Coffea Eugenoides - Page 2

#11: Post by **mivanitsky** » November 22nd, 2016, 4:17 pm

Thanks for the tip. Missed it last time.

#12: Post by **another_jim** » December 1st, 2016, 8:03 pm

Thanks for the tip.

This is a flat out spectacular coffee, one I'd score in the mid 90s. It is perfectly ripe and flawlessly prepped, with the kind of attention to detail you'd see in competition coffees. The flavor is indeed unique. The main flavor is a marzipan made from young, soft almonds; I'm guessing this is the smell of the flowers from this coffee. Inside is a desert wine like flavor, Sauternes perhaps. If I hadn't been told about it, I'd have guessed some newly discovered Ethiopian varietal; it has the same complexity and headiness. Because it is a DP, the acidity is mild and the sweetness very high -- there is nothing austere about this coffee, it's a total crowd pleaser.

If it's still on offer, get it; if not, have them email you the next time it comes.

#13: Post by **jbviau** » December 9th, 2016, 1:08 pm

I went with the washed version*, for better or worse. It's been eye-opening to taste my way through. I'd definitely recommend trying this coffee at least once in your life if for no other reason than to better understand just how important citric acidity--which Eugenioides almost completely lacks--is to the typical Arabica flavor profile. Anyway, in the cup I get mostly a caraway-like savory note and ridiculous sweetness. I'm updosing in press-style brews to get more oomph.

p.s. Neither version is available online anymore AFAIK.

#14: Post by **RobertL** » December 9th, 2016, 3:06 pm

I got mine a few days ago. To be honest I don't really care for it. It was worth trying but I wouldn't buy it again.

December 9th, 2016, 4:35 pm

Updose. My standard brew ratio is 20g coffee to 310-320g of water. With the Eugenioides, I had better results brewing at 38g coffea to 300g water. My favorite cup, I brewed using the Blue Bottle nel drip recipe, which uses 50g of coffee and 180g of water. Since the nel drip recipe emphasizes sweetness and the Eugenioides emphasizes sweetness, I just doubled down. This makes enough coffee for two espresso cup-sized servings of syrupy goodness. It is to coffee what port is to wine, if my recollection serves. Served in this manner, the natural-processed Eugenioides was probably my favorite brewed coffee beverage of the year.

#16: Post by **maigre** » December 9th, 2016, 5:24 pm

Any other brewing tips for both the washed and natural versions of this, particularly with respect to temperature? I'll be doing pourovers and immersions, not espressos.

I should have a bag of each coming soon, if UPS ever bothers. The coffees have been on the road for 8 days now. And if they don't get to me until Monday, it'll be 11 days. At least someone there offered me some real help today. This, after Intelligentsia told me that the shipping would be expedited before I made the order. I hope the coffees have some life in them beyond the standard 2 weeks-ish.

Earlier in the thread, it was suggested that this coffee has "much less caffeine." Do any of you have thoughts about that based on drinking this recent batch?

#17: Post by **TomC** » December 9th, 2016, 5:46 pm

RobertL wrote:I got mine a few days ago. To be honest I don't really care for it. It was worth trying but I wouldn't buy it again.

I bought one of these last year, I can't recall if it was the exact same one, same farm etc, but I think it was. I was so unimpressed, I didn't even finish most of the bag. The only 'memorable' thing about the coffee was thinking I paid too much for it.

#18: Post by **markmark1** » December 9th, 2016, 6:10 pm

I was given some by a friend to try.

I failed once attempting an espresso and didn't want to waste any more dialing it in, so I took it to another friend's place and he made a pourover.

The grinds smelled like caramelized onions and the brew tasted like caramelized onions with a dark chocolate background. Really kinda wierd to me.

December 10th, 2016, 4:27 pm

maigre wrote:Any other brewing tips for both the washed and natural versions of this, particularly with respect to temperature? I'll be doing pourovers and immersions, not espressos.

....

Earlier in the thread, it was suggested that this coffee has "much less caffeine." Do any of you have thoughts about that based on drinking this recent batch?

I was brewing with the natural processed version. But I started updosing based on a recipe I found on an Instagram post from last year, when they only offered a washed version.

Eugenioides has about half the caffeine as Arabica (which has about half the caffeine as Robusta). The relationship between caffeine and bitterness is more or less linear, which accounts for the sweetness (or lack of bitterness) inherent with Eugenioides. Keep in mind that caffeine is part of the plant's evolutionary defense mechanism; it makes the plant taste bad to pests and critters. So it makes sense that you can brew Eugenioides at higher concentrations than you are used to with other coffees.

When I was brewing at conventional ratios, I thought it was an interesting data point but not a particularly good cup of coffee. It was a lot more like tea than coffee and some people would consider the most prominent tastes to be defects in an Arabica. It got a lot more interesting for me as I increased the concentration. (I shared the nel drip version with one coffee nerd and two random newbies. It was a universal hit.)

#20: Post by **RobertL** » December 10th, 2016, 4:40 pm

Eastsideloco wrote:Updose. My standard brew ratio is 20g coffee to 310-320g of water. With the Eugenioides, I had better results brewing at 38g coffea to 300g water. My favorite cup, I brewed using the Blue Bottle nel drip recipe, which uses 50g of coffee and 180g of water. Since the nel drip recipe emphasizes sweetness and the Eugenioides emphasizes sweetness, I just doubled down. This makes enough coffee for two espresso cup-sized servings of syrupy goodness. It is to coffee what port is to wine, if my recollection serves. Served in this manner, the natural-processed Eugenioides was probably my favorite brewed coffee beverage of the year.

Thanks for the tips! I've been using a standard brew ratio and the results have been tea like. I'll try your recipe tomorrow.