clarifying. I knew you had the washed Shakisso, but somehow I got the impression you also had one of the sundried versions as well (and that you were photographing that one). Moving on...

Oh... I'll have to work on my online style! I used too many "its." But yes, only have the washed, and not using it for espresso.