Conduit Coffee Company - Tabletop Yirgacheffe Ethiopia - Inverted Aeropress and Clever

Brent had heard of Conduit, a small roasting company here in Seattle, and heard about the potential to visit for an open house. We finally had the opportunity this week, and were greeted by Alex and  David, who escorted us through a few of their coffees, after showing off their incredibly fancy, expensive and super accurate new grinder. These guys know their stuff, and directed us to their Ethiopia Guji and Guatemala on a quickly pulled espresso shot. The Guji was amazingly tart, citric and full of a spectrum of flavor, something you wouldn't expect from espresso, and probably will be the most unique espresso I've ever tasted. It almost had tones of a sour beer.

Presently, Jesse, the owner, dropped by and we were treated to a tour of the roasting machine,  discussions on roasting methodology, which blended to a broad discussion of business models,  philosophy, all around some exceptional coffee. I took up Alex and David's opinion to try the  Tabletop Yirgacheffe Ethiopia, which they held to be the best that they had, and we waited patiently for the following day (as it had been roasted the day prior, and they suggested we wait til 2 days after the roasting).

Inverted Aeropress

As suggested by David, had ground the coffee coarser than we normally do, stuck to a 30 second brew time, half of what we normally have. Obviously, the bloom was HUGE.

Jay's notes:  Really bright notes, with a tangy cherry, vanilla, rounded out with a touch of earth and roast. Really light bodied, juicy coffee. The floral and fruit comes to the forefront as the coffee cools slightly.

Brent's notes: Really, really nice.  So smooth.  Got a nice juicy-ness, the dark cherry with a little cocoa tone.  This is the way African coffee should always be.  Gets better as it cools.


Jay's rating: 9
Brent's rating: 9.5

Clever Coffee Dripper

Jay's notes: Sweeter, fruit tones; however less contrast. Perhaps from our disuse recently of this method. Ground coarser, and had a 3 minute exposure.
Brent's notes: Didn't like this as much as the aeropress, still good but a tad harsher.  On the clever I'd give it a high 8 or low 9- still quality but the aeropress really makes this shine.

Kuma Coffee - Santa Rita, Guatemala - Inverted Aeropress

Brent procured the classic Kuma, going for the Guatamala, but in a different producer than the Hunapu which we have covered in past times. This is the Santa Rita. Brent warned me that he had stumbled across an imprecise, but amazing aeropress of this yesterday, and so we modified the method to wait 2 minutes rather than the 1 that we had stuck to recently with the inverted Aeropress. I'm crossing my fingers that this holds up similarly.

The bloom on this stuff knocked it out of the park on freshness, definitely does not disappoint.

Tasting notes: Nutty, bright, and chocolate. Delicate flavor, good for drinking in the heat. I think it is similarly light to the Ono from today.

Jay's rating: 8
Brent's rating: 8.5

PT's Coffee, Fazenda Rainha, Brazil - Clever Coffee Dripper

Upon my return from Brazil, I'm figuring that I'd start out our work week with some Brazilian Coffee. Tougo has been carrying PT's Coffee from Kansas City (yes, I know we have a surprising amount of midwest roasters), so I figured I'd give it a try. The barista at Tougo, when I asked about this PT's Coffee Fazenda Rainha (Queen Plantation) had noted the roast was a bit dark but it was good.

Arriving at work, my coworker had left me some water from the well on her property, which tastes great! As coffee is mostly water, it does matter what you use, so I am very curious of this impact on our coffee.

 We tried this on the Clever, which I don't think provided much subtlety. As the coffee cooled, I got a citrus like tang in the aroma and it proceeded to get sweeter, from the initial bold, smokey notes.

My ranking: 6-7

Brent's ranking: 7

New Week, New Klatch Coffee - Colombia Duvier Rivera Micro-Lot, Inverted Aeropress prep

This week finds me diving into the second bag from Klatch, the Duvier Rivera Micro-Lot.  Wow - another excellent Colombian from Klatch coffee!  Dare I say this one is even better than the La Esperanza, its flavor is more robust, richer and all-around extremely satisfying.  The flavor profile is similar to the La Esperanza in that I get a chocolate finish, however the initial kick is less juicy and citrusy - super smooth and rich on the first sip.   I am getting pretty good at this inverted aeropress style, I'm finding it to produce the best results. One tweak is to reduce the brew time down to about 60-70 seconds from the 2 minutes I had initially tried. This tip came from the Aeropress inventor himself, Alan Adler, in an interview I read on the Sprudge website.  He mentions there a shorter wet time for the coffee produced a sweeter cup on the aeropress.
Highly recommend Klatch, and their fine Colombians!

Brent's rating: 9 (A High 9 at that)

This Morning's Brew - Klatch Coffee Colombia Granja La Esperanza - Inverted Aeropress Method

I was excited to try these new beans when they arrived yesterday.  However, my first attempt at home with the Clever was less than optimal - I made that one a little too strong.  This morning I opted to go with the inverted Aeropress, and the results were quite good.   I remarked to my coworkers that the crema head on this brew was as thick as Guinness, you could float a quarter on it.  This coffee has a number of good things going for it: It's a medium roast, but I would put it on the darker side of medium.  The lingering aftertaste is that of a slightly burned campfire marshmallow, with an overtone of chocolate.  Very pleasant.  The initial taste is a bright citrus flavor which then blends into the sweetness with cocoa tones.  I could drink this coffee all day and not get tired of it.  I just might do that.

Brent's Rating: 9 (Solid)

www.klatchroasting.com

Ritual Coffee, Organic Quilanga, Ecuador - Clever preparation

Again, we perused the Tougo Coffee Co for their offerings and stumbled across a Ritual Coffee Co, from San Francisco, the Organic Quilanga, from Quilanga, Loja, Ecuador. This one caught my eye due to the flavor notes of "Dried Mango, Limeade and Cola." My father was thirsty, so I ordered the only Ritual on a pour-over that Tougo had, the El Manzano Bourbon, which was spectacularly subtle and fruity. Even my father had it without cream or sugar, his normal vices. 

We prepared the Quilanga on the Clever for our first trial this morning, but I unfortunately ground it too fine. This being said, it ended up unsubtle, but sweet. I fear my misstep on the grind may be the culprit of the said blandness, so we'll have to try this on aeropress shortly (heck, it is Monday anyhow).

Brent's Rating : 8 (he said high 8, but we are not rounding up here)

Jay's Rating: 7

Current Ranking: 26th of 53 Coffees Scored since October 2013

PassionHouse Guatemala La Bolsa Mirador - Clever preparation

No, this isn't a repost! We decided to see if the PassionHouse Guatemala La Bolsa Mirador had more subtlety on the Clever coffee dripper. We steeped it for three minutes, and used a courser grind. Compared to this morning's aero press, this had more crisp acidity and juiciness, lighter and a little less chocolately. 

We had different ideas on which preparation mode was better; I figured that the lighter  clever version was better, Brent preferred the aero press. No change in rating.

Brent's Rating : 8

Jay's Rating: 8

Current Ranking: 25th of 52 Coffees Scored since October 2013

Modes of preparation

Here at the office, we have two modes of preparation for our coffee: clever coffee dripper (a combination of elements from a French press and pour over) and an aero press. In the past, we have observed that some coffees work well on one method over another; so just for geek's sake, we will start to track this, and lets see if it correlates to either a geography or roast (knowing quite well that taste values do not exhibit external validity).