Favorite Espresso Blends 2014 - Page 6

Behind the scenes of the site's projects and equipment reviews.
User avatar
cannonfodder
Team HB
Posts: 10497
Joined: 19 years ago

#51: Post by cannonfodder »

Spoiler: show
This rounds mystery blend arrived in a non-descript black bag simply marked HB and the roast date. On opening the bag the aromatics were peanut and berry with a nice sweet floral and slightly smoky undertone. This blend is roasted darker than the other coffees we have reviewed this year. It is far from a dark roast but not the light, barely out of first crack, roasts we have had most of this year. I would call this a full city roast, well out of first but far from second crack. There are no surface oils on the beans.

In the espresso machine the blend was very tolerant. It took a range of doses and temperatures and worked well at all of them. In the end, I got the best cup using a La Marzocco HQ triple basket with 19 grams of coffee for 38ish grams of espresso extracted. I was running a more traditional extraction time of 27-28 seconds at 201F. Now keep in mind, I have a rotary pump commercial machine and it comes to full pressure in just over a second. With a vibratory pump or E61 group you would add another few seconds to that time. The cup was full of nut, floral with some bing cherries. When pulled just right a nice molasses sweetness really popped in the cup. The blend worked well in traditional sized milk drinks. As a cappuccino the fruit faded and the nut and chocolate came forward especially as the drink cooled. In latte sized drinks the coffee washed out.

This is a good, solid, old school espresso blend. I have a suspicion of who this may be. It reminds me of a KlatchCoffee blend, but I am probably way off in left field. This would make a good starter espresso given its forgiveness factor. With the holidays, it would be a good crowd pleaser not being to fruity, acidic, funky, a nice solid coffee drinkers coffee.
Dave Stephens

Advertisement
User avatar
HB (original poster)
Admin
Posts: 21984
Joined: 19 years ago

#52: Post by HB (original poster) »

Spoiler: show
Tom gave us some general brew parameters from the roaster: "This one is fairly wide and forgiving. I like it pulled a little short 17-18 in and 30 out at 30 seconds. If you have temp control, 201 is a nice starting place." In recent reviews, I've been brewing closer to 199°F so I gave this coffee a try without increasing the temperature. At the lower temperature, it did flirt with mild citrusy sourness and nuts; the texture was creamy. Increasing the temperature to 201.5 left the sourness behind but kept the background citrus notes, reminiscent of dark cherry. Increasing and decreasing the dose produced predictable changes, i.e., upping the dose added sweetness and intensity that balanced out nicely with milk. Decreasing the dose emphasized the citrus notes, though again the overall profile emphasized as simple, unpretentious coffee blend. Those new to espresso will appreciate it as a gateway from small milk drinks to straight espresso; aficionados who are tired of fruit-forward coffees but not interested in heavy chocolate bar blends will like it too.
Dan Kehn

User avatar
TomC
Team HB
Posts: 10535
Joined: 13 years ago

#53: Post by TomC »

It's always fun to do these reviews blindly. I didn't know what was being sent so it was fun for me as well. Big thanks to the folks at Venia Coffee for supplying this Square Peg Espresso. If you haven't yet, they're definitely worth checking out. This espresso seems to have a broader appeal than many others, certainly not "third wave orange juice" and not boring comfort shots of chocolate either, but rather, in a nice niche by itself and well crafted.
Join us and support Artisan Roasting Software=https://artisan-scope.org/donate/

Post Reply