Hyperion / Honduras / Ariel Funez / Anaerobic Natural

I have been realizing that when I have coffee, sometimes I get headaches and nausea. I did not understand why this was happening. It turns out that it happens when I have a lot of coffee, especially when I have a method that uses a lot of grounds. An 11g AeroPress has maybe 100mg of coffee. A 21-25g pourover can have twice that! This might not be the reason, but having too much caffeine is probably unhelpful. 

This is the same origin as the one shot of espresso I had that sucked me in, except an anaerobic natural as compared to a plain old natural. An anaerobic natural process should be fruitier - and this one certainly was fruitier. When you open the bag you're greeted with a mushroom cloud of fermented tropical scent, as if they just gave you green coffee. It is so unlike any coffee I have ever had before. I liked it more as a pourover, where the fruitiness did less of a punch on the face (my experience with AeroPress) and felt more like a picnic basket spilled on my tongue. And what a vibrant picnic basket this was. This was not just red, or orange, or yellow, like coffee usually is. This was like a funky rainbow splattered everywhere and there's also a cafe nearby. I'm honestly scared to drink it again. I feel like there a coffee cherry dragon trapped in the bag and that when I take a sip, it will take my tongue with it. 

*deep breath* This is a really good coffee. You cannot and will not forget about it after drinking it, either. As if you could. The tasting notes are frankly useless. Pomegranate? Candied lemon? They could have used the space on the bag to say this is like being pelted with soft, ripe tropical fruit. That would have been more accurate. 

Brandywine / Colombia / Elkin Guzman / Honey (Comet Coffee)

I went for a honey process today despite my regular aversion to that process. I was pleasantly surprised to find none of the things that I have disliked about previous honey process coffees. The coffee was bright and tasty, and I would definitely have it again. However, I would like to have some burnt and charred coffee first. I feel like I have just been drinking these magnificent fruity coffees and have not had a coffee that someone normal would recognize as delicious in ages. Maybe I should make myself a latte or a cappuccino at home.

That being said, this coffee was very approachable and tasted quite like the descriptors. I try to avoid thinking about the descriptors when having coffee. Coffee should not be good because someone told you it is good; it should be good because you like it. That being said, the descriptors of orange and hot cocoa were accurate. I did not taste black tea but perhaps I did not know what I was tasting for. I wonder if there are people who are expected to know what coffee has notes of without having tasted all of the assorted things coffee is said to have the tasting notes of. I know that farmers in Central America can get cupping certifications, but have they had all the different things that could be on that one coffee tasting wheel? Have they all had maple syrup? Have they had crunch berries? Unlikely!

My least favorite thing about pour overs is the first sip. I always find it thin and disappointing. The body typically picks up as the cup disappears, but that first impression dampens my excitement for a rich cup of coffee. I need to work on preparing myself mentally for a thin bodied beverage at first. 

I think that coffee is just meant to be enjoyed. I just like drinking it. That is all. I am not a coffee enthusiast so much as I like drinking something that tastes good.

Hyperion / Honduras / Pedro Zuniga / Washed

I really am in my washed coffee era. Washed coffee, so far, as I have brewed at home, has not been as bright as the natural coffees that intrigued me into the depths of specialty coffee. We went to a "home espresso" class, and as part of the experience, we got to take a bag of coffee home. When the owner took us to the shelf to pick what we wanted, this Honduras coffee spoke right into my soul, with a beautiful blue label advertising notes of "watermelon" and "hibiscus."

The hibiscus is present. If you want hibiscus, though, you should probably just drink hibiscus. Coffee will not taste like hibiscus. Coffee will always taste like coffee. I need to remind myself of that. My expectations need to match the reality of the situation. I was expecting a very watery coffee, but this is not that, it is just a tasty coffee.

This coffee is really tasty. AeroPress is a fantastic way to brew. It is smooth and thick and really fills the mouth. This coffee had a very smooth mouthfeel, and perhaps that is because of the AeroPress. I also brewed it as a pour over, and the flavors were more pronounced. However, I used 26 grams to create that 375ml (? I forgot) pour over and this AeroPress only required 11 grams. A pour over is definitely more fun, though, and it is harder to get distracted and forget about the coffee in the AeroPress if you have to stand in front of the funnel and pour every few seconds.

Our poor espresso machine continues to sit there, dejected. I honestly think that if I had a cafe, I'd serve Craig's Motown Blend for milk drinks - it is so good. But I would love to have an exploration of coffee. Washed coffee is no worse than natural or honey processed coffee. In fact, this coffee is much more normal and drinkable than something funky and winey. But I am excited to try the other bag we grabbed from the roaster's shelf, an Ariel Funez anaerobic natural. The natural counterpart of that coffee is my romantic coffee memory.

A learning from that home espresso class, and a learning that powers my ability to feel content after drinking a pour over or AeroPress or just regular old drip, is that espresso is truly just a brewing method. A complex, finicky one, that generates unique results, but a brewing method like any other. And there is something decidedly fascist about a coffee brewing method named "fast," asking you to drink your coffee in about 5 seconds. I like drinking my coffee slowly. And what can you do about it?

Hyperion / Ethiopia / Guji / Washed. Grade 1

This was good coffee. When it was too hot to drink, it was precisely that - tongue burning. Then, it developed a honey aroma, and tasted sweet. As it cooled, it developed the peach flavor I've come to expect from Ethiopian beans. 

One of my issues with light roasts is probably the fact that they taste too acidic once they get below hot drinking temperature. This one had that issue. 

It was a fun coffee, fruity but not funky, with an entertaining lightness. Besides that honey smell that came off of it when it first began to cool, I do not recall the exact flavors and feelings it evoked.

I don't know the word for this, but it had this papery heaviness in the mouth that had a peachy flavor. I find this in coffee sometime. I don't know how to describe it. 

I do think that washed coffees are very respectable and can be magnificent. In the same way that espresso is not inherently superior to drip or pour over or French press, washed is not inherently superior to natural or honey or other funky processes. Washed coffee can be unique and delicious. 

Hyperion / Costa Rica / Cuatro Hermanas / Natural Catui, Caturra

Today left me with a big discovery. If I love coffee, I don't have to have it with milk. I can just have coffee, and it doesn't have to be espresso, either. It can just be good coffee. A latte is great, a cappuccino is great, drip coffee is great, AeroPress is great (I quite like AeroPress!). 

I had this Hyperion roast on drip, or batch brew, whatever you feel. It was quite enjoyable. My satisfaction per dollar was incredibly high. It's Saturday now, and I had it on Wednesday, so I don't remember the details. All I recall is that it was fruity and funky. The grape and plum on the bag were accurate descriptors. 

If you go to a cafe, feel free to try the drip coffee. If you're an amateur like me, a reputable specialty cafe might be able to surprise you with a great cup of coffee. It doesn't have to be brewed in some complex method. It's just good coffee. 

A.M.O.C. / Panama / Boquete / Anaerobic Natural Catuai (Harmony Coffee)

This coffee taught me that it is important to start with what you think is tasty and then work backwards. No one should tell you what tasty coffee is, or even try to convince you that coffee is tasty at all. I like coffee, but sometimes I feel like I am trying to convince myself that it is tasty. Just because you are being told something is tasty because it is more refined or has more "good" characteristics, does not mean it is. Just have what you like!

Side note: try to not be exhausted when picking coffee from a pour over menu. If you are too sleepy, you might read the prices wrong and assuming you're getting a good deal based on the coffees you're presented with when in reality you just glazed right over better, cheaper, coffees. This also helps with what I mentioned above: don't get something just because you are being told it is good! If everything looks too expensive or uninteresting, feel free to forgo it, you won't lose out on anything.

I've been trying to beat out the skeptic in me for months now, but unfortunately, the skeptic came back for this coffee. The menu purported ripe tropical fruits. I don't know what tropical fruits they are having in Rotterdam, but I associate tropical fruits with softness and sweetness, and rarely with the flavors I got out of this coffee. I got "bright red fruits." That's how at least one online coffee retailer described it as well. It tastes like a sour plum, some assortment of fruits that you can't put your finger on the names of but yet you associate with sour red skin and flesh.

This coffee, and this cafe, has prompted a lot of internal reflection. Do I like coffee? Yes. Do I like spending a lot of money on it? Absolutely not. I still have the satisfaction-per-dollar metric engrained into my head, despite never tying it to a real set of values. Coffee can be satisfying. But if it costs over five dollars, it starts facing some serious headwinds to be have good SPD. This coffee may have been good. I wish I could tell you, but my low SPD rating biased me.

DAK / Colombia / Finca El Paraiso / Thermic Shock Washed Castillo (Harmony Coffee)

I went to try Harmony, a cafe reportedly themed after 1960s Japanese jazz bars, on the recommendation of a Twin Cities coffee insider. They have a star-studded pour over menu with roasters I'd never heard of until last week. DAK, a matter of concrete, Apollons Gold, perhaps some others. Honestly, I am not sure I'd go out of my way to try more of their coffee. 

DAK's Milky Cake was good. I wish I could recall my initial thoughts. The coffee started off quite uninteresting, with a normal acidity. I was disappointed by the start of the coffee. I've been training myself to drink hotter and hotter drinks for over a decade, and now that I've been introduced to specialty coffee, I am frustrated by the uselessness of my skill. Lightly roasted fruity coffees come into their flavor as the coffee cools down. 

As it cooled down, the coffee really came into the purported "cake" flavor. It tasted like vanilla and cake. It tasted really good, but I was frustrated by having to stumble through a few minutes of boring hot coffee to truly enjoy it. 

The vanilla cake flavor was tasty, but not captivating. The coffee further cooled into a quite undesirable panettone, which is a very impressive flavor to have in coffee, but not a flavor I have ever really sought out. 

Since I was there with others, we had two pour overs and an excellent mocha. You can read about the second pour over in the next post.