Good coffees I've had recently

[HB]

In the last two weeks I've been drinking:

Black Cat by Intelligentsia - one of the official test coffees. Bold, heavy, palate coating. Good straight up and excels in big milk.
Kid O's Organic by Intelligentsia - brighter, more fruity. Best straight up or as a machiatto.
Toscano by Counter Culture Coffee - one of the official test coffees. Huge chocolates. Best straight up or as a machiatto. Sweet caramel in milk.
Aficionado (remix) by Counter Culture Coffee - a much improved remix debuting soon. Reminds me of red wine.
Ambrosia and Daterra Estate Reserve by Caffe Fresco - two blends sharing deep ruby-red crema, but similarity ends there.
Kontra by Kontra Coffee (Denmark) - a thoughtful gift from Teme (thanks again!)

[malachi]

Olympia Roasting Peru Pinachi SOS - Sugar bomb. Malt, chocolate, a little fruit and tons of brown sugar and molasses.
Hines Espresso - Sweet and balanced fruit bomb. Medium bodied, caramel finish with tons of dried berry up front.
Caffe Fresco Daterra Reserve - Rich and buttery. A big and rounded coffee with a nice balance of chocolate and fruit.
Stumptown Ethiopia Sidamo SOS - Strawberry lambic. Thick and coating with milk chocolate and malt and dried berries and strawberry quik.
Artigiano Espresso - Milk champion. One of the best espressos for milk drinks I've had in a long time. Tons of chocolate and some bright fruit to balance.
Stumptown Hairbender - Fruit and spice and caramel. Tons of fruit riding a foundation of caramel and tropical spice with bits of chocolate to anchor it all.

[IronBarista]

Strawberry lambic. Thick and coating....

Strawberry Lambic is quite tart. See here. I do enjoy it though.

[NewEnglandCliff]

Especially strawberry lambic. Lambics are so acidically sour from the fermentaition of the wild yeast that few brewers will add a fruit that's also acidic such as strawberries. Most stick to more traditional fruits such as cherries, raspberries, peaches or no fruit at all. Hanssens is right up there alongside Cantillon as my favorite brewers of lambics, though; particularly their Oude Kriek.

Back to the thread topic: Perhaps Chris, with much of his valuable time spent taking measurements, was just being efficient by coining a new term for "Thick and Rich".....Thich. I'm all for efficiency.

That Stumptown Ethiopia Sidamo SOS is one I'll have to try, but do I set my brewing temp. to 199.5 or 199.7?

[Teme]

My palate and especially my vocabulary is probably not sufficiently developed to describe these accurately but the few freshly roasted blends I have had the opportunity to enjoy recently include:

Risteriet Uno - My usual fave, works well for my tastes both straight up as well as with milk drinks, good body. Caramels. Sweet.
Risteriet Guld - A new "gold" blend from my usual roaster, Daterra Reserva base and a nice, smooth taste with a hint of (blue?)berry.
Risteriet Due Doppio - 20% robusta and I definitely did not like this straight up - too much bite for me but worked well with my lattes.
Kontra Espresso - Nice chocolates, good body. Another one of my favourites
Kontra Caffe Latte - I'm not big on blends with robusta but the best lattes I've had from this coffee.
Monmouth Espresso - Nice chocolates and decend body from a London (UK) roaster.
Perle Noire Espresso - This is from a small roaster in Brussels, Belgium. Well, this is a pretty dark roast that I found somewhat strong on "earthly" tones - grass or moss or something of the kind came to mind. Not sure I liked it much.

Br,
Teme

[malachi]

Especially strawberry lambic. Lambics are so acidically sour from the fermentaition of the wild yeast that few brewers will add a fruit that's also acidic such as strawberries. Most stick to more traditional fruits such as cherries, raspberries, peaches or no fruit at all. Hanssens is right up there alongside Cantillon as my favorite brewers of lambics, though; particularly their Oude Kriek.

Have you had the Drie Fountainen lambics?
Incredible!!!

[another_jim]

My house blend, "espresso retro," still under construction. Currently 50% Harar roasted FC+ with a lot of heat, and 20% Australian Mountaintop, 20% Aged Sumatra, and 10% Rwanda Karaba premixed, roasted FC- with moderate heat. I'm looking for chocolate, tawny port and dark fruit with a crisp candied orange peel finish. This is quite close. The "retro" name is because I want it to remind one of a post-dinner demi-tasse, and because it turns out that there's absolutely nothing bleeding edge about the blend -- works best with a regular 2 ounce shot at 198F.

[Abe Carmeli]

My house blend, "espresso retro," still under construction. Currently 50% Harar roasted FC+ with a lot of heat, and 20% Australian Mountaintop, 20% Aged Sumatra, and 10% Rwanda Karaba premixed.

Jim,

So the Harrar is the base? Is that the Coffee Wholesales Harar? And why did you shun the Americans there? I'm deeply offended.

[barry]

hmmm...

i think i brewed myself a cup or two of something yesterday.
and something the day before. i was going to brew something today, but just never got around to it.
i'll likely brew something tomorrow, i think, if it happens to happen.

what day is it?
what time is it?
can i stop roasting now?


--barry "xmastime"

[cannonfodder]

I have been playing with a Harar, Yemen, and Brazil blend (30, 20 and 50% respectively) chocolate covered blueberries...

[another_jim]

Jim,

So the Harrar is the base? Is that the Coffee Wholesales Harar? And why did you shun the Americans there? I'm deeply offended.

It is Chuck's Mao Harar from earlier this year; he's out of it, and now has the Oromia Harar, a different coffee.

This is a a Harar solo blend, which, unlike an SO, gets some background musicians. It works great as an SO, but I wanted some of that aged taste, so I added the Sumatra. By the time that taste came out, it overwhelmed the chocolate, so in went the Aussie to pep up the chocolate. The two together muffled the top end, and the aged bean is a little musty in the long finish. The Karaba fixed both those problems.

I've never used Centrals and Africans together; to my very subjective personal taste they clash. My fave central based espressos taste like cookies, pie crust, roasted nuts, roasted apples and pears -- flavors that would go with a nice happy white dessert wine. The african based espressos remind me of chocolate, peaty/oaky notes, dark fruit -- flavors that go with a port wine. I think that's why mild aged indos work so well with these coffees -- it's like adding the port to the dessert.

I once spent 4 months trying to add a Nic that tasted like marzipan and baked pears to a blackberry Kenya in an espresso blend. I ran out of coffee well before I had anything drinkable.

[IronBarista]

Have you had the Drie Fountainen lambics?
Incredible!!!

Sorry to butt in but yesh, they are quite tasty. If you ever come out this way, go to their brewery/restaurant for the great food and beer. They have lambics on tap which are different than the bottle. Plus, you can buy some bottles at the brewery.

[another_jim]

Paladino by Zoka: I scored 1/4 pound from Steve Fritzen at the GLBC (congrats to him for 3rd place, Amber Sather and Matt Riddle for 2nd & 1st).

Figuring it was used for a barista championship, I did the first pull by the numbers, 200F and a full 2 ounces. It was OK, but a little light and citric; so I went to the way I remembered it at Seattle: hot and short. Niiiice; all berries and chocolate, with a buttery mouthfeel and a lingering sweet finish, just about my favorite blend profile. Enough said.

[another_jim]

A few from Cafe Fresco:

Ambrosia: A tad dark for my taste; but very pleasant bitter-sweet caramel and chocolate with peaty malt whiskey notes. A pleasant after-dinner shot for darker roast, ultra-low acidity fans.

PNG Ancora: I liked this one, a great PNG with the characteristic barbecued, smokey plum and date taste. A very slight hint of chocolate. Also none of the salt and meatbroth ferment PNGs sometimes have. Well worth a try by everyone except very light roast diehards.

[Abe Carmeli]

Doma Ruby's organic espresso. Terry Patano of Doma sent me a pound of it, and a pound of Vito's. First time around it was held as a hostage by my building's concierge, and I got it released 3 weeks after it was shipped. Terry shipped another batch and I got it 3 days from roast. Ruby's is seductive as a straight shot. Beautiful color, clean, full bodied with strong blueberry chocolate finish. The sweet finish lasted a long time. Yum! 201f 17g L/M ridged double, 26 sec 1.5 oz

[Ozark_61]

I've never used Centrals and Africans together; to my very subjective personal taste they clash...

That's interesting - I found the same. I'm not a gourmet... but my favorite basic blend is Brazil 50%, Costa Rica Tarrazu 25%. Even 50% on the Tarrazu is fine and be done with it. To me, that's a good basic chocolately shot. I then add 25% of something to make it interesting, but the Africans tend to be strange (clashing). I really like other centrals like Antigua or even PNG. That said, I thought the Columbia supremo was terrible in that mix, the Mexico HG was blah, and the Ethiopian yirg was actually pretty good... so it's always a guessing game!

Great recommendations on the commercial blends (Black Cat and Palidino are awesome)! One not mentioned, and the most I would like to be able to emulate is Metropolis' Redline. I find it quite interesting / complex and different from other blends. Victrola's Streamline is similarly off the beaten path due to the monsooned character (I don't think that is so common in commercial blends).

Geoff

[another_jim]

Great recommendations on the commercial blends (Black Cat and Palidino are awesome)! One not mentioned, and the most I would like to be able to emulate is Metropolis' Redline. I find it quite interesting / complex and different from other blends. Victrola's Streamline is similarly off the beaten path due to the monsooned character (I don't think that is so common in commercial blends).

Schomer's Dolce and Dr. John's Malabar Gold also use monsooned malabar; but in a more up front manner than in Victrola's.

I should be able to give a thumbnail sketch of Metropolis's Redline, since it's a great Chicago cafe. But I'm embarrassed to say that I can't recall it except that I liked it a lot. Tony likes African and Indonesian coffees (he has a great second blend "Good soldier Schweik" which uses those components in a more obvious way; Redline, as I recall, was a much harder read).

[cannonfodder]

I get lots of citrus with a chocolate finish on RedLine. Tony changed the blend slightly to enhance the chocolate note.

I got a bag of Ambrosia this week, that blend has changed as well. Earthier than my first bag and it looks to be slightly darker as well. I liked the old version better.