Over the Thanksgiving holiday, we road-tripped south to visit my brother and mother in Los Altos. Everyone loved my homeroast, all of which we consumed as drip, as my bro's Gaggia Paros is not at this point capable of producing anything more than a nasty hybrid of starbux, lemonade and bongwater. We ran through two pounds too quickly, and I needed more coffee, so on the last day we went to Barefoot (6 minutes away) and I bought four bags of coffee. For this we received 4 free shots (2 Element, and 2 of a Kenya which they did not have available as beans, but which was only the second which I have loved as an SO espresso, ever - sorry, Ken:) ). I bought some Boss espresso, two nice Guatemala coffees, including the bourbon El Socorro, and the Maya Ixil. All of these were very good.

The Aconcagua Tablon 12, however, is excellent. It has amazing layers of flavors, and these differentiate remarkably with change in dose. I have not played much with temps at all, staying at 202 IIRC. The coffee is a fun and forgiving coffee to play with, as with decent technique, it is possible to get a very good (3-3.5) shot easily. Pulled normale with lower dose, There was a smooth, almost buttery roasted-hazelnut base with semisweet midtones and some bright spots which were to me hard to describe. At higher dose, pulled more ristretto, the nuttiness muted, chocolate became darker, and the fruit became reminiscent of mildly-spiced persimmon cookies that I remember from childhood.

The coffee was roasted on 11-24, and I opened the bag on Day 10. I cannot help but think that I missed some of what this coffee has to offer. An amazing roast of a great bean. Kudos Andy, et. al.

Definitely one of my favorites of this year's crop. I will buy more.

Mike