I did a bean thread last well and had an amazing time so I wanted to try to make it a consistent thing so here’s another one! I expanded it to new brewing methods or tips anyone has tried.
I’ve been doing Black Cat espresso (https://www.target.com/p/intelligentsia-direct-trade-black-cat-classic-espresso-roast-dark-roast-whole-bean-coffee-12oz/-/A-15354287) from intelligentsia and been pulling pretty good Moka pot shots with it.
Cracked into one of the bags from Flower Child that I’ve been patiently resting, Urrao Especial Chiroso. Super sweet with a surprisingly heavy velvety texture and a lot of dried fruit.
Looks delicious, I’ve never heard of Flower Child before but I’m really interested in trying now.
Tiny local-to-me roaster, for more info Brian Quan has an interview with the guy. The coffees are light roasted, washed coffees, so generally in the same family as Sey.
There are a lot of cool small roasters in the area, like Hydrangea as well which is at the other end of the coffee spectrum in terms of focusing on funky experimental processes.
Many of them use a shared roasting facility called Coro which seems really neat.
I’m making at least a partial tour of my local roasters’ espresso blends to exercise my recently upgraded home espresso setup (I’m tipping my location here, but have decided that’s fine for this account). I live in a sufficiently hipstery city that it’s going to take months to work all the way through at my rate of consumption, we’ve got at least 8-10 roasters in the area now, and …most… of them aren’t known to be wildly distasteful businesses.
First two candidates:
An 8oz bag of 4th Level Roasters’ Espresso Blend. Not terrible, but $18/lb, darker than I prefer, and “robusta forward” in that great body but unfortunate tire-fire flavor sort of way, so I don’t think I’ll get it again.
A pound of Nate’s Coffee’s Nate’s Espresso Blend which is $15/lb, and delicious. I’ve been meaning to visit their brick-and-mortar for a while, it’s in easy biking distance, and they have a lovely “Free local shipping OR $2 drink credit if purchased in their brick-and-mortar” deal on pound bags, so I rolled myself down one afternoon to pick up the beans and a cup of coldbrew made with their After Midnight Dark Roast, which was delicious enough that I might interrupt my plan and grab bag of that soon for some hottest-months coldbrew.
Barring that diversion, I think next is Magic Beans, a lot of folks seem to be in to them and their espresso blend isn’t super dark, which I usually prefer. garagebeand’s EspressYoSelf is also on my list.
That sounds like a great week!
Find a local roaster and buy directly from them. Near guaranteed you’ll like it more than what’s available from Target. Price should be similar as well.
If you can’t find a local roaster, a good backup is to buy beans from a local coffee shop. While they probably don’t roast their own beans, they likely will sell good quality beans which have been roasted within the past week or two by their wholesale provider.
Anything roasted within a month is fresh enough to produce nicely complex coffee.
I usually used local roasters but had a giftcard for target and wanted one of those back up bean bags for when my local stuff ran out hence the target coffee. Been tight on money recently since getting married.
Great use of the gift card! So how does it compare to your typical source?
It’s a good coffee, very one dimensional though. That’s the main thing I’ve noticed from the grocery store single origin to roaster single origins. I never knew coffee was fruity until I got a small roaster brand from Ethiopia and never looked back. It’s nice everyone once and a while to go back to a simple coffee though and I usually keep a bag like that for when people come over and don’t want a fermented and acidity light roast
Freshness is the thing; for my local coffee there are actually versions available in the supermarket, but they’re never as good as what I can buy from a local source that has them roasted within the last few days.
I just received the shipment from Onyx that you recommended last week ;) I tried a quick pourover of the Burundi, but I got TOO excited and tried a brand new (-to me) V60 recipe when I should’ve used my standard recipe. It was still really good but a new recipe always takes me a few tries before I get the grinds and timings right… so, tomorrow I’m going to try this one again with my standby V60 recipe. BUT – it was really delicious and I can’t wait to try it again with a better pour – the aromas are super promising. Also the packaging is beautiful. Thanks again!
I’m glad you checked them out!! The aromas are what first stuck out to me about Oynx and made me realize what coffee could be
I have been getting my beans from Fellow Drops for about a year or so now. I haven’t had a single bad bag from them, and I am always getting to try new things. Their bags can be a bit more pricey, but so far I would say it is worth the price.
My two favorite bags I’ve gotten from them so far have been from Onyx. Their stuff is expensive, but damn is it good.
You should try out verve or sey! Both similar but less know roasters. But I will say Oynx is kind of a standard for me when it comes to roasters
I’ve had Sey and enjoyed it as well! Verve sounds familiar, so I might have had it before.
