George Howell Coffee / Burundi / Mutana Hill / Washed French Mission Bourbon (Comet Coffee)

I was supposed to meet up for coffee with a friend but it ended up being solo experience. This was the #4 on the Comet menu, so an expensive risk. Thankfully my cousin gave me $10, so this was a sponsored event. I'm really interested in washed coffee right now. I feel like natural coffee has sort of a curved edge that I am not a huge fan of, and I like more of the coffee taste. 

This coffee tasted sweet. It had fruity notes. My wife says blackcurrant tastes something between a wild blueberry and a grape. This coffee certainly fit into that box very well. 

Sometimes, I find that washed coffees have this sort of grainy flavor. I experienced it with this Honduras from Hyperion, although with that one, it was more intense. I have started to call this flavor "dirty," as the opposite of "clean." Clean coffee is very good and makes for easy drinking. Dirty coffee can be bothersome and difficult to drink. 

This did not have a syrupy body, and no strong acidity. I chose it over a Colombian that would have certainly been more acidic. Comet definitely presents more sweet coffees over more acidic ones. They usually platform older roasters like George Howell, 49th Parallel, and Ritual. Sometimes I think about what coffee would have been like in 2006. Since we are moving to Chicago soon, I think about Intelligentsia often. Someone online said that Intelligentsia was cool in 1997 but now it is just boring. That is probably true for a cafe in the ground floor of the first skyscraper in the world. Regardless, Intelligentsia is a quality roaster I am excited to have as my "local" roaster. 

Back to the above coffee. I liked it. I'd drink it again. It was a good experience. Comet was unfortunately too loud to focus on drinking coffee. 

George Howell Coffee / Kenya / Kirinyiga Mamuto AB / Washed

After drinking that magnificent Ethiopian a few weeks ago, I was advised to try the Mamuto AB from George Howell. That Ethiopian, this Mamuto AB, and the matching Mamuto AA are the three coffees that George Howell stocks full time. Every other coffee is rotating. I loved the Ethiopian, which was super sweet and silky. I was informed I would enjoy this one.

This coffee is very sweet and bright and deposits sweetness on your mouth that remains for hours. It is not as thick and syrupy as the Ethiopian. The chocolate note is crisp - probably because it is a medium roast. I did not like that aspect. And I struggled to get a brew that I found truly delicious. I struggled to dial in on my Kalita, and was not shocked by the French press (I do not like French press in general, though). I got good results from Aeropress. 

My favorite brew was the Tim Wendelboe, stronger recipe. I think this coffee would be excellent as a moka pot and as espresso, as George Howell themselves call out. Regardless, I spent my final 20g of beans on this final moka-pot-style brew, which was the right amount of bitter and exploding with juice and fruit. Wow. It was an impressive. It felt like there was actual fruits popping on my teeth. This is comparative to other "medium roast" coffees, bear in mind, but I thought it was an excellent brew. 

My biggest learning this time around is that I prefer light roasts. I was weirdly finding it hard to dial in medium roasts - not because they are hard to dial in, but rather because I wasn't getting the results I wanted. The results I wanted were just light roast coffee! The other learning is that Aeropress is the best brew method. Just brew it on Aeropress!