I stopped in to Equator in Venice yesterday to try out their Blue Bottle. I love Blue Bottle, but this was a miss for me. It lacked the sweetness and complexity I've had at their stores up in San Fran; I'd say they were brewing slightly too hot. But I digress.

Not wanting to start the day off with a mediocre espresso, my wife and I walked down a block to Intelly Venice. I dislike BC, so I always go for the SO they're serving (I've posted about the Honduras here before; excellent!). They're pulling 'Ethiopia Yrgacheffe', nothing more specific than that. I asked the barista if there was more info, and he told me about the upheaval in the Ethiopian coffee industry. As he spoke, he pulled 2 shots, tasted the second, then made mine.

I took a sip: WHAM! The flavors came on distinctly separate, and in waves; first anise, then lemon zest, then cardamom, then sweet cinnamon, then a woody cedar-ish, or maybe lightly leatherish flavor, which gave way to a syrupy tannic tea-like middle ground, which in the end gave way to a slightly roasty depth which surprised me. The first sip of crema was astounding, with the flavors coming on fast like the hits from a welterweight boxer, and marrying together in a beautiful knockout combo. The lemon zest is powerfully, um, lemony, but not sour or acidic in the traditional sense.

BOOeffingYAH! Kudo's to the barista, who nailed it. I wish I had his name, because he's deserving of mention. White guy, scrawny beard, medium height.

Perfectly roasted, perfectly pulled, it enters into my personal pantheon of perfect shots.

Intelligentia consistently has spectacular SO espresso's. I remember their Sumatra Lake Tawar from earlier this year like it was yesterday. Grapefruit, bittersweet chocolate, cranberry and cedar. So good it had to be magic.

I don't always like them, but the 50% I do like are killer!

Probably the Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Dama Co-op
Fantastic coffee.
So far the #1 coffee (though not the Intelli version) from the State of SF Coffee tastings.

It wouldn't surprise me, Malachi. It's that good. I highly recommend it. In fact, I'm meeting a friend at Intelly tomorrow to have another shot, which is high praise, given I'm a roaster. You should try it before it's gone.

We went back today, tried it as espresso and Clover. It was not great, just a total lemon bomb with a harsh-ish astringency to it. I drank the espresso first, and chalked it up to the barista variable, but after drinking the clover, I bet it's a totally different batch (and chalk it up to roasting variation or lack of rest). Interesting in the Clover, very tea-like; I'm not up on my black teas, but I think Assam is the appropriate tea. It had that astringency in the clover cup too. My wife loved the Clover cup, nearly dumped her cappuccino for it.

I wish I had bought a lb of it when I had it on Friday.