Ahh yes back in the good times in my former job about 8-9 years ago I would travel to Zurich to work with our web services provider to develop a new website for our organization. I would always buy a box of assorted Luxemburglis and leave them in the main coffee room and the main office used by our interns and assistants. Which was good for me too otherwise I'd eat too many.
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Espresso Enthusiasts
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Trying out ecological espresso beans that got almost from free. Ok, why not try them out. Ecological sounds great.
They are pretty dark roast, and taste good. Slightly some bitterness that I don't sense in real quality beans such as LavAzza's etc. No origin on package, but after some surfing it seems their beans comes mostly from South America. But nothing specific.
It's just a kilo, it's absolutely drinkable, and I will exercise my tastebuds some....
But after just beginning my cup, it's not beans I'll buy again, even if it was a deal again.
But I'm interested in finding really superb ecological beans with clear specifications.
Anyone?
Edit. Nevermind, received recommendation from elsewhere
They are pretty dark roast, and taste good. Slightly some bitterness that I don't sense in real quality beans such as LavAzza's etc. No origin on package, but after some surfing it seems their beans comes mostly from South America. But nothing specific.
It's just a kilo, it's absolutely drinkable, and I will exercise my tastebuds some....
But after just beginning my cup, it's not beans I'll buy again, even if it was a deal again.
But I'm interested in finding really superb ecological beans with clear specifications.
Anyone?
Edit. Nevermind, received recommendation from elsewhere
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Enormously enjoying a mug of Ethiopian coffee (a blend of two coffees, both form Yirgacheffe).
Enjoyed a coffee made from a blend of coffees from Yirgacheffe in Ethiopia, Kenya and Yemen.
@Scepticalscribe I have to ask where do you get the Yemeni coffee from, I imagine it must be relatively expensive given the current situation?
Do you keep notes on the ratios of beans you use for each coffee? I'd probably buy a "Scepticalscribe's special blend" bag of beans!
One of the small coffee roasters I use had a small batch of Yemen coffee available a short while ago, - for around a week or so - and I immediately bought two bags of the coffee.
As I love Ethiopian coffee, and really like Kenyan coffee, I was pretty certain that I would like the coffee from Yemen, and I did - I have really come to like the coffees of the region of the Horn of Africa, and I know some of the area as I have spent some time there.
There is one US company - run by someone with contacts in Yemen - who appear to be able to source Yemen coffee. Despite everything that is happening - not least the horrific war, civil war and other crimes and problems arising from that - it seems that some of the more remote coffee producers are still producing (excellent) coffee; the challenge is to get it out of the country to markets outside of the country.
No, it is not exact, but is pretty much of the 50%, 30% 20% style of mixing. I play around with the ratios - at the moment, I have two types of Ethiopian coffee, the Kenyan and the Yemen. Once the Yemen is finished, for the reasons mentioned above, it will be exceptionally difficult to lay hands on further quantities.
Now, while I normally include Ethiopian coffee (and the idea of different percentages for the respective coffees grew out of my belated realisation that Ethiopian coffees are so lightly roasted, that you need to increase the percentage of Ethiopian in a given blend for it to have any influence at all on the final version of the blend), for the past two mornings I decided not to do so, as my palate always favours Ethiopian.
I wanted to see what the Kenyan and Yemeni were like by themselves. In terms of profile and taste, Yemeni coffee is closer to the Ethiopian (than to Kenyan) - but somehow, these characteristics (brightness, clarity, a 'clean' mouthfeel) are even more pronounced.
This particular Kenyan is not the best Kenyan available, - but it is a rarity, and one I doubt I will manage to lay hands on again, unless I pay a return visit to Nairobi. This is because it comes from the Government's own development farm and agricultural college where they pioneer coffee varietals that are robust, disease and pest resistant, and bred to offer high yields.
(After a series of disastrous harvests in the 1970s, which destroyed the coffee crop, threatening the export trade of coffee on which so much of Kenya's foreign trade earnings - apart from tourism and tea - derive, the Government realised that state support was necessary and sought to develop some robust varietals - Kenya Arabica coffee grafted onto strains of robusta coffee imported from Uganda, as I was informed when I was given a private tour of the place two months ago.)
Thus, this particular coffee has been bred for resilience (against pests and disease) and for crop yield, (both in quantity - increased - and time - accelerated), which can sometimes come at the expense of quality. Having said that it is an extremely good coffee, just not the best - in terms of taste - of some of the better Kenyan coffees (but far better than most Kenyan coffees available in Europe).
Re blends, I would argue that the same principles apply as in some of the regions of France, (or Italy) where they make the case the food from a region will match or complement, wine from that region.
I have seen far too many blends comprised of - let us say - Brazilian, Mexican, or Colombian, coffees and then, maybe 10% Ethiopian coffee. They are missing the point completely, because they are snuffing out the particular elements that give Ethiopian coffee its special flavour.
Ethiopian coffee is lightly roasted, and has a "clean" taste sensation, with "bright, clear" notes; therefore, it is completely overwhelmed - I would say massacred - by "heavier" coffees, more darkly roasted robust things, and the taste - and element of clarity and refinement - is entirely absent.
To my mind, blends from central America would match each other well (and I do like some of the good coffees from El Salvador - Los Inmortales from Intelligentsia - which I love - is available at the moment), as would blends from South America, and blends from west Africa. Coffees from a given region blend exceptionally well with other coffees from that same region.
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When I use Ethiopian coffee, it is usually at 40%, 50%, or 60% - even up to two thirds, or 70%, which will allow the heft of a more robust coffee (at 25-30-40%) to emerge, giving depth, but will not allow it to dominate.
However, now that I have found that the Yemeni coffee is like an even more intense version of Ethiopian coffees, that will complement the Ethiopian coffees extremely well.
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Enjoying a superb Flat White in a coffee shop called Tintico in Finchley, North West London. Just arrived for a 2 day trip. Travelled down on Virgin Trains, First Class. Very nice but unusable Wifi. Just dreadful. Other than that I could not fault the service. And just 2 hours from Liverpool Lime Street, then 20 minutes on an awfully hot and stuffy tube train. Now, the Flat White!
I trust that you drew their (that is Virgin Trains) attention to the unusable wifi, at least, I hope you did.
Enjoy your flat white - when prepared properly, this is an excellent coffee.
I did and they referred me to their website where is states (under the "Why is the WiFi so slow";
"Lots of things can affect Internet connection, especially on a train. When lots of people are sharing bandwidth or as the train travels through the country, the connection speed may vary. You may also have hit your data limit, which will then slow down your connection."
My brother, who uses this service weekly said that it is very poor. In the end I just tethered to my iPhone.
As I ws leaving the coffee shop, by the way, I asked which beans they used in my Flat White and they said Guatemalan. They also sell beans so I shall pick up a bag before my journey home.
A coffee (made with the Hario dripper and filter paper method) that is a blend of Ethiopian and Yemeni coffees.
Picked up a bag of Guatemalan beans from the shop (Tintico) and was surprised to see that the beans were roasted by the same company I’d visited a couple of years ago in London, Compton and Syme. So I may have already tried them.
Picked up a bag of Guatemalan beans from the shop (Tintico) and was surprised to see that the beans were roasted by the same company I’d visited a couple of years ago in London, Compton and Syme. So I may have already tried them.
Do, please, let me know how you find them.
Looks good. I just ordered some beans from Guatemala and Nicaragua. You can’t really go wrong there.Picked up a bag of Guatemalan beans from the shop (Tintico) and was surprised to see that the beans were roasted by the same company I’d visited a couple of years ago in London, Compton and Syme. So I may have already tried them.
Your subconscious could have remembered that they were good
Let us know 
Oh bugger. I just found a great local coffee supplier, and was pleased to be given a bag of their best, pre-ground. ...usually I grind my own with an olde-timey handcrank burr grinder (yeah it's slow but it fills the air with the fragrance and gives me a solid 5min break from anyone trying to talk to me) but, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I took the bag, crammed some in my Atomic, and... Since I started this bag, all I've been getting is a half a shot of water tunneling through, before the rest just screams through as steam. I've been so frustrated, because there's really nothing to screw up on the Atomic, but that means nothing to adjust when it goes wrong like this either. I tried tamping in layers, a few mm of grounds at a time, to really force the water to saturate the grounds before making it through, then tried not tamping at all, thinking maybe the steam would contact more grounds if it was all just whirling about in a sort of cloud in there. I cut circles out of coffee filters and placed them in the bottom to build some more resistance, and tried preheating water etc etc frustrating etc.
My bean supplier must have used blades. Well, at least that's an easy fix. Thx for the info!
Coffee from Yemen and Ethiopia made with a Hario dripper and filter and served in a Le Creuset mug.
Having a pot of Dave's Coffee's "Quonnie". A medium roast using beans from Papua New Guinea. Good stuff! Now I just have to make what I have on hand last till my new order gets here.