Favorite Espressos 2015 - Page 4

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drgary
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#31: Post by drgary »

Espresso #3 is Compass Coffee Roasting's Delirium espresso blend. This is a mélange roast, meaning coffees are individually roasted, sometimes to different roast levels, to bring out their best flavors before being blended together. Compass Coffee is a growing success story in southern Washington, which is just across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon. They're about to open a third café and repeated as last year's winner of The Colombian's reader's poll for best coffee in Clark County.

Mike McGinnis is the "head bean" at Compass. Recently he wrote,
Compass Coffee wrote:I joined this forum 2 years before turning coffee professional. Involvement here was a big part of developing the skills as barista to have the confidence (and ignorance!) to purchase an existing cafe and at the same time transition from advanced profile controlled home roasting over 5 years to larger (still small by commercial standards) batch commercial roasting. Staying involved here on Home-Barista is simply part of who I was, am, and will always be with feet firmly in both camps.
Mike's roastery is a short drive from where I live, and one of my favorite pasttimes is to drop by and talk coffee over the classic rock 'n roll that's always playing. He's still as enthusiastic about his coffee as any hobbyist on these boards. Coffee isn't his only hobby. He's a competition barbecuer too.

Mike has a spiced muscovato signature drink that's the best combination of coffee and milk I've tasted. It's perfect in wintry weather, or anytime, really. He combines Billington's natural unrefined muscovado sugar with Vietnamese cinnamon, Jamaican allspice and a touch of cayenne, and blends these into a cappuccino. I invite you to combine these ingredients to your taste.
Gary
LMWDP#308

What I WOULD do for a good cup of coffee!

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TomC
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#32: Post by TomC »

Winter 2015 HB Espresso Review

It's been a while since we've done our last review. I have a roaster lined up and will announce it shortly. Folks seemed to like the "follow along" format where the Team HB are blind to the roaster, but participants are free to order some and judge right along with us on their gear. Stay tuned here for the hidden announcement. The review period will likely commence in the next 3 weeks give or take.

Happy Holidays from Team HB :D
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TomC
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#33: Post by TomC »

The coffee chosen for this review is a wonderful coffee that I've had before and roasted myself as well, so I can already say that it's a good choice. Although I've only profiled it for drip, not espresso. All further details will be left in the spoiler for the rest of the Team HB members to be blinded in the review process. The extraction parameters are in the link as well. Pretty much anything non-ristretto is good. I'll share the extraction suggestions with the rest of the team.


Spoiler: show
Here is the coffee, a very carefully selected washed Ethiopian, probably one of the finest washed Ethiopians I've had this year, which is no small feat. While I have no personal involvement in the company, many of you will note that the roaster is one of our own, Dustin Demers, which makes me happy to be able to share with the HB world, knowing it came from one of our own. His roasting talents have garnered him a great deal of admiration here locally and I expect good things from him in the future. We've gone to some bay area roaster's guild gatherings together, along with some world famous roasters, and in one specific instance I'm referencing, he wiped the table with every other roaster, all using the exact same coffee. I may profile a coffee 8-10 times to nail down what I think is perfect, Dustin will do dozens, literally. He puts a great deal of focused effort into what he produces and I think it'll stand out.

I know he went thru somewhere on the order of a hundred different samples of various Ethiopians before choosing this particular lot so it's something rather spectacular. I've roasted it myself and found it quite rewarding, complex and long lasting on the palate. It should be interesting to try it as an espresso, but there is a brewing focused roast available as well, that might be one of his best current offerings. Just make sure if you participate that you note the difference between the two. The one linked is the one profiled specifically for espresso and the one we'll be reviewing.

Happy 'spro pulling!



If folks want, they can also put their tasting notes behind spoiler tags, all you have to do is put [---spoiler---] before and [/--- spoiler---] after your summary, minus the dashes of course.
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TomC
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#34: Post by TomC »

The HB audience will be interested in the following bit of information about this coffee and its roaster. (Team HB no peeking) :mrgreen:

Spoiler: show
I've had many of this roasters coffees over the years and am fully aware of the objective quality therein. Apparently, Coffee Review agrees. This coffee (specifically the espresso profile being reviewed here) scored a 94 point review on Coffee Review, just now. Turning Point Roasting is essentially brand new, and no less than three of their coffees have scored 94 or even higher, on Coffee Review. I don't know of any other new roastery having such an accomplishment. Check out that review of this espresso and a few of the others if you'd like, this Monday.

Review is up Coffee Review
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TomC
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#35: Post by TomC »

Edit : Update to mention the review noted above for non-Team HB eyes. This provides an excellent opportunity for tasters to gauge their palate skills against a industry recognized professional on the same exact coffee. Take careful notes first, then compare to the review comments in the spoiler. Leave room for subjectivity, but have fun nonetheless.

Spoiler: show
Since folks can't see the Coffee Review comments, and only the final score, I'll share them here.

Turning Point Coffee
Ethiopia Kochere Espresso Profile
Location: San Francisco, California
Reviewed: December 2015

Price: $18.00/320 grams

Aroma: 9
Body: 9
Flavor: 8
Aftertaste: 9
With Milk: 9

Roast (Agtron): (50/79)

Origin: Yirgacheffe growing region, southern Ethiopia

OVERALL RATING: 94

Notes: Produced in Yirgacheffe, a coffee region in southern Ethiopia that produces distinctive coffees from traditional varieties of Arabica long grown in the region. Yirgacheffe coffees like this one processed by the wet or washed method (fruit skin and pulp are removed before drying) typically express great aromatic complexity and intensity. Like most southern Ethiopia coffees, this coffee is produced by villagers on small garden plots interplanted with food and other subsistence crops. Turning Point Coffee coffee began with a personal obsession with drinking the best coffees on Earth. Each coffee is micro-roasted to order, allowing for an intense focus on the quality and consistency of the product. Located in the San Francisco neighborhood of Inner Richmond, Turning Point not only provides uncompromising quality, but also a personal relationship with their friends and neighbors. For more information visit http://www.turningpointcoffee.com.

Blind assessment: Evaluated as espresso. Not for espresso traditionalists or the faint of palate. Intensely and uncompromisingly bright and floral. Very complex flowers (lavender, jasmine, lily), passion fruit, sandalwood, roasted cacao nib in aroma and small cup. Satiny, lively mouthfeel; richly drying, deeply and ringingly flower-saturated finish. Crisply fruit- and floral-toned in three parts milk, with only a cocoaish hint of chocolate.

Who should drink it: Those who value experiment, floral intensity, heavily hopped IPAs, dry German rieslings.
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johnny4lsu
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#36: Post by johnny4lsu »

I've had some of Dustins coffee and it's fantastic! On another level than anything I produce. But, doesn't coffee review overinflate their scores?

Ellejaycafe
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#37: Post by Ellejaycafe replying to johnny4lsu »

Just taking a peek and everything seems to be 93 and above.

Also when are we supposed to give reviews when we get the coffee?? I ordered some just now.
LMWDP #544

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johnny4lsu
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#38: Post by johnny4lsu »

Thought I had remembered this discussion a while back..Even Dustin doesn't agree with CR's scoring. That being said, his coffee is delicious as frick regardless of CR scoring.
Agreed that coffee review WAY over scores things. Ive literally had the same coffee(literally the same bag) they scored a 94, that I would of scored an 88 or 87. Not to say that Kenya isnt great, it probably is.
Greens Alert

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another_jim
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#39: Post by another_jim »

My Review

Spoiler: show
OVERALL TASTE: The coffee has a beautiful aroma of almond or coffee blossoms. Unfortunately, for the first week after roasting, the coffee was dominated by a light roast bitterness which to those who are sensitive to it, like me, is the the flavor of raw, unboiled Seville orange peel. After a week or so, it mellows to a proper marmalade, and the beautiful origin flavors become apparent. I strongly question the competency of any roaster who produces roasts like this, just as I strongly question the competence of roasters who produce dark roasts that taste like stubbed cigarettes and tar for a week post roast. However, the coffee itself is too good to miss, and mostly survived the treatment. It is reminiscent of a Huehuetenango, but with a Geisha-like assertion in its floral notes. The coffee brews well after about six days, and pulls well after about eight.

DIALING IN: I don't think this coffee will pull well on an HX machine. It requires a coarse grind, an overloaded basket, a very slow flow, and a pull long enough to get to a lungoish 1 to 1.75 dose to brew weight brew ratio. This will work just fine with levers or double boilers, but may create overheating in HX machines.

WHO SHOULD BUY: People with high end gear who aren't put off by the orange peel bitterness of bright roasts.
Jim Schulman

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TomC
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#40: Post by TomC »

My Review

Spoiler: show
Like noted at the beginning, this coffee seems to really need a lot of rest to show its best. It's a dense hard coffee, high grown. I know what it is and who roasted it, so my entire review should be viewed with slightly greater bias than the rest of the team. I'll mainly comment on flavor notes and overall impressions. Shots pulled on a PID Linea, both VST 18g, 20g baskets as well as HQ double baskets, updosed to 19.5g. This coffee seemed easy to dial in, but took longer to hit it's stride.

I really like the intense, potent floral notes I'm getting. It's been really easy for me to extract tasty shots, specifically when allowed to pull long. The acidity is crisp, bright and not overwhelming (if it's properly aged), very citric in nature. The flavors are a mixture of sweet citrus (red grapefruit/pomelo?) and the above mentioned complex and intense florals. I have a bias for this type of coffee in a cappuccino or latte, I think it really shines and plays very well in milk. Sometimes I find the straight shots of a coffee like this a bit too intense or overwhelming for my palate, but in milk, most of that recedes and all you're left with is a wonderful, floral bouquet of flowery sweetness. Mouthfeel and body are thin, but in this type of beverage, low on my list of what's important.

This coffee extracts best with full brew pressure, doses as recommended above and pulled long. Continued testing on my K10 actually brings out more base notes, mildly astringent woodiness and more blending and flattening of the overall flavors whereas the new big flats ( R120 and EG-1) seemed to actually highlight more of the crisp top notes and florals as well as greater flavor separation. The coffee remains intensely bright complex florals, marzipan and it's plenty sweet. In milk again today, it remains deeply caramelly and floral. Straight shots allowed to cool show a liquor like flavor addition.
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