Just worked my way through my first pound of the La Maravilla (espresso roast).

This is a stunning coffee, and a wonderful espresso IMHO.

It's very (very) clean and crisp, with a wonderful cherry hard-candy flavour, light chocolate notes in the foundation and a ton of juicy fruit (nectarine, apricot, sweet grape). It has incredible floral and fruit aromatics. The aftertaste is gorgeous and long lasting (this is one of those espressos that 75% of the pleasure comes after you drink it).
I'd describe as a medium to light body espresso.

It's gorgeous as a straight shot, and very nice as a macchiatto. In more milk than that, it becomes lost (the initial flavours on the palate are great, but as soon as you swallow you lose all the coffee flavour entirely).

This is not an espresso for people who like the "massive" or "intense" espressos (syrupy, hyper-concentrated, etc) - nor is it for people who drink milk drinks.
But if you're in the market for something more delicate and layered and expressive - you might really dig this coffee.

Chris, I must have missed where this coffee is available, and (gulp) how much per # (or bag)
I assume around 201f?
What about dose?
I'd be dosing into a Cremina single or double basket. 18grams ain't gonna fit.

send 'em an email and ask about it.
I don't know the price - sorry - but I'm guessing it's not nose-bleed territory.

I was running at slightly under 200F to really get all the juicy fruit out of it - but also pulled it a little higher (still nice, more caramel and nut and spice, but less impressive IMHO).
I was slightly up-dosing and pulling pretty high volume (a tad over 2oz). Found this to be the sweet spot to my taste.

It's a LOVELY coffee.

Duh...I forgot to look at the Title (Ecco Caffe, etc)
I need to lose at least 2 MVP places for that screw up.
Sorry.

IMAWriter wrote:Duh...I forgot to look at the Title (Ecco Caffe, etc)
I need to lose at least 2 MVP places for that screw up.
Sorry.

Rob,

No need to lose those hard earned MVP points!

And just so you know Chris wasn't just teasing us, I got this response from Ecco:

Hi George. This coffee will be available within the next couple of weeks. We've had the green coffee for a bit, the guys have been experimenting with the roast. I have to tell you, this coffee is amazing. We will be offering the Maravilla as a single origin espresso. You are going to love it!
Please drop me a line on Monday of next week, we can touch base and I can hopefully get an order in for you even if it's not on the website yet.


Best Regards-
Anissa Cisneros
Ecco Caffe
90 Timothy Road, Unit E
Santa Rosa, CA 95407
707-525-9309

And thanks Chris. I'm in the mood to have the brown Santa start visiting again (it's been far too long), so I think I'll give this a try.

George

Thanks George (and Chris)
Assuredly this coffee will be a change from my usual Yemen or Brazilian SO's.

Just worked through my first pound of the "official" production version.

Just a gorgeous coffee.
Highly recommended if you like this sort of thing.

malachi wrote:Just worked through my first pound of the "official" production version.

Just a gorgeous coffee.
Highly recommended if you like this sort of thing.

Dang Chris, I'm still waiting for the 'green light' to put in an order.

Wish I had some of your clout.

George

Say, Chris, I assume this is the same La Maravilla as Intelligentsia is offering? Their description sounds similar (if less interesting) to your accolades for Ecco Caffé's roast of the coffee. I've also read a few raves on Intelligentsia's roast from people on Flickr comments, etc.

I'd be interested to know how the two are different if you've happened to try them.

malachi wrote:Just worked through my first pound of the "official" production version.

Just a gorgeous coffee.
Highly recommended if you like this sort of thing.

What roast level would you say Ecco is using for the FLM espresso roast?