Olympia Coffee / Morning Sun

My local cafe, Necessary & Sufficient, sells Olympia Coffee, which is an interesting choice given I'd never heard of nor seen this roaster before. I have not seen everything but it is not a famous roaster per say, just a mildly notable one, most likely. They have their breakfast blend (which I drank) and they have single origins on the bar but I am not sure if they will make a pour over for you. Even if they did, I have a new no-pour-over policy as a result of a bad pour over and good cup of drip. 

I was meeting someone for the first time, so I just wanted a cup of plain old coffee, and this did the trick. I asked the barista to fill the cup, which he did, although he filled it literally to the brim so it spilled everywhere. I got what I wanted, I guess. 

The coffee was good. I thought it was sweet but not altogether too immensely vibrant. Which is okay. Olympia calls it Medium-Dark on the bag, which I think is perhaps uncharitable given this was not really a dark roast at all. I guess this is a Seattle roaster, so customers have different expectations over there.

I noticed they had this thing listed on their site, "Agtron Roast Color Meter Ground Reading." I looked into this, and found that there is a scale of coffee roast colors. This coffee was marked at 66. As far as I can tell, roasters like Prodigal or Sey roast very lightly, sometimes with a score of 80 or something like that. Higher means lighter, and darker means lower. Pure carbon char is 0. These numbers are based on the Agtron machine's gourmet scale. That machine costs between ten and twenty thousand dollars.

Hyperion / Uganda / Mt. Elgon Bugisu AA Washed

My wife got me this for the memories of Ann Arbor. And it did not disappoint. In fact, this is one of the best coffees I've had from Hyperion full stop. I froze it initially, to finish another bag of coffee. I decided to stop being sick just so I could drink this coffee. Of all the washed coffees I have smelled, this one had a notably sweet and floral fragrance coming out of the bag. I was sad when my sickness flared back up, and I had to leave the bag, which let more of the compounds release and the peak coffee went away.

I even tried it as espresso - it was fine, but I think that is more of a user chose to not dial it in properly and user is not crazy about espresso situation. 

This was a delicious coffee and I would feel burdened by a 5 pound bag but ultimately happy. Don't overlook a region just because it is not one of the famous ones, or because they mix varietals, or because the tasting notes seem common (this is not the first "orange blossom honey" coffee I have had this year). I believe this was actually the same or similar green coffee that I really liked from Printer's Row Coffee. I liked this coffee so much I liked it from two different roasters!

As AeroPress, it unfortunately tasted muddled, and for some reason I got coffee fines in my drink. I enjoyed it most as a pour over and even found myself brewing 30g doses because of how amazing this coffee was.

Nomad Coffee / Guatemala / Concepcion Gesha (Dayglow)

Remind me to never drink coffee outside my house again. I paid $10 for a "hand pour" coffee from a famous roaster, only to get perhaps 250 or 300ml of liquid coffee in a carafe that had stains at the bottom. If I can buy a Sey box for $30 with 250g of beans, I can generate a whole lot of coffee and have a lot more satisfaction. Quick math - 300g coffee at 1:17 ratio (fancy Scandinavian-style) is ~18g grounds, giving me about 13 cups. At Dayglow, that would be about $130... and I clean my decanters. 

The Bloomingdale Trail/606 is a nice trail, but Dayglow isn't even a sterile "4th-wave" cafe like advertised (to be honest, my source is one guy on Reddit). It is way-far-out cafe for hipsters in the ground floor of the "Kimball Arts Center."

Sometimes, I feel like I am chasing this satisfaction from coffee that I will never get. Almost every time I buy a pour over, I always think "was this really worth how much I paid for it?" The answer is usually no. I'd be happier if I just ordered a cup of drip coffee. I did that a week or two ago and it was fine, and I spent like three-something on the cup. It was good! I was happy and remember that cup of coffee fondly.

As for the coffee itself, I do not remember what the notes Dayglow had listed were, and the notes Nomad lists online clash with my memory. It was acidic, had a bit of grapefruit going on, maybe grapefruit peel, and had some juiciness. Good, but maybe I should have just got whatever they had on drip!

Printer's Row Coffee Co. / Uganda / Mt. Elgon Washed

I was surprised to find myself across the street from the Lincoln Park-based Printer's Row Coffee Company. Yes, I was disappointed that they were not actually based in Printer's Row. I think they are either the only or one of two or three true specialty coffee shops in Lincoln Park, which is also peculiar. Why not open a specialty coffee shop here? Why are they always in gentrifying neighborhoods on the Blue Line? 

They also are not a purely light roast shop. Don't burn your coffee! (actually, it is respectable and okay to roast a little darker)

The coffee was good. It was tasty, sparkly, bright, and had notes of grapefruit and plenty of sweetness. But it left me with many questions. Why is this cafe the most specialty one in Chicago's bougiest neighborhood? Why is Chicago not playing on the coffee world stage? Why is there no, like, La Cabra, or other prestigious cafe here? A %Arabica perhaps? I feel like there is a business opportunity for a specialty cafe that appeals to normies and coffee weirdos in Lincoln Park.

Metric Coffee / Parasol Blend

I am in my blend era now. A good blend is better than a good single origin, because you can combine the aspects of two single origins and get a combined better result. Metric's Parasol summer blend is a really nice, pleasant, drinkable, sweet. It is bright and airy, and tastes quite good. Would I buy it again? I like to explore coffee. But this is a coffee you can look forward to. Not too much biting acidity, but good sweetness and more fragrance than you'd expect.

Metric Coffee / Ethiopia / Raro Boda / Washed Dega & Kurume

Metric just opened a new "all day cafe" (a concept I vehemently disagree with) out in Avondale, a northwest neighborhood. It is super popular on TikTok, so we had to spend some time waiting in line. I could not read the menu until I was right at the counter, which is probably why it took so long for each person to order. I picked this Ethiopia for the advertised notes of pomegranate, which I think is an excellent flavor in coffee. I even picked it over a Kenya with notes of blackcurrant, which shows my excitement. Those who are in the know are familiar with my blackcurrant obsession.

They use an automatic pourover machine, which I believe was a white version of the Poursteady PS2. I thought this was a peculiar choice – I am not sure what they use in their Fulton cafe, it is some kind of automatic one cup machine. I thought was peculiar because it was on the bar top, while they had the Modbar espresso machines. I am not a huge fan of the Modbar machines, I think that they are technologically cool, but they do not always fit in the cafe environment. I feel like they just expose the barista to you but don't offer you the barista's attention. They have their pluses and minuses. 

Theoretically, you can train the machines on a per-coffee basis, and they are supposed to get everything correct. This coffee tasted muddy and acidic. There was clarity in the coffee, sure, but the machine did not draw it out. It felt similar to old coffee, or a brew with too much agitation and a channeled extraction. I maybe got apricot? I do not know. Maybe it was an issue of expectations. The barista also made a mess when he splashed the pitcher onto the tray.

My wife's matcha was also not that well done. I will likely not return to the Avondale cafe, because they will begin wine service and I have a policy against cafes that also serve wine. Metric is good, but hopefully next time I go I might enjoy my experience more. 

Prodigal / Kenya Krush

My wife got me a bag of Prodigal's Kenya Krush, one of their blends they always keep stocked. It is something like 80% Kenya, 10% Colombia, 10% Ethiopia. 

We all love Kenyan coffee, and our new Kenya Krush is a nod to the Kenyan coffees of yesteryear. 

I do like Kenyan coffee, and I have been trying to let myself get over preconceived notions like blends are not as good and I don't like East African coffee (not true). I also have wondered what makes expensive coffee so expensive. Now that I have a good grinder and a gooseneck kettle, I should be able to defeat any coffee and find its peak flavor. 

I'm really grateful for her getting this bag because it is about $0.50 per brewed cup in beans. When it came in the mail, the first thing we did was wait. Prodigal says resting your coffee improves the flavor. I am inclined to agree. On my first brews, there was so much CO2 coming out in the bloom. 

I learned a lot brewing this coffee. First off, AeroPress definitely muddies the flavor. When you bloom coffee, you can burn it by hitting it with too much super-hot water right away. It is probably better to bloom with colder water. You can also have a lot of variance when brewing a hand pour – this is the biggest flaw of hand pour coffee. Also, I don't know what mango flavor or notes is. In my opinion, mangoes are just meant to be super sweet. I think that the mango notes in this coffee are more like the scent of a Mexican mango than the flavor of a fantastic mango. Mango is a misleading note. Don't put it on coffee, please.

I was very impressed by my best brews. Some of the brews I made felt like they were dripping with juice, as if there was literally grapefruit juice in my cup. Quite frequently, brews had a rough, dirty characteristic, which I think is my fault. I do not know how to get those flavors out of my coffee - I tried many different ways. Prodigal says the flavors are meant to be clean. I am not an incredibly talented barista. 

When it peaked, though, this coffee peaked high. Grapefruit, juice, plumpness, nectar, all words you could use to describe this coffee. It stands up as Japanese cold brew as well. It is a great coffee, and I am glad I got to try some pinnacle coffee. 

Unfortunately, this coffee is not worth the money for me. The flavor profile is very grapefruit, and while I like that from time to time, it is not my top choice for a luxury coffee. It definitely has a summery character, though.

Now that the bag is gone and I am drinking other coffees, I do miss it. It is an exciting profile that is not my typical purchase.