Dear Coffee Subscribers,
Welcome to your February coffee subscription. January went by really fast for us and yet we are still in the dead of winter, experiencing long dark days and sub-zero temperatures. For us here in Norway, that means we end up drinking a lot of coffee. Joining me in this month’s “Tasting with Friends” video is Ole Simen Nilsen, the Silver Medal Winner for the 2018 Norwegian Aeropress Championship and barista at Tøyen Startup Village, a cafe and co-working space just up the road where I used to work a lot while waiting for our new office and roastery to be finished. (They also brew and serve coffee using our beans if you happen to be in the area…). Together, Ole and I taste some of the coffees on the menu for you all this month. Those of you with a keen eye and palette may have noticed that I’ve chosen to focus on red fruit as the theme – Nacimiento Bourbon from Honduras, which tastes of red berries; Karinga from Kenya, which tastes of rosehip; and the Geisha from Honduras, which tastes of tangerine, honey and papaya. You can read more about them below… Otherwise, watch our video and follow along for a more interactive experience.
Filter
Nacimiento Bourbon, Honduras 1 bag, 2 bags, 3 bags
Flavour notes: Red berries, stone fruit and red wine
Producer: Jobneel Caceres Dios
Harvest: May – June 2018
Origin: Santa Barbara, Honduras
Cultivar: Bourbon
This is a mix of all the pickings of the Bourbon cultivar from Nacimiento in 2018. As Jobneel was renewing his Bourbon plants, the harvest was very small last year. It was also a very cold season and the crop in 2016/17 was huge. This resulted in less coffee cherries per tree in the 2017/18 season and also very slow maturation due to the cool weather. Parts of his farm actually had frost which resulted in some loss in production for Jobneel. But the good news is that due to the small production and cold climate the coffees developed more flavour and sweetness. I really love Jobneel’s bourbon. These trees are quite old and the beans are often oblong and pointy and in my opinion it is one of the best Bourbon coffees I can get. The flavour is always towards stone fruit, red berries and mango and the acidity is winey but is backed up by a very ripe sweetness and a rich mouthfeel.
Karinga, Kenya 2 bags, 3 bags
Flavour notes: Black currants & rose hips
Producer: Several smallholder farmers
Harvest: December 2017
Origin: Kiambu, Kenya
Cultivar: SL28 & SL34
We bought this beautiful coffee from Kenya last year and also went to visit the Karinga wet mill in November during my trip to Kenya. This coffee is grown at around 1900 masl in Kiambu where the climate is cool and makes the coffee ripen slower and develop more flavour, sweetness and acidity. Most of the members who sell their coffee cherries to this wet mill grow mainly the SL28 cultivar and have not been planting the hybrids Batian and Ruiru 11. The SL28 cultivar is famous for its fruity flavour and high quality. It also has less problems with leaf rust at this altitude and produces well and that is why the farmers have continued to grow this cultivar. For me this coffee was a standout while I was buying coffees in Kenya last year and it still tastes super intense. Not only does it show the classic rose hip and black currant flavours, but you can also get hints of goose berries and rhubarb. It is a very complex coffee that displays layers of flavour as it cools, so make sure you enjoy
this coffee at various temperatures.
Caballero Geisha, Honduras 3 bags
Flavour notes: Tangerine, honey & papaya
Producer: Marysabel Caballero & Moises Herrera
Harvest: January – March 2018
Origin: Honduras
Cultivar: Geisha
Last year’s Geisha lot from Marysabel and Moises was not as intense in flavour as it has shown in the past years. That is why this year Moises decided to keep every daily picking separate so that I could taste through all the lots and pick the best ones. Since the lots are still quite small due to the low amount of plants Moises and Marysabel have of the Geisha cultivar, the daily pickings could be anything from 50kg to a couple of hundred kilos. What was interesting when I tasted the different lots was that we found that one picking from one particular part of the farms could taste very different and with lower intensity compared to a later picking from the same trees. The difference was astonishing and explains maybe why the Geisha we bought last year was less intense as it was a blend of all the pickings throughout the harvest. What this means is that the 2018 lot of Geisha that we have bought is tasting a lot more intense and sweet and is showcasing why in my opinion this is a truly
unique Geisha coffee and among the best Geisha coffees available in the world today.
Espresso
Nacimiento Bourbon Espresso, Honduras 1 bag, 2 bags, 3 bags
All espresso coffee subscribers will get the espresso roast of the Nacimiento Bourbon above. Those who have signed up to get 3 bags of espresso will also receive an extra bag of this.
Karinga Espresso, Kenya 2 bags, 3 bags
If you subscribe to 2 bags of espresso/month, you can also expect the espresso roast of the Karinga above.
We hope you enjoy them as much as we do! In the meantime, feel free to check out our website for more brewing tips and techniques.
Cheers,
Tim
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