George Howell Coffee / Ethiopia / Worka Chelbessa / Washed (Comet Coffee)

I was nervous going in because I did not recognize this barista. At this point, I recognize many baristas and know whom to trust. I thought I heard this barista explaining the steps to the brew to the other barista, saying she was told to do this or that. That would just be prejudice, though, because this was well made coffee. 

I loved this coffee as it settled into the lower end of hot and the center of medium warmth. The acidity started to sharpen at the bottom of the cup when it got cold. However, in the center 80% of the cup, it was silky smooth, almost honey-like. I was impressed. I am starting to find the florality and lightness of African coffees to be more interesting, but the note here was the body and mouthfeel. Incredible. 

Máquina Coffee / Rwanda / Rambagirakawa (Cairo Coffee)

Always trust your gut when you are getting coffee. In this case, this cafe was not my vibe. It was too hipster. I knew it going in - it had the same feeling that I had entering Stepwise... i.e., a mistake. I guess the pourover was good. I am a believer in pour overs being a scam, which the man at Anthology proudly told me over the phone, but this lady took her time and made a presentable cup. Nothing mind-boggling, but the coffee was in itself not mind-boggling. Warm, comfortable, light. Good coffee. I cannot recall more than that.

One thing I noticed here was that there was a grainy-ness to the coffee. I experienced the same with the Hyperion / Honduras / Pedro Zuniga / Washed from January. When ground, it kicks up a lot of white grounds. I think those are the ones adding the weird flavor. I don't enjoy that flavor. 

Metric Coffee / Colombia / Carlos Esteban Cortes

I did a quick trip to Chicago, which may become my new home in a few months. I did research online and one friendly Redditor left a great list of all the most notable cafes in the city. He said:

The only local roaster spots that are specifically worth traveling to for espresso (i.e. you’re a total coffee nerd/in the industry/this is how you usually spend vacations) and are on par with the best spots in the country are going to be Metric and Four Letter Word. 

So, naturally, I went to go see what was up with this cafe that was reportedly so good that it was worth traveling to for some espresso. 

I arrived and found the description online was very accurate. Standing room only, outside patio. The baristas were moderately friendly. The machine was normal, but had some modifications with a monitor on top and a wire running out of it into a small display. They didn't have multiple options on espresso, just the one I ordered. I was in search of great espresso, however, and I was told they have it. Marionberry, Cacao Nib, Tangerine Zest" did not matter to me. I wanted someone to make me great espresso on the merits of the brew.

The flavor was not memorable, but it was a very approachable and well done espresso with very little of the attributes that you find in most cafe espresso. I drank it very fast, which was disappointing to me. I do not enjoy the fascist nature of fast coffee, I like to luxuriate in my beverage. However, they did a good job. I would return and order coffee.  

Onyx / Colombia / Tolimo - Edward Sandoval / Washed Chiroso (Shinola Cafe)

This cup of coffee shifted my beliefs around what washed coffees should taste like. I do not remember much of it (in reality, this post was written nearly two months late), but I do remember being dazzled by how clean it was, how pleasant and sweet, and how badly I wanted to drink it all down. I do not recall all the feelings I had, except that I would gladly drink this again.

Onyx advertises "pear, oolong tea, raw sugar, minerality." These are accurate, but the most intriguing was minerality. I would ascribe that to the clean feeling that you get from water. This was coffee, not watery coffee, but clean coffee. It was sweet and delicious. I bet it would be great in AeroPress.

The big-bearded barista at Shinola is very intelligent, kind, and surprisingly soft-spoken. He opened my eyes to two things - first, that multi-roaster cafes can make good coffee. "Locally roasted" is not always better - some roasters are actually very good and that is why they are popular. Second, washed coffee is not inherently worse. In fact, after this cup, I have been less impressed by natural process coffee. This coming comparison is not fair, but it is true if exaggerated. Natural process is like the hot Cheeto dust of the coffee world – it tastes good and is interesting, but it is not necessarily more impressive and certainly not more refined. 

This is not a knock against natural process coffee, I enjoy it greatly, but all coffee is beautiful. Carter from SK Coffee told me that once you get into coffee, you naturally gravitate towards the more interesting processes. He was right, but there is something special about some truly impressive creation of Allah. 

Prodigal / Colombia / Tolima / Washed Gesha (The Coffee Movement)

I do get a little frustrated whenever a coffee is labeled as "floral." What do flowers taste like? I personally have no clue. I will say that this particular coffee was approaching zero espresso harshness, to a very weird extent. As a pourover, it was light and papery, perhaps this is florality. One of these days, I'll lock in and figure out floral. It was very fruity, although apricot-y, which is not the most desirable fruitiness. This was good coffee, amazing as espresso, uninteresting under milk. 

Sightglass / Mexico / Finca Santa Cruz / Washed

You should not judge a book by its cover, nor a cafe by its vibe, and you probably should not judge a coffee by its barista. All of those things are correlated to each other, though. I do not understand why so many of the baristas in San Francisco were so sad. Maybe it was the bad weather or maybe they were all just waiting for that February paycheck to fill the rent-shaped hole in their wallets. 

I guess you should also not judge a coffee by its origin. I have this perception that Mexican coffee will taste lemony. I think I am wrong, and that it is not lemony by default. I also had never had Chiapas-an coffee, with this one being grown in La Concordia, Chiapas. 

I thought it was a warm, smooth coffee, with a good amount of body, some acidity, and really nice, well developed flavor. I thought it was pleasantly fruity. I tried to squint as hard as I could to get the promised "sierra fig," which was probably there. Anyways, it was too long ago for me to properly review this coffee. I liked it, I would have it again, and the "medium roast" label is tremendously made up. 

RoosRoast / A-A Cowboy

I had this coffee as filter coffee from the Liberty cafe. It was good. I tasted blueberries, they report caramel. Perhaps I just don't know what caramel is. I prefer Lobster Butter Love. This wasn't a super light roast either, so the fruitiness was not so distinct and rather the concept of fruitiness was present. It was not sour or offensive, it was very palatable. But offensiveness is sometimes what I am searching for.