Yemen (Roasted by Lighthouse Coffee Roasters, Seattle, WA)

Region: Yemen is about as specific as he gets
Variety: Unknown, probably similar to Ethiopia Moka varieties
Process: Natural (dry)
Roast: Full City
Style: Drum (Gothot)
Days From Roast: 12

This was a pretty interesting coffee. It definitely had a fruit quality reminiscent of Harrar. It wasn't as delicate as coffees from Yergacheffe, but it did have a nice acidity to it. It had a savory quality, but I couldn't nail it down specifically. When you have a nice cut of beef you get kind of a tangyness on the upper part of your palette from the juices...I guess you could say there was a similar tangyness to this coffee, but meaty didn't jump out of my vocab. It was very full bodied which was a nice balance to the complexity in flavor. Overall, I enjoyed it. I'm curious what it would have been like at a lighter roast, but I fear it would be pretty weird and potentially overwhelming!

More Coffee Please

I love getting coffee in the mail!

I'll be tasting the following courtesy of my family in the west:

Lighthouse Roasters: Yemen
Batdorf & Bronson: Dancing Goats Blend

I also have some Fiddleheads Guatemala to try.

I'll try to post my thoughts soon!!

rp

Guatemala: San Pedro La Laguna (Rstd by Verve Roasters, Santa Cruz, CA)

Region: Atitlan
Variety: Bourbon & Caturra
Roast: City-
Style: Drum (Probat)

Lots of lemon, bright acidity...ok body but lacking compared to my expectations. Subtle caramel sweetness as it cooled. Missing the warm chocolate I like in a Guat and the lemon bordered on sour as the cup cooled. I think it would have benefited by a city+ or even full city roast.

I haven't cupped many coffees from Atitlan, but with the elevations and amount of rainfall I've heard of some stellar coffees coming from this region. Granted, this was probably from a harvest that was starting to go past crop...and it was probably from the Federacion de Pueblos Mayas...a quality cooperative in San Pedro. Not that quality isn't available from coops (that another post!!) but I do believe that generally consistency is tougher to achieve. I didn't get anything dusty or baggy, but maybe the body would have come through and provided some balance (even at this light roast) had it been a few months ago. The acidity however, wasn't muted at all despite any aging. Overall I enjoyed it, but I think we have some better local choices.

Guatemala

My appreciation for the coffees of Guatemala has grown immensely over the past 4 years. I have had the luxury of cupping some amazing coffees...mostly from Huehuetenango and Antigua. I'm inspired to do a cupping spree of Guats...and I recently have purchased a couple of Guats from two different area roasters. I'm not going to 'score' these coffees, but would like to publish cupping notes. And hopefully others will try them as well and share their thoughts. I think Guatemala is an extremely important origin on a roasters menu, not just because it's usually a prime component of their espresso blend, but because it is usually a good representative coffee for a roasters profile, their quality/philosophy in sourcing and a good overall 'control' coffee.

My perspective on tasting has shifted a bit in the past 6 months since not working for a roaster. I have almost exclusively been employed by a roaster over the past 15 years. I have found that this has limited(via my own laziness) my tasting of available origins... I'm not necessarily looking at that as a bad thing, but now that I make a pretty willful choice about who sourced & roasted (hopefully the same person) my coffee I'm excited by the myriad of options I actually have. I intend on ordering some coffees from Europe as well, and I have been told that transport can affect quality...I'll bear that in mind, but I'd like to get a taste for what the world has to offer as they translate what is being produced by Guatemalan coffee farmers on small estates and cooperatives.

Here is what I would like to taste (if I can get it mailed to me!) in no particular order:

Verve, Blue Bottle, Counter Culture, Lighthouse, Anodyne, Brown, La Boheme, Square Mile, Ancora, Terroir, Kickapoo, Metropolis, Stumptown, Herkimer, Peace...