Sweet Espresso: Finca San Jose

[JimWright]

Hi all, been offline recently as I'm changing jobs and moving to the Bay Area. But, on that note, after first trying it in the store in San Jose during the slow food event weekend, I've worked through 3 bags in the last few weeks of the Barefoot Finca San Jose. This makes some of the sweetest espresso I've ever tasted - after making my wife her first cup, she asked, seriously, if I'd used sugar! If you like a sweet, juicy espresso, give this SO a try.

[aindfan]

Jim, are you talking about this (Finca 408) or this (COE #10 winner). I assume it's the former (408) as the description talks about espresso. I'll be ordering as soon as you confirm.

Thanks! I've been looking around for my next coffee.

[roblumba]

I just bought some yesterday (Fica 408). I haven't tried it yet because I'm making my way through some Harrar. Also excellent.

BTW, Barefoot is having a Birthday Anniversary at the store this Tuesday and it's free espresso, cappas, and machiattos. I was told at the store that they'll be serving 408 among others.

[JimWright]

Sorry for the delay, spent Sunday and yesterday doing my second to last moving round, bringing the motorcycle up to my sister in law's in San Jose. You're correct, it's #408, though the COE #10 is also very good as espresso. (A little more floral and not quite as sweet, though still sweeter than many - I tried both this morning for comparison.)

[roblumba]

Just had some Finca 408 at Barefoot Coffee Roasters. Their B-Day celebration is excellent. I had 2 double shots (Finca 408, Elma) and a cappuccino. And an anniversary T-Shirt for both me and my wife all for free!

The Finca 408 was amazing. Sweet, and the flavors and aromas were incredible. It usually takes me a couple double shots to figure out and remember what I'm tasting, so I'll see later if I can reproduce the same thing at home (NOT!). Thinking back, I mostly remember the cherry / plum/ brown sugar taste and a very dark brown fruity smell too. Strong aroma.

And I did notice that they were jam packing that portafilter and producing a healthy 2 ounces from it. They also run it hot too, probably the 202-203 range. But the results were nothing less than incredible. The Elma was just so so. Good, but I drank it following the 408 so I was actually wishing it tastes more like the 408.

Their Cappa was very delicious. Probably from the 408. I didn't use any sugar and it certainly did need it.

[Mark08859]

Does anyone have any experience with both the Finca and Barefoot Coffee's own blend called 'Sweetness'? How do they compare?

[roblumba]

Yes, what information were you looking for?

[Mark08859]

General impressions of taste vs each other. Which is sweeter, thicker, etc...

[JimWright]

Rob may know better - it's been a couple of months since I had the Sweetness, but I think the Finca 408 is actually sweeter and I like it better. I'd have to have had it more recently to recall body, etc. well enough to compare, as I'm too lazy to log such things (or even give them conscious thought half of the time unless the espresso is either off the scale great or not up to standard...). But, I know the Sweetness was actually not one of my favorites as compared to the other Barefoot espresso blends, and the 408 on the other hand is at the top of my list.

[zin1953]

Hi all, been offline recently as I'm changing jobs and moving to the Bay Area. . . .

And on that note, welcome to the neighborhood!

[JimWright]

Thanks Jason - there seem to be a few Bay Area locals on the board, we should get together some weekend!

[roblumba]

Thanks Jason - there seem to be a few Bay Area locals on the board, we should get together some weekend!

Hey, I noticed you're into motorcycles to, I'm not, but my father is in a local Japanese Motorcycle club, they have rides up to Mt. Hamilton annually. Sound familiar?

I'm still going through 408, I don't have any sweetness on hand to compare to, but I think perhaps the sweetness is a little more prominent because it's a little smoother than sweetness overall, and since it's not a blend, the flavors that are there really stand on their own. Sometimes a blend adds another bean to give it more bottom end bittersweet, etc and that takes away from tasting the sweetness that a SO can have.

[JimWright]

Not familiar, but there are actually quite a number of biker clubs. I'll ride my Triumph down to Barefoot or Verve for our hopefully-forthcoming Bay Area Coffee Geekery meetup.

[roblumba]

Okay, I've had a little more time to work with Sweetness and 408. I actually tried them back to back I bought 2 bags of 408 and 2 bags of Sweetness. I went between the two and I've found 408 to much sweeter. I'm still working through some sweetness, so I'm going to try to see if I can push Sweetness to be sweeter. Sweetness does seem to have that last sip that is sweeter than 408's last sips in a 1.75 ounce espresso. But I'm inclined to think that 408 is sweeter than sweetness. But 408 is a microlot that's probably going to be here and gone and who knows what next harvest is like, so sweetness might keep it's position long term.