With tasting notes of lavender, sugar cookie, black tea, and clementine choosing to add the Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Kochere to the cart was a no brainer. Although I drink a lot of natural Ethiopian coffees, this washed lot from Brandywine Coffee Roasters has been pretty interesting to work with.
Very sweet, nuanced, and balanced shots.
This was one of two coffees used when recently comparing titan-level flat and conical burr espresso grinders, and it served its purpose well. I chose the coffee knowing it would be nuanced and complex, but also more demanding to work with being washed. The coffee took about 3 or 4 shots to really get dialed in, but once we found its sweet spot, it was really tasty. I was really surprised by how much fruit we were able to coax out of this coffee on one shot in particular though, almost forgetting it wasn't a naturally processed Ethiopian. That particular shot even smelled fruity! That fruit flavor that we were able to coax out was that of like a Juicy Fruit gum or Fruity Pebbles. The coffee retained the nuanced lavender floral notes, sugar cookie sweetness, and clementine acidity. As espresso, these tasting notes made a lot of sense to me. Shots were preferred from the conical burred Compak K10 PB because they were more fruity, sweeter, and had thicker body. The shots out of the Monolith, when pulled at the same parameters were just a bit too in your face, even for my liking. In the 18 gram VST basket I found the coffee to work best at:
- 1 : 2 ratio or 18 grams in to about 36 grams out
- in 30 seconds at approximately 200*F
- And all doses really required a quick stir or WDT whisk to get the shots pulling nice and even.
As pourover, the black tea character becomes much more apparent, and I didn't find much fruit present at all. It's a lighter bodied coffee with subtle sweetness and acidity, very approachable and should be favorable by those that prefer tea as well. 2:30 second brewing times worked well, but I did find speeding this up slightly produced a bit more nuanced cup with more floral notes and baking spice. My preferred recipe through the 02 size V60 has been:
- 1 : 16 to 16.5 ratio - or 20 grams of coffee to 320 -330 grams of water
- :30 second, no-stir bloom
- pour to 180 grams, stir
- three or four more small, steady pours keeping the water level pretty close to that original 180 gram pour level.
- 2:15 total brew time, 196*F water to start, allowing kettle to cool naturally throughout pours.
I love the Brandywine includes these great info cards with the orders, and if you follow them on Instagram, they're always running some kind of fun promotions. A very reasonable $13 / 12 ounce bag. Next week I'll be diving into another offering from Brandywine, so be sure to check back, and feel free to reach out with any questions or comments on here, instagram, or twitter.
Useful and informative cards included with every coffee.