Birthday Beans
That I love good coffee is no secret. Anymore, even the convenience stores are carrying single-origin, Free-Range, ergonomic coffee.
So Sister, the Gemini archetype, sent along with the aforementioned birthday cards, some of her nano-roaster coffee beans, I think it was “Volcano Blend.”
Double-sealed, hand-lettered in style not unlike my own, and gratefully wonderful beans, they appeared to be slightly smaller than whatever “normal” is — after no more than a few days with my family, the term ”normal” ceases to have any meaning whatsoever.
Not complaining, merely observing.
The beans, I would guess a peaberry of some kind, and the title suggests Central American in origin, best guess I’ve got. Sister will have to get back to me on that.
It’s a combination of roasts, mostly a lighter roast with some dark thrown in, and previously, I noted that each baggie of beans had at least one bean that was substantially lighter than the rest.
The first cup of the day, water fresh off boil, the little blades of the grinder turning the beans into chunks and dust, still, the Birthday Beans — Volcano Blend — was one of the sweetest, most powerful aromatic coffee scents. In a single cup pour-over, the bloom was fresh and added to the fragrance of that “coffee smell.” Hints at rather good stuff.
The observation, switching it up a little, I tried one of my fancy French Press coffee makers, to see if there was a difference, wondering if my standard Chemex coffee maker and its proprietary filters were leaching out just the tiniest fraction of oily coffee essence.
Not really. Flavor was essentially the same whether I used a single pour-over, the little French Press, or the Chemex.
There was less chocolate overtones, and not quite the nutty essence in the previous batch, but the joys of small batch, nano-roaster coffee is the slight difference each time, owing to the handcrafted nature of the individual roasters.
Not unlike some of my horoscopes — yeah, I’m artisanal like that.
via the ubiquitous side project