After a one-year hiatus, we're finally back! This year's review will continue in the tradition of past reviews, i.e., evaluations will be blind and reviewers will not know what espresso is being evaluated until they post their commentary. Over the course of a week, we'll review a coffee. During this period, the thread will be locked so peer reviewers can post their comments together, then the thread will be opened for public comments.

The first review begins this weekend; until the thread is unlocked, please see Nominees for "Favorite Espresso Blends 2014" review for questions/comments.



DISCLAIMER: Unless otherwise noted, evaluation coffees were provided for review purposes by the roaster. Other than said samples, the reviewers receive no financial or material compensation of any kind from the roasters or Home-Barista.com for evaluating these coffees.

Due to a minor mailing mixup, this review was delayed a few days. We'll post early comments this weekend and open the thread to comments/questions. Note: None of the reviewers know the roaster/coffee. Going forward, I will post the roaster/coffee in advance in "spoiler" tags for those who'd like to sample around the same time the reviews are posted.

UPDATED 06/26/2014: Revealed Favorite Espresso Blend #1 identity:

Main Squeeze Espresso by Bodka Coffee

Bodka Coffee wrote:This espresso blend is great as a straight shot or in a milk drink. It has nice deep chocolate tones, toasted almonds, and berry notes. It is excellent in both pump and lever machines.

Although I typically pulled shots with a 70% brew ratio, I found Main Squeeze was best at near normale range (17 grams coffee, 30 to 33 grams beverage in 30 seconds). I received the coffee around day 3 post-roast. As a straight espresso, its flavors were light tobacco and cherry when initially sipped and then later raisins when cooled. The texture is nicely creamy and buttery. It has little acidity. The next day, the same tobacco and raisin/cherry flavors remained. By day three, the mild fruitiness had faded, leaving the simple nutty flavor of black walnuts, light tobacco, and chocolate. These flavors blend well with small volumes of milk, producing a sweet light chocolate and hazelnut cappuccino.

INTRODUCTION: Since this is a blind tasting, I can't introduce the coffee. Check with Dan's post with the spoiler alert.

OVERALL TASTE: Brewed, this is shows good body, a nice almond flavor, but very little acidity and a vegetal, smokey astringency. The almond flavor comes through nicely in traditional cappas, which also masks the astringency. Pulled just right it shows, in addition to the almonds, raisin and cocoa flavors. Good technique also can mostly eliminate the astringent taste. Therefore, when pulled perfectly, it tastes like a very nice, pulp natural Brazil.

DIALING IN: This one is tricky to dial in. Too cool or fast flowing, and it shows a rough acidity. Too hot and it gets astringent. If the dose is too low, and the extraction on the high side, the taste is vegetal. High doses, medium/coarse grinds, medium temperatures, and a slightly restricted flow does best.

WHO SHOULD BUY: Properly pulled, this is a very smooth and mellow coffee with a creamy body, lots of sweetness, and mild fruit and roast flavors. It rewards those who are good at dialing a blend in. If all that appeals to you; this is worth a try.

Favorite Espresso Blend #1 arrived 2 days after roast for me, but I didn't begin my espresso evaluation in earnest until the 5th day after roast. This seemed to be the peak day for the coffee, although my best shot came from the small jar that I froze 3 days post-roast and opened up this past weekend, at "4 days after roast." It is a coffee on the low end of the acidity scale, with roast flavors prominent in its flavor profile. At its best, the espresso has a nice creamy body with flavors of walnut, bitter dark chocolate, cherry, and subtle orange.

This coffee likes a coarse grind, relatively high dose (18-19g in a VST 18g basket) and a medium-cool brew temperature (197-198°F). I preferred a 60% brew ratio, with a shot time on the longer side (right around 30s). The coffee has a very narrow sweet spot between acrid bitterness from too much heat or too fine grind, and the unpleasant sourness of too cold, too fast brew, or too coarse grind. This can make it a challenging coffee to dial in. However, its responsiveness is predictable, which ameliorates this challenge, particularly if you are meticulous in your prep and adjustment. I experimented with a few different pressure profiles, but this coffee worked best with the fastest ramp I could provide, about 6 seconds to 9 bars. This was unsurprising given that it performed best with a coarse grind.

While I don't have a milk steaming setup right now and couldn't experiment with cappuccinos, I made more than a few iced lattés. It works wonderfully for this, with the nut and cocoa flavors emerging most prominently.

When dialed in, this coffee is mellow, amply sweet, pleasant and satisfying. If that sounds good to you, I would recommend it.

I'm happy to participate in my first "favorite espresso" review and thank Dan for the opportunity. My review will give taste impressions like everyone else. But I'll also attempt to assist others with similar home machines by dialing in coffees on a Caravel, a Cremina and a Maximatic. Those of you with La Pavoni levers will find similar results to the Cremina.

So here's what we start with, an unmarked bag of coffee with no roast date, less data than most of us usually go on. My sample was shipped on June 16. I assume this was the day it was roasted or the day after. Perhaps the roaster can verify this so I can add post-roast timing to my review.



Day 1: I first sampled this coffee on a Caravel with the brew group at 200F. (The Caravel has about a 9 degree F temperature drop from the kettle to the brew group.) Dose was 12.3 gm yielding a 21.2 gm shot for a 58% brew ratio, the ristretto for which Caravels are famous. I used a Trosser vintage grinder, which pairs beautifully with the Caravel and pulled it into a narrow shot glass yielding ample crema. Preinfusion pumps lasted about 15 seconds before the puck was saturated to offer full resistance. I then did a 10 second pull. Here's my "lab equipment."



Dry aroma smelled strikingly like Worchestershire sauce.



The one shot I pulled that evening had mild acidity and bitters with hazelnut, bourbon, a hint of dark cherry. As it began to cool there was a hint of black raspberry syrup or cordial. Then a dominant note emerged of nuts with mild distillates, walnut bitters, cacao nib and something between 82% dark chocolate and baker's chocolate. With further cooling the chocolate flavor revealed some cocoa butter roundness. At room temperature a moderate sweetness emerged, with a hint of blood orange and unsweetened pecan at the back of the tongue. Further cooling offered the surprise of dark piecrust and a bitter cherry liqueur. The piecrust then rounds to a slightly sweet dark rye. There's a lingering aftertaste of single malt scotch that eventually fades to baker's chocolate with a hint of ashiness. I like the unusual blend of flavors and want to try it as a cappuccino.



On Day 2 I switched to a Maximatic and Pharos to replicate the experience of others using pump machines. (The Trosser doesn't grind fine enough for the Maximatic.)



Counting three seconds after the water stopped boiling from the group yielded a sweet and balanced shot without the complexity found on the Caravel. So far it doesn't punch through milk as intensely as I expected. The beans are smelling much richer in the bag this evening, and I wonder if it will make a better capp tomorrow.

Day 3: The coffee in the bag now smells like peanuts. Another shot on the Maximatic started three seconds after the group stopped sizzling on the cooling flush. I used 16 gm ground coarsely with a 16 second pull before blonding began. I wanted a fast flow and stopped it short to balance sweetness that can be cloying and mild astringency. For a moment the astringency opened to a hint of raspberry. The brew ratio was 47%. This coffee isn't a blockbuster for capps with this pull or a more concentrated one done yesterday. It works in a 5 oz. capp cup but gets lost in more milk.

My experience with the Caravel shot was so much more satisfying, so I tried another shot with the same dose and temperature and slightly longer infusion. The tiny ristretto was much more rounded and balanced than on the Maximatic with a bit less subtlety than the first time around, when the flow rate was faster. It was also sweeter with some very mild astringency, so this may be the aging of the coffee too.

On my 1987 Cremina I stepped through some temperatures at the group thermometer. Temperature at the outside of the group tends to run higher than in the coffee cake, I'm estimating by about 6 degrees F. At 199F starting temp it's a bit sour. At 200F it's difficult to balance a cloying sweetness with astringency. That issue remains at 202F. At 204F the astringency recedes and a nutty flavor emerges with mild acidity. 206F starting temperature seemed best, with more sweetness and more complexity. I stopped the shot 2/3 of the way through so the brew ratio was in the ristretto range. At 208F some bitterness just starts to creep in. For this run the Cremina is equipped with a Richard Penney bottomless portafilter and Elektra double basket.

I completed my review with a brief run on the Conti Prestina. That machine gives me the best layering of flavors, but today it didn't equal the Day 1 shot on the Caravel. I believe as this coffee ages it becomes more rounded but loses complexity.

Day 4: The aroma of the beans today is still peanut. With the reveal offered on the public thread I checked the brew parameters, especially temperature. I brewed it in a Clever Coffee Dripper using a Bona kettle set at 199F using a LIDO 2 grinder and steeping for 90 seconds. This confirmed my impression that this coffee balances sweetness with an astringent bitterness. I then pulled it as a capp, updosing and ground somewhat coarse for rapid flow, which eliminates the bitterness and offers a mild, nutty flavor and a pleasantly acidic cup.

This coffee shows interesting distillate flavors on Day 1, before it fully mellows. After that it's a mild coffee that balances sweetness with astringency and is best suited for a small cappuccino.

FEB#1 is a medium-dark roast (FC+) with a pleasing generic coffee aroma. I ran a series of extractions for 30-35 seconds at 50-70% brew ratio, with temperatures ranging from 88C to 92C.

Sometimes coffee is just coffee. You won't get overwhelmed by chocolate or nutty flavors in FEB#1, just a hint of cherry cordial fruitiness. Caramel/toffee tones emerge in milk drinks. There is a mildly unpleasant acridity at lower brew temperatures, and hints of leather/tobacco at higher temperatures. I liked it best at 90-91C, updosed to over 16g in my 53mm Spaz double baskets (19-20g in a 58mm basket), slightly shorter pulls and higher brew ratios. Body and mouthfeel improved noticeably after several days of rest.


Spaz S1

After reading the spoilers:
I went through a pound of this coffee in April, while testing the Breville BES920XL. That batch was much fruitier.

Breville BES920XL

Thanks gentlemen for the review comments, and thanks to Bodka Coffee for sponsoring the first review! Readers may also be interested in the thread in the public forums discussing this coffee: Bodka Coffee - Main Squeeze Espresso.

Now for the second review! In previous reviews, I've organized the delivery of anonymized coffee to reviewers. This time around, Tom has contacted two roasters and arranged delivery. So for now we'll call them "Favorites #2" and "Favorites #3".

UPDATED 07/28/2014:

Revealed Favorite Espresso Blend #2 identity:

Linea Caffe Espresso

Linea Caffe wrote:At Linea, our goal is to deliver an espresso that is unforgettably sweet, clean and balanced. Linea's blend is an homage to classic Northern Italian espresso. We source the best tasting coffees from the world's most heralded farmers. Linea's signature roasting style expresses the natural sweetness inherent in the coffee bean.

Linea Caffe's espresso is lovely prepared as French Press, Chemex, syphon, Aeropress or pour over.

Tasting Notes: Honey, sugar cane and vanilla, incredibly sweet, clean and balanced, tons of caramel, marzipan, apricot marmalade; lingering bittersweet chocolate finish

The reviews for #2 will be posted shortly followed by Tom's reveal, at which point I'll update this post with the roaster/coffee.

According to the roaster the brew parameters for this mystery espresso are:

TomC wrote:18.5g dose
first drops at 7 seconds
25 second full extraction for a ristretto
around 24g liquid.
PID set to 197.5°F

I found #1 a versatile blend that can be tuned for different flavor profiles. My review uses several home espresso machines. I include approximate settings for those who want to try this blend with similar gear. My first exploration of this coffee was with a Caravel paired with a vintage Trosser box grinder.



When this coffee arrived it had very little aroma. On Day 3 that had begun to develop so I tried a Caravel shot. After grinding I let it rest for 20 minutes and pulled it at the recommended 197f. It was dominated by a sour grapefruit rind bitterness, with a thin savory edge resembling rosemary when you've used too much in a dry rub. There were hints of strawberry, even Framboise, Valencia orange and some hazelnut peeking through, ending in baker's chocolate. Since the roaster advised it's not ready until Day 6 I decided to let it rest.

I first brewed at Day 6 as pourover. Aroma had opened up to toasty chocolate. The brew was tea-like, with mild tobacco and a bit of stevia sweetness. Grapefruit rind bitterness had receded but was still present. There were leather and sour orange in the aftertaste. The sour orange showed itself at the very back of the tongue. These were subtle flavors since it didn't have much complexity brewed. As it cooled it gave an overall impression of fennel without fennel's typical sweetness.

The second home machine used for this review is my first-ever lever, a La Pavoni Europiccola Millennium model that's now dressed up and modified for temperature control with a heat break gasket* and group thermometer. The PSTAT is tuned to run at about 0.9 - 1.0 bar. If I need to cool the group immersing the portafilter in water is sufficient. To control temperature overshoot I sometimes toggle off power for the shot. This and my other machines were paired with my Orphan Espresso Pharos grinder with voodoodaddy mods, which is very efficient to dial in for single dosing.



Day 6 started with the Europiccola. With this machine outer group temperature is close to brew temperature, so I started at 197. YMMV with your home equipment depending on probe placement. My first shot tasted like a straightforward comfort espresso blend where baker's chocolate dominated. With high dose and restricted flow this ristretto shot was salty. There was very mild astringency in the aftertaste but as a muted flavor note that wasn't intrusive. Downdosing and grinding finer eliminated the saltiness. I expect this will be excellent in milk drinks where the rich chocolate will punch through. I might use a higher dose for a cappuccino than as straight espresso because in the capp the salt would not be nearly as apparent.

My next home machine is a special guest that some of you may recognize. This is the 1985 Olympia Express Coffex featured on Orphan Espresso's parts page. It's in pristine condition and was beautifully tuned by Doug Garrott before offering it in OE's close-out last year. I acquired last month as a gift for a friend.



I tried 16 gm in the Coffex and got a ristretto shot that was tobacco, hazelnut, and baker's chocolate. Temperature here is approximate. I pulled the shot after a cooling flush of two seconds past boiling. The crema tasted like a combination of grapefruit rind and tobacco and there was some sweetness underneath, but I would have wanted more sweetness. The aftertaste showed some saltiness.

On Day 7, following another_jim's suggestion, I dropped the temperature using a fast flow on the La Pavoni Europiccola. For La Pavoni users the group thermometer reading at the start was 194f. This yielded a much sweeter shot with a bitter top end, and a brief moment of Valencia orange. In the aftertaste the bitterness softened a bit to candied grapefruit, if that exists. The pull was ristretto, 18 gm coffee yielded 30 gm espresso. This was sweet and dense and would be great in a capp, but it was not quite balanced. My next shot was the best with this coffee. Same dose, same brew ratio, 2f hotter, but this time I'd toggled off and the group temperature reading stayed at 196f. I got a subtle cup balanced between sweet, bitter and sour. The sweet and sour balance was like apricot, the bitter like bitter almond.

On Day 8 I tried this coffee as a capp, brewed on the Europiccola with group starting temperature at 195f, 20 seconds pre-infusion, rapid flow. Sweet fruit acidity was the dominant flavor with bitters on top. It did not punch through the milk as strongly as I thought it would. A few degrees cooler pull is sweeter and stands up to milk better.

Summing up my impressions:

This coffee has the potential to accentuate different flavor notes, and the differences aren't subtle. Tighter grind and restricted flow at the higher end of its temperature range gives a tobacco-like flavor with a mild grapefruit rind top end. Dropping the temperature without loosening the grind reduces the tobacco and yields some sweetness that's a bit cloying. Looser grind, faster flow and moderate temperature yield the most balanced shot as straight espresso. The same dose, grind and flow rate at lower temperature accentuate sweetness and chocolate. It is sensitive to temperature changes, so I recommend it to those with adequate equipment to control temperature. Readers may notice that this summary doesn't give exact temperatures, because those with home equipment will need to tune what they're doing to their equipment, so readings may differ a bit. My best guess at a brew range to accentuate these different flavors is about 6f. Other reviewers using professional equipment will give more exact numbers.




* If installing a do-it-yourself heat break gasket instead of a factory spec part, for safety, be sure to install bolts that are longer by at least the extra thickness of the gasket. You'll want to have the bolt turn in by six full threads of engagement into the boiler, keeping in mind that any modifications to factory specification are taken at your risk as per the terms of use that you agree to when accessing this site.

FEB#2 is a medium roast with a dry grinds aroma dominated by beef broth. Salty, brothy flavors are sometimes found in Kenyan coffees. I consider them defects in espresso roasts, and FEB#2 proved to be no exception.


I extracted for 25-30s at brew temperatures ranging from 87C to 93C, at brew ratios of 60-75%. This roast was not hard to dial in, but required a finer grind than most. The sweet spot in my 53mm Spaz double basket was 16.5g, basically a level strike dose (I usually dose closer to 15g).


Taste is dominated by by umami, brothy flavors until you get to higher brew temperatures (93C). Bitterness is notable at all but the lowest temperatures (87C). Liquor aromatics are prominent at all temperatures. There is little fruit, nuts, chocolate. Slight caramel/toffee flavors emerge in milk.

Milk helps mask the umami flavors. But this roast does not hold up well to milk. It starts tasting "milky" after you add 1-2oz of steamed milk.

Sample blend #2 arrived in a plain brown paper bag. The sample coffee was somewhat flat in the aroma with mostly roast notes when it arrived. I could see an occasional bean with a bit of surface oil so there is a darker roast origin in there. Over time the dry aroma developed with some toasty roast notes along with a savory smoky tobacco (cigar) note.

The roaster had a very specific extraction parameter recommendations. They suggested a dose of 19.8g with an extraction of 30.5g in 26 seconds with a 6 day rest. I have to say that after a lot of adjusting that is pretty much what I ended up using. I was running an even 20 grams for a 26-27 second extraction. Finer grind and lower doses brought out a heavy beef stew note with a bitter citrus pith.

The blend is rather hollow early in its life with little more than a savory broth note. As it ages the flavor develops with some light pit fruit, a touch of bakers chocolate and smoky tobacco. It reminded me of a LaAroma de Cuba cigar. There was no acidity to speak of in the coffee. It worked best at higher doses, coarser grind with a higher than usual flow rate. One thing I did notice is that it is very sensitive to temperature. The coffee worked best for me at 197 degrees. At higher temperatures the coffee developed a burnt beef stew note that was not at all pleasant.

I thought the coffee worked well in a bit of milk. The vegetable note goes away with a light burnt smoky caramel sweetness. To much milk and it simply drowns in milk fat. Stick with 3-5 ounces of milk and it will make a nice straight forward morning cappuccino.

If you enjoy a very low acidity, straight forward coffee this one may be for you. I will suggest that you have a very good handle on your temperature. A one degree swing makes a dramatic difference in the coffee and you will know when your temperature is to high. You get a very classic to hot burnt coffee.