My bag was roasted on Valentine's day, so I am already assuming that it should taste love-ly.

Jokes aside, I normally wait until around day 7 to pull shots, as young coffee always tastes overwhelmingly like baking soda to me, but I got impatient reading others' reports.

So I pulled some shots today, and I am not disappointed. All shots were tart cherry bombs with lots of sweetness. Its been a while since I've had a coffee with crisp cherry notes in it.

While I'm not getting any sort of chocolate, which I assume will shine through as the coffee matures, the coffee has been doing just fine without it. The shots I've been pulling have been very sweet with a sort of almond-y base and a finish that to me tastes like something between caramel and butterscotch.

I'm going to work on honing it is so the tart cherry resembles more of a sweet cherry and maybe see if I can find the chocolate hiding in there somewhere.

I actually found the coffee a bit harsh at higher temps so I am keeping the temp at a bit more of a mid range and decided to compensate by dropping the dose a bit and grinding finer. I started at a 16g in / 32g out normale pulled on my spring lever for about 40 seconds. This was actually a very pleasant shot, very butterscotchy, but a little tart, and the mouthfeel wasn't as full as I'd normally like. I'm now playing with a 14g in / 24g out slight ristretto, and pulling back on the lever at about 16g to drag the shot time out to a bit longer than 45 seconds. I realize these parameters may be a bit unconventional, but if you are playing along with a lever this may be a fun profile to try. I've used it with success with light roasted Guats and Panamas in the past. Tomorrow I'll try keeping the dose this low and raising the temp again.

Hi Everyone,

Have set this up at 21g in, 41g out in 40 seconds on a QuickMill Carola E61 machine. At this setting, the cherry flavor was very evident and quite enjoyable. Unlike other Colombians, I did not find that this hit me over the head with what I would call the "typical Espresso chocolate mud flavor". The flavors were clean and clear. Toward the bottom of the shot the taste became richer, but at no point did another flavor really emerge or cover over the cherry flavor - the cherry was dominant for me throughout the shot. The aroma of the beans and the ground coffee was a combination of a stronger nut smell, but the nut flavor with this extraction was really in the background. The cherry fruit flavor was good but did not bite at this extraction - no cutting citrus notes.

For additional information, as I was dialing in, I started with a grind that was too fine - 21g in, 40g out in 55 seconds (remember - E61 machine, so long pre-infusion time compared to an HX machine). This extraction bit pretty badly - quite sharp. Interestingly, the milk chocolate flavor came through pretty strongly at this setting, but I sure would not want to drink it. The cherry was not as predominant as in the shot above, and the edge on the shot did not make that flavor enjoyable. But the milk chocolate flavor was missing from the shot above.

I will do some more experimenting to see if I can add some milk chocolate to the mix without losing the really good cherry taste that was in the first shot. If anyone has suggestions on how to do that, I am all ears.

Brad

I got in on this a moment late - mine roasted the 15th. Had some guests this morning so we tried it out. I doubt I've found the right touch yet as it was quite mild, though we usually like our espresso with milk. I haven't adjusted temp yet, all in what I'd call normal espresso temp on my HX.

First try- 18g -> 36g in 32sec. Too mild in milk so tightened grind and went 18g -> 31g in 43 sec and liked it better. We could definitely taste cherry (ok, I wouldn't pick the exact fruit but others thought so) but not much chocolate at this point. I'll fiddle with the grind a bit next before trying other temps.

We did try some as straight espresso too and it was actually enjoyable (again, we don't usually enjoy straight shots).

Sorry, not much to add but I'm glad to play along!

Before adding milk... (my bottomless portafilter showed a bit of a dead spot so I'll pass on posting that, haha):

RockyIII wrote:Is there a recommended espresso brew temperature for La Golondrina?
Rocky

I asked Counter Culture and received this reply:

"For this coffee, I think something like 198-200F would be best. The shots should have a really nice cherry sweet/tart balance."

Rocky

Late to the game... ordered mine today.

This coffee has been producing really stellar shots now that it has aged a bit more. Here is a representative tasting note:

---

After 8 days rest.

16 in 33 out. Moderate temp and extra fine grind.

20s full pressure, low flow preinfusion followed by full spring pressure for 40 more seconds.

Wonderful rich cherry acidity with hints of blood orange. Very sweet. Milk chocolate, caramel, hazelnut and nougat emerge in the finish.

Greg, thank you very much for choosing La Golondrina. I finished mine but plan to order some more soon. It is my favorite bean that I have ever purchased from Counter Culture.

Rocky

I am poking around the grind/time profile with this and have a couple of things to report -

- 21g in, 41g out in 28 seconds (coarser grind than in my earlier reports)
Youch! Strong but tart cherry taste - then dissipates to... not much actually. This coffee does not seem to change flavors much from the initial taste through to the after-taste. In this case, the tart cherry taste (too tart, really) faded and not much remained.

- 18g in (switched to 18g VST basket), 28g out in 26 seconds
Ahh - that's better. The sharp bite is gone. But the cherry flavor really receded.

Next experiment will be to pull a long shot with the 18g basket. I expect 'blah', but I could be surprised.

Thanks for posting this. I found at days 5-6 I could pull a 1:2 ratio (18 -> 36, ~35s) and get really nice cherry flavors, along with milk chocolate; since then, though, the cherry flavors have been fading for me, and while the milk chocolates have remained, "blah" was a good descriptor. I tried a bunch of things, including updosing to 20g (similar results to you), different temperatures, nothing seemed to really bring back those earlier flavors.

I thought I had tried tighter ratios, but looking at my notes, I did not. Tried this afternoon (day 11) 1:1.5 (18 -> 27, ~35s), and the cherries seem to be returning. Much better than the 18->36 shots of the last few days. So, thanks! . I've got another 110g in the freezer from day 7, I'll try using a tighter ratio with them as well.

All,

Being completely honest, I feel like today, for the first time, I succeeded in getting a good shot of espresso out of this particular coffee.

Quick Mill Carola
11 bar pressure
202 degrees F
E61 group (remember that these have a longer pre-infusion time than an HX machine, so your timings may vary)

Roast date 2/13 - today's date 2/25, so 12 days post-roast

I had tried the 18g VST basket, but today I went back to the Rancilio 21g basket

21g in, 40.5g out in 43 seconds (fairly tight grind)

The shot was smooth - a creamy, roasted almond taste. Only a little cherry left at this point, which might actually be a good thing. There were some other undertones which I would not characterize as milk chocolate - something else. I even pulled a taste wheel but just could not come up with an equivalent. Creamy mouth-feel. Not much after-taste.

It is interesting to note that on 2/23 I pulled 21g in and 41g out in 28 seconds and said it had a strong, but tart cherry taste. Obviously the finer grind and another couple of days of age have mellowed out the tartness and what I felt was a little overpowering cherry taste and smell. My guess is that, as with Ethiopians, this cherry taste comes primarily from essential oils, and as the coffee ages, those oils dissipate.

One other thing - I can tell that for my particular equipment setup, the coffee is getting to the end of its run. On my setup, when I use a coarser grind and the coffee is aging out, I start getting spritzing - pinhole type small sprays going all over the counter top. I tried a coarser grind yesterday but nothing really radical to experiment at a different corner of the flavor box and ended up with a blown out shot and coffee spritzes all over the place.

So, to summarize, at this point it seems to work for me to go with a high dose, tighter grind and longer times to pull the shot.