My latest order arrived today, with the Brazilian Condado Estate being the first thing I wanted to brew up. I do definitely get a vanilla aroma that stands out nicely during the brew and I'm finding it in the cup, but not ahead of the sweet chocolates. It has a nice body and sweetness and would likely pull nicely as espresso, once I let it age a few more days. To me, this and their other offerings are dark(er) roasts done right. No ashiness, still a hint of sparkle and a long finish that is sweet and ever so slightly floral way in the background.

I haven't brewed up the Colombian yet. Might shortly.

This will sound rather odd, but one of the nicest things I noticed about this Condado Estate isn't it's cup notes, but that I can literally lick my lips minutes after sipping it and seem to be struck by a higher degree of sweetness. This is definitely "Crowd Pleaser" coffee.

*Edit: I tried the Colombian. It's lighter bodied, has a bit more roasty phenolics and a touch less sweet. My girlfriend likes it, but I'm not too impressed.

Tom,
Who is the roaster of the Brazilian Condado Estates?

Lusso.

Several months later and i finally sprung for a 5lb'er of GMC. I've been working with it for about 4 days. Its real nice. I'm happy i picked this one up.

Hey Chris,
I too have been playing with Caffe Lusso GMC since this is the coffee Denis sends out with the Monolith grinders. He has it optimized on his Slayer at 18g in, 38g out, 14s prebrew, 44s total extraction time (so 30s at 9 bars), 200F.
On my BDB, I mimicked the same specs but used 15s preinfusion at 55% power. For me all the flavor notes are there with low acidity too.

I'll check it out like that. I haven't been able to pull a bad shot with it yet.

I love GCM
Last January hubby and I went to Seattle for a few days to tour and to enjoy the coffee. we hit the high spots coffee wise and I shipped home quite a few bags from these tightly touted roasters. Good coffee to be sure. Yet nothing matched the sweetness or "softness"of the GCM.
I wasn't so sure about Lionshare but tonight, for my first pull using my new Cafelat Robot it was Lionshare that I grabbed from the freezer. The shot was, delicious...
Now I wonder if I can replicate it:) either with Robot or my Strega

lancealot wrote:I'll check it out like that. I haven't been able to pull a bad shot with it yet.

I would agree...it's a very forgiving coffee.