The sequel to last week's post, this week I'm diving into the filter specific side of 49th Parallel's Ethiopia Deri single-origin coffee. As I mentioned last week, 49th is offering this washed Ethiopian coffee with two different roast profiles - one with espresso in mind, being sold as their light roasted "Epic Espresso", and this one oriented towards filter brewing. Visually, this one appears to roasted a little lighter and also seems to contain more parchment still on the bean. The whole beans smell fantastic and the grounds give off perfumed honey aromatics. This local Heirloom varietal coffee comes from the Sidamo region of Ethiopia, and 49th includes a really interesting blog post about the challenges of buying coffee in this region and traceability, it's definitely worth the quick read.
Epic Espresso on the left and Ethiopia Deri on the right
49th's standard brewing recommendations are:
- 1g coffee : 16-17g water brewing ratio
- Slurry temperature (coffee + water): 195 - 200*F
- Extraction: 19.5 - 20.5%
What does this tell you? Well, I started with a brew ratio of 1 : 16.5 since, hey, it's right in the middle, they are probably using water around 200*F or slightly over to account for temperature drop once it hits the grounds, and they're shooting for a well extracted cup, but nothing out of the ordinary, so a standard-ish brew time is probably a good place to start, pretty straight forward overall. I happened to get lucky and brewed a fantastic cup right out of the gate. I ran the coffee slightly faster (with a coarser grind and faster pour), just to see what would happen, but I was really happy with the following recipe:
- 1 gram of coffee : 16.5 grams of water brewing ratio - typically a 20g dose in the 02 V60.
- 200*F on the Bonavita Temperature Controlled Kettle
- 30 second bloom with about 40 grams of water
- Pour to 200 grams (for a 20g dose), stir a few times
- Pour to about 290 - 300g
- Pour remaining and gently rinse sides of filter.
- Total draw down time of 2:45
The coffee is very sweet and smooth, with delicate body and pleasant sweet-lemon (or I guess Meyer Lemon, as 49th calls it) acidity and sweetness. But what really blew me away was how this coffee finished; it has an exotic sweet-spice to it that I'm having trouble putting my finger on, but the best I can describe it is almost like a Chai-tea like spiced sweetness. I feel like I can smell it and taste it when I exhale after a sip, and it's sublime. I was able to pick up hints of this quality when I tried to brew the Epic Espresso as filter coffee, but nothing like the complexity this filter specific roast offers.
As espresso, the coffee required a slightly finer grind than the Epic needed, and it was still friendly in the IMS Precision baskets, but much more finicky to really dial in a great shot. What I did find interesting was that it was less intense, or had a less acidic bite to it as compared to the Epic, which I would usually think would be the other way around. The flavors were slightly more muted, and it seemed to have a little less body, but overall it was similar. Like my write up for Epic, I think these two coffees are best when brewed as intended, but it is still espresso friendly.
It's been really fun to see how one coffee can vary and present different flavors when roasted with different brewing methods in mind. It also highlights the importance of buying from coffee roasters that know what they're doing to create coffee that will shine as intended. Orders over $65CAD ship free to the US and Canada, from 49th directly (their pricing is listed and billed as CAD), this one is $18.50 / 12 ounce bag.
49th Parallel's packaging is some of my favorite. Great layout design, and lots of info!