Don't let the name scare you, the more lively and bright of Ceremony's two espresso blends is well-balanced and versatile. Described as:
Lemon shortbread aromatics. Heath bar and sweet orange in a lively, harmonious cup.
Well-balanced and versatile, Destroyer extracts as a full-bodied, exciting espresso. With a rich, brown sugary core and vibrant citrus and vanilla high tones, this is gorgeous espresso neat or with milk.
RoastMedium
BodyFull + Coating
AcidityPleasing
This boils down to a coffee that reminds me of the description of Counter Culture's Hologram featured a few weeks ago, being a twist on the classic Moca-Java profile, providing a good mouth coating layer of bass notes (the Colombian component) with lighter fruit and acidity (the Ethiopian Component) added to keep it interesting and balance things out. The brown and dark caramelized sugar note was very prominent with pleasing acidity and a berry like fruit note as it cooled and a lingering nutty aftertaste. I actually found this coffee to be easiest to pick up the layers when brewed in a french press with more fruit and acidity coming forward as the coffee cooled.
We were in a vacation house last weekend so the French Press got the callup for the weekend. In the 8 cup Bodum French Press, I dosed 56 grams of coarsely ground coffee and used 203*F water filling the carafe to the top, stirring to knock down the bloom, filling again, and stirring again. A steady gentle plunge at 3 minutes created that rich, nutty, caramelized sugar cup when hot. This coffee was very accessible and crowd pleasing.
Rich, tight, classically great espresso.
As espresso, the washed Colombian and Espresso blend of beans exhibited similar traits with more fruit and acidity coming forward as the coffee cooled. I found the sweet spot to be dosing 18 grams in the 18 gram VST basket to 30 grams out in 30 seconds. The coffee worked well as a cappuccino as well, very similarly to Counter Culture's Hologram.
At just $13 for a 12 ounce bag, this versatile coffee just might be the budget alternative to the well regarded Hologram. It's a classically coating and richly sweet espresso with just enough fruit and acidity to keep it interesting, while being very approachable and versatile to other brew methods and coffee drinkers of all levels.
Nice informative packaging from Ceremony.