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C1 is a light roast coffee with some seriously hard beans in it. I would say this roast is no more than a minute out of first crack. As a result you really have to crank down your grinder. It requires a very fine grind. That may make it difficult to use if you do not have a top notch grinder.


You need a high brew temperature. At lower temps you get a vegetable/bitters note in the cup. Actually I would say it is more than just a note, it is overpowering. At low brew ratios it is accented even more. I have a very good idea of who's coffee this is, had it before. That guess made dialing in the coffee easier.

The dry aroma is of nut and some sweet floral notes with a light herbal note in the background. The wet aroma opens up and I get more sweet floral and a little spice.

I am using a LM HQ triple basket dosed down to 18 grams. My machine needs headspace so 17-19 grams is normal for me in this basket.


I bumped the temperature up to 202-203F and went right to long ristretto extractions. I was pulling 33 second shots for 1.5-1.75 ounce. In the cup there is a nice sweetness, mulling spice and walnut with a touch of coco powder. There is a nice acidity in the cup that makes it pop but not overpowering by any means. I would call it a medium acidity coffee. I really enjoy it as a cappuccino. With a dash of sugar and 4 ounces of milk it screams walnut and coco with the coco getting stronger as the cup cools.


I would call it a fun twist on a northern Italian blend with a particular sensitivity to temperature. You really need to pull it hot or you will get a vegetable/bitters cup that is not at all pleasant. Same holds true for a press pot, it needs high temperature water. At higher extraction ratios the flavors get muddy. If I had to make a guess, I would say this is from DarkMatter coffee, UnicornBlood espresso blend. I just finished a bag of it a couple weeks ago and enjoyed it. Would I order it again, yes.

The first smell of this coffee reminded me a little bit of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich: a clean, dried fruit aroma with a base of sweet peanut butter and subtle herbal/vegetal undertones. Usually I am put off by peanut notes in coffee, because they're usually either funky, bitter, or both. But this was sweet and clean; between that and unusually light roast (for an espresso blend), I started out with high hopes for this coffee.

With a small effort at dialing in, this coffee produces a clean, bright, sweet espresso with tart fruit candy acidity, predominantly nutty undertones, and remarkably thick crema (especially if your typical espresso is a washed, light roasted coffee). On the Slayer, I found that a medium-high temperature (200-201°F), medium-high dose (18-19g), and mildly tight normale brew ratio (~30-35g out, 50-65% ratio) worked well. The grind must be quite fine compared to the 'average' espresso blend, although I would consider it a normal grind for coffee roasted this visually light.

This coffee was straightforward to dial in: too hot or too fine, and dirty bitter flavors emerge. Too cool or too coarse, and sour, vegetal flavors dominate. On the Slayer, I dialed in first for overall flow (using a very long, soft 'pre-brew'), then compensated for the sourness I found by raising the temperature (to 201°F). However, the coffee ultimately didn't work well as a 'Slayer style' shot. It needed too fine a grind, and I couldn't fully eliminate the unpleasant bitter notes until I shortened the 'pre-brew' cycle from ~20-22s to 8-12s. This allowed me to maintain the brew strength I liked while grinding a few notches coarser. While I found it straightforward to dial in, it does seem to have a narrow sweet spot, and that may make it somewhat challenging.

Finally, I found this coffee to shine nicely in a cappuccino. The bright notes fade into the milk and the nutty flavors come forward nicely. The thick crema makes for a really attractive base for pouring, as well:



I enjoyed this coffee, in particular for its unusual blend of clean, bright flavor and heavy, creamy body.

C1 is one of the most unique espresso blends I have ever sampled. Why? For starters, this coffee is very light in color for an espresso roast, with both bean surface and ground coffee color leaning towards light tan tones. Second, this roast requires a very fine grind, several notches finer on my Robur than any other espresso blend. Third, it shines brightly at highly elevated brew temperatures. And finally, it has a complex, intensely fruity taste profile.

This blend was roasted 9/17, and I began sampling it on 9/25 (8 days rest). A combination of fine grind and high dose are needed to maintain good flow rates, but otherwise there was no difficulty dialing in the beans. Preliminary testing under a wide range of brewing parameters (15-16g dose, 50-100% brew ratio, 20-30s extraction time, 90-96C brew temperature) suggested fairly standard settings on my Spaz, and eventually I settled on a 16g dose, 66% brew ratio, and 25s extractions.

Things got more interesting when I began experimenting with brew temperature. Traditional espresso blends are typically best around the 90C setting on my Spaz S1. I occasionally drop the brew temperature down as low as 88C to bring out fruitiness, or raise it to 92C to reduce acidity. C1 was a another animal entirely. Brew temperatures as high as 96C (205F) worked well, with only minor bitterness appearing at the highest setting. Fruitiness persisted well into higher brew temperatures, only diminishing slightly at 96C.

The C1 flavor profile is acidic and fruity, with hints of tamarind, citrus, and perhaps even strawberry. I enjoyed it best with a half teaspoon of sugar to tame the acidity, and bring out fruit, spice, and brandy/liquor overtones. It stands up to small amounts of milk, which coaxes milk chocolate flavors into the mix. Contrary to some other testers (or what I later saw in the liner notes), I detected little if any nuttiness. To my taste buds, this is primarily a fruit-forward blend.

Who should buy this: anyone up for a challenging, interesting, fruity espresso blend.
Be aware: high end espresso gear may be needed to master this coffee, which requires an extremely fine grind and elevated brew temperatures for best results.

Usually I'm not the single doser type, but given that I knew nothing about the coffee and only had 12 ounces, I minimized waste by switching to weigh, grind, dose until empty, weigh again. The Compak K10 Pro handles this routine nicely, especially with the Orphan Espresso "mini hopper" accessory. As for the coffee, it required an exceedingly fine grind to pour in a reasonable 27 to 34 seconds. About 4 notches finer than my usual setting (and that was already a few notches finer because the grinder was hopperless).

Jim mentioned this coffee required a high brew temperature, but I wanted to check for myself. Brewed at 199°F, it wasn't grassy, but clearly had vegetal overtones, like split peas. Raising the temperature to 202°F squashed the salad and allowed a ultra clean, melon flavor with Fiji apple emerge. As the coffee cooled, the snap of fruit subsided, replaced by a marzipan finish.

This coffee may prove challenging for some home baristas. Despite fastidious attention to barista technique, about half of the pours looked unruly, though the taste profile was still reasonable, which made me wonder (again) about the risk of judging an espresso by the beauty of the extraction. I found that reducing the dose and allowing a couple extra seconds of preinfusion helped.

Coffee #1 in this recent review is what appears to be a blended selection comprising mostly of some very large, low density beans that were roasted lighter along with some smaller, darker roasted coffee. I was surprised just how fine it needed to be ground to achieve proper flow-speeds, much, much finer than pretty much anything I've recently had in rotation. This coffee posed a series of challenges for me that cleared with more rest than a typical 7-12 day period which I'd normally consider optimal.

Early shots were plagued by a vegetal bitterness similar to cucumber skin that overwhelmed everything else, but surprisingly cleared completely on a subsequent session many days later. What I was left with was balanced, silky rich, complex shots comprised of simple dried dark fruits (raisins, dates, etc), dark chocolate and most prominently, a nice walnut note. The overall flavor profile was blended, balanced and sweet, with moderate but not high acidity. The grinds had a strong savory note that didn't translate into the cup, thankfully. It made quite pleasing cappuccino that is of the crowd pleaser type, developed, buoyant in milk, with soft chocolate and almost a honey note. The walnut flavor wasn't bitter, but helped the coffee stand out.

On this coffee, it only needed a quick flush on the Strega, but shined at higher doses (18.8-19g) and with gentler pre-infusion pressures yielding more silky fine crema bombs that didn't dissipate much at all as compared to when I'd let the pump kick it at full force. The coffee quickly cools sweeter with it's ever present and pleasing walnut note. I played with various brew ratios, but found it had little impact in the cup once it was rested well, all the shots were within a similar range flavor wise.

Perseverance was key for me on this coffee that I initially found oddly bitter, so I'd admonish tasters who find the same to wait it out a bit longer than usual and it will likely subside. It's a simple crowd pleaser that plays well in milk too.