Hello everyone!

We had a few pro roasters that joined in with the submissions. If there are more than 3 winners per category, it's because one of the pros won in that particular round. I have not read the previous threads so I'm not sure what has all been discussed on this forum. Please forgive any redundancy. Although there were 4 of us scoring and the winners are posted as such, you will mostly get my personal feedback on these coffees.


First Coffee: Ethiopia

This coffee appeared to be a bit tired (old green). It had a very distant Ethiopia character with a bit of dustiness. When coffees start to show their age, they translate with kind of a concrete dust mouthfeel along with a faded, distant origin characteristic. There was deff a few that were able to keep what little this coffee had to offer in the cup.

Winners:

#1 - Full City
#2 - Endless Cycles
#3 - Erick Swanson



Second Coffee: Kenya

This was my personal favorite of the 3. They also scored higher and very close in overall scores. Most of these submissions presented really nice large body with balanced acidity.

Winners:

#1 - Honkua
#2 - Karl Frankowski
#3 - Bodka
#4 - LDT


Third Coffee: Costa Rica

This was the lowest overall scored coffee of the bunch. Natural/dry processed coffees are a lot more challenging, especially with home coffee roasting These submissions cupped like there was too much heat application throughout the whole roast process. The first two winners listed below showed quite a bit of sweet fruity aromas along with cranberry and cantaloupe flavors between the two. This is a great coffee to have a discussion among yourselves with why the #1 and #2 coffees were so successful.

Winners:

#1 - Erin M
#2 - LDT
#3 - Big Red 23
#4 - Endless Cycles
#5 - Hankua



I will be checking the forum again over the next few days. TomC please get ahold of me on FB if there are any burning questions that the group has.

Thank you so much for letting HIGHWIRE be a part of this process!

Danny Goot

Thank you Danny! And just to reiterate, the winning costa Rica was Aaron, not "Erin" for reasons I think I explained previously.

Thank you Danny for your time and your notes.

Thread is now going to get un-pinned. I have a few coffees to review, but besides that, this is now behind us and I want the spotlight be solely on the Ken Davids review coming up.

Thanks for everyone who participated. I think it was fun for everyone. Big thanks to the guys at Highwire for all they did.

Did you have enough if my coffee left to try?

Yes, I believe I did. Yesterday was my girlfriends and my 3 year anniversary, I had other things to do

That's understandable.

BODKA COFFEE

ETHIOPIA

1) Dry Fragrance: Very good, tight floral, combined with a strong, roasty note in a good way. Almost like savory roasted tomatoes and the caramelization of savory roasted root vegetables. Not objectionable.
2) Aroma: Dusty florals, Old flower shop (likely typical given age of coffee and cultivar type) lavender and a very subtle hint of sandalwood.
3)Full, balanced, clean bright well integrated acidity. Rich without notes of overdevelopment or scorch. Excellent development of caramels.

Overall: Sweet coffee, finishes sweet. Predominant flavor is sometimes simply stated as "coffee tasting" which this one clearly does, neither amazing, distinct, nor negative. Very faint Tootsie Roll in the finish. Excellent cup given the age of the green. Great balance , depth of development. Very mild, pleasant pepper tones (bell pepper maybe?)


KENYA

1) Dry Fragrance: Spicy, strong tomato, strong tomato that leans towards summer time gazpacho, this comes from the butterscotch note that buoys the tomato out of savory or unpleasant funk.
2) Aroma: Savory, woody spices, coriander, nutmeg.
3)Flavor: Clean, sweet, fresh tomato in a very good way. Balanced, well integrated acidity. Mild tangy cranberry and carrots. Great overall balance, some clarity of the cultivar is present.

Overall: Cools tannic, like lavender tea and carrot cake spices, I gulped the rest of this coffee rather than waste a drop of it.


COSTA RICA

1) Dry Fragrance: Whoa, Sweet! "yummy" chocolate, even creamy milk chocolate and strawberry syrup, like the two instant beverages Nesquick mixed together, strawberry + chocolate.
2) Aroma: Gloppy, rich, warm molasses. Dark cocoa and just a pinch of vanilla pipe tobacco
3) Flavor: Surprisingly flat. Cocoa, mildly sweet, flat acidity. No finish at all, cup quickly fades all flavor, oddly.

Overall: Unexciting, balanced, but the volume is turned way down on this one, which was an unfortunate surprise given what it's aromatic qualities possessed. The flavor vaporized from the cup quickly, what was left went down the drain.

Thanks Tom. It is much appreciated.