In my continuing quest to sample new single origin espressos, this week I have been drinking a new offering from Verve in Santa Cruz, the Burundi Wet Processed Kinyovu Espresso. Yes, it's an S.O. roasted for espresso, huzzah! (Those of you who read my occasional posts in this section of the forums will recognize that I frequently try S.O. coffees which are roasted for drip as espressos, usually with reasonable results anyway, but I'm always extra pleased to get good single origins roasted with espresso in mind.)

Back in May I tried a Lake Tawar Sumatran from Verve that was roasted for espresso and both I and my houseguests at the time loved it and were very bummed that they ran out. I was very much looking forward to their next SO espresso offering, so when this arrived, I was keenly anticipating a treat, and have not been disappointed.

I'm waiting for brewing recommendations for this one from Scott at Verve, but in the meantime, I've played with it a bit and found I've liked it best pulled short, at around 30 seconds for maybe 1.2-1.4 oz or so, with a slightly coarser grind and overdosed, at temps from 203-203.5ish. Pulled like this it yields a very sweet shot with hints of grape or sweet wine, cherries, and other berry juice sweetness, hints of maple syrup, and another fruit I can't quite place, maybe dried apricots, and pulled on the longer end of that spectrum (up to 1.5 oz.), sometimes a dusting of bittersweet chocolate, though if you go too far, you'll get some other flavors as well - the normale pour for this bean is a completely different animal than the ristretto shot, and my wife actually prefers a normale pull, which adds some distinct woody/nutty and maybe herbal or green flavors as well.

In any event, however you prefer it, this coffee is delicious as a straight shot or in an Americano, with or without milk, and well worth trying - I will be back for more.

It turns out I found similar extraction parameters to what they did - Scott tells me that Chris is pulling 20-21 grams at 203ish for 1.5 oz. or so in 22-25 seconds. Anyone else find other parameters they liked?

Still loving this bean after over a week drinking it!

A couple of weeks later, after drinking a couple of other coffees in the interim, I pulled another bag of this out of the freezer, and it's not only excellent but even better than I remembered.

Sweet and with a variety of fruity flavors (which I like, personally) and not overly citrus, I think this would make a great into to espresso for someone who hasn't had it before or has only had burnt or bitter poor cafe product and would benefit from seeing that it can taste great without sugar. (This is all without taking away a bit from more complex blends, nuttier coffees, etc., as I certainly enjoy these as well, but I've found that especially with respect to newbies I've fed at home, sweet, fruity espresso has been a pleasant surprise almost without exception.)

Thanks! Love to share the good stuff. On price, I can't quite recall but I don't think it was terribly expensive, maybe $12/bag or so for a 12oz bag in the cafe?

BTW, I've also altered my parameters slightly, now slightly finer ground with a level (or even slightly under) dose in the same extraction volume, getting very similar results (if not even a little sweeter, but memory is deceptive so I'll just say still lovely). So it's pretty forgiving dose-wise if you get the temp in the right zone.

I'm sure it'll be great - my unskilled and lazy technique no doubt fails to make the most of my equipment anyway (my wife thinks I'm freakishly obsessive as compared to being behind the PF at work, but all things being relative, clearly not in this crowd ).

At least I'm finally getting good microfoam out of it - got a big smile from my niece for the heart in her capp this week. I guess it takes a while to get the hang of it enough to produce consistent results if you don't make milk drinks regularly!