What is wow'ing you?

#1: Post by **Intrepid510** » June 28th, 2012, 12:54 am

I have felt like I have had a lot of good coffee this year, but nothing that has really wow'd me. So I am just wondering if you guys could point in me in the direction of some exceptional coffee, only caveat is that I am not comfortable with light roasted espresso as my Preciso has a hard time grinding fine enough to get proper extraction.

Brewed or espresso, all takers are welcome.

#2: Post by **malachi** » June 28th, 2012, 11:31 am

Square Mile has been solid this year.
49th Parallel has been dramatically improving.
Tim Wendelboe is doing wonderful coffees.

Those would be my wow roasters.

The El Injerto SO espresso from Stumptown was stunning.

June 28th, 2012, 11:58 am

I've posted about this coffee about a thousand times, but I'm going to do it again

. Verve's Santa Ana espresso is mind-blowing. I was getting molasses and cherry cola. It's "fizzy" acidity is unlike any espresso I've ever had.

-Dave-

June 28th, 2012, 12:34 pm

Thanks guys, I will have to put those on my short list. Being in the bay area, Verve's offering should be pretty easy for me to get my hands on.

My only real wow coffee has been one bag of Brown Coffee Company's Edlina Microlot, tasted like someone dropped a piece of caramel in. I came back to it twice in April and the taste was gone. I suspect the green got old. So I will have to get after that Santa Ana offering pretty quick!

Chris, anything particular you could recommened from either Square Mile or 49th? (I would ask about TW but I don't believe they ship state side)

June 28th, 2012, 12:37 pm

Sorry to post one after another, but I just noticed that you were also asking for brewed. And for a brewed coffee, Handsome's Scout's Honor--while it didn't wow me as an espresso--was a caramelly-sweet pourover like none other.

-Dave-

#6: Post by **malachi** » June 28th, 2012, 2:42 pm

Square Mile - try the Carmo SO espresso and the Ngunguru Peaberry
49th - try the El Naranjo

#7: Post by **TomC** » June 28th, 2012, 4:04 pm

Nick, I bragged to tons of non-coffee people about how amazing that Edlina Microlot from Guatemala you left at my last meet-up was! Probably one of the best coffees for drip I had all year from Central America, until I just did my Don Pachi.

Most will agree, not many people can match what George Howell puts out. If you really want to treat yourself to something amazing, you'll need to lurk around his site a bit and get in on a limited offering roast. His stuff is fantastic.

Another idea is to see if any big names are roasting that Ethiopian Yirg Konga, because it's beyond anything else I've tried lately. It's a bargain relatively, for it's bang for the buck ratio too. If it stays this good as my first attempt ( and likely will get better with practice) then I'd rather have 20lbs of it instead of only 10!

#8: Post by **jmilliron** » June 28th, 2012, 4:16 pm

TheSunInsideYou wrote:I've posted about this coffee about a thousand times, but I'm going to do it again . Verve's Santa Ana espresso is mind-blowing. I was getting molasses and cherry cola. It's "fizzy" acidity is unlike any espresso I've ever had.

Got a bag sitting at home. Labeled as being roasted on the 26th. Any thoughts on when I should dig into it?

June 28th, 2012, 4:38 pm

TomC wrote:Nick, I bragged to tons of non-coffee people about how amazing that Edlina Microlot from Guatemala you left at my last meet-up was! Probably one of the best coffees for drip I had all year from Central America, until I just did my Don Pachi.

Most will agree, not many people can match what George Howell puts out. If you really want to treat yourself to something amazing, you'll need to lurk around his site a bit and get in on a limited offering roast. His stuff is fantastic.

Another idea is to see if any big names are roasting that Ethiopian Yirg Konga, because it's beyond anything else I've tried lately. It's a bargain relatively, for it's bang for the buck ratio too. If it stays this good as my first attempt ( and likely will get better with practice) then I'd rather have 20lbs of it instead of only 10!

I am glad you really liked that Brown Coffee, unforunately the bag that I brought to the meet up really paled in comparison to the first time I had it. Had I known it was going to fall off so much in two months I would've order some more then instead of waiting. Like you said it was still really good, just not as good. (As an aside, Brown sells greens)

Thanks for other recommendations I will take them to heart over the next couple months while placing my orders.

#10: Post by **Tag Team Jesus** » June 28th, 2012, 4:45 pm

jmilliron wrote:Got a bag sitting at home. Labeled as being roasted on the 26th. Any thoughts on when I should dig into it?

Verve says that for competitions they age Santa Ana to day 9 - 10. Mine has never made it to be that old. =-) I get more cherry when it's pretty young, day 4, so I sometimes open it then. But day 5 once gave me problems - salty. Then smoothed out again day 6 - 8. Maybe I'll age it to day 9 this week. Oh, what to drink til then?