In the second part of the same coffee roasted to two different levels/profiles, I'm diving into my first coffee from Papua New Guinea, the Sero Bebes Filter from 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters out of Vancouver, British Colombia. Unfortunately, I just clicked on their site and this filter offering is no longer listed. HOWEVER, the espresso version I will be covering next week, is actually what I'm preferring so far, and it might be one of my favorite single origin espressos of the year so far.
The same coffee roasted at two different levels/profiles.
Back to the filter version though, this Typica/Arusha varietal from the Aiyura Valley of PNG is said to have flavor notes of pineapple, raspberry, and aloe, and is described as being clean, tropical fruit, and zippy. These are all flavors I want in a coffee, however, trying my damnedest I couldn't make that happen. Don't get me wrong, the coffee was never bad, but I never really felt like I would describe it with any of those same adjectives. Luckily, I did however feel like a lot of those adjectives could be used to describe the espresso version of this coffee, which I very much enjoyed. 49th recommends this coffee be brewed at their generic parameters of:
1 : 16 - 17 ratio @ 195 - 200 F slurry temp
I started with this coffee in the V60, using my standard brewing parameters of 1 : 16.5 in 2:30 at 200*F. This coffee was sweet and smooth but never really felt like it was living up to its potential.
I then thought that perhaps a fuller extraction might bring out the flavors, and tried this coffee in the Bonavita Immersion dripper using a 2:30 second immersion and 1:30 second draw down for 4 minutes total brew time, and this did help, but again, wasn't wowing me.
The coffee was rich, smooth, and sweet in the immersion dripper, just not bright or "zippy"
Camping in the Aeropress with a 17 gram dose yielded lots of floral notes but not much fruit or complexity. The coffee was smooth and almost soapy floral at times, but not my preferred method or tasting notes.
At the end of batch, I decided to drop the temperature to 197F and speed up the brew time in the V60 to try and bring out more fruit and acidity. This did seem to do the trick and made for a cup that better matched my preferences. With a brewing time of 2:10, including a 30 second bloom, I felt like I was able to get a bit more "zip" as they describe it.
Admittedly, I thought I had one more bag in the freezer and didn't get to try this espresso, so no comparison there. All in all, this was not a bad coffee by any means, but not my favorite coffee either. I'm hesitant to write that, as it's not my intention to offer a more negative take on a coffee that someone else might find very delightful. But, I wanted to be transparent because I found it really interesting that I really like the espresso version of this coffee. I'm very curious as to how the roast profiles are different or if they even are and I just prefer the espresso version because I used it as espresso, but I guess it goes to show that some coffees really shine with certain brewing methods.
So, I'm going to keep it at that since this filter version isn't even available anymore, but be sure to pickup a bag of the PNG Sero Bebes SOE, and play along for next week, where I even dive into it using three different filter baskets. Until then, have a great weekend, and drink some great coffee.
Very fun to try the same coffee roasted with different brewing methods in mind.