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Looking for Father’s Day gift ideas? Why not try a coffee subscription from Crema.Co? Following along with the great coffees I’ve recently had and am currently working through, I’ve discovered some new roasters, and had two of the best Ethiopian coffees I’ve had this year, all by way of Crema.co. Here’s whatsCTpulling for June.
Ethiopia Reko Koba from Theodore’s Coffee Roasters was great, and nailed its tasting notes of blueberry lemonade, strawberry, and jasmine. This coffee required a very coarse grind when brewed with the Hario V60, and tasted great at a 1 : 15.5 ratio or 24.2 grams coffee to 375 grams of 200*F water with a total brew time of 3:15. It was a bit finicky as espresso, but did produce a few tasty shots updosing an 18g VST basket at 18.3g and pulling shots a bit tight and short to retain the body from this washed coffee at 28g out with 2 seconds of preinfusion and then 33 seconds at full pump pressure.
Kenya Nyeri from Dapper & Wise is another big Kenyan this year. I really enjoyed the big body and rich floral sweetness from this coffee brewed and as espresso. My favorite shots were pulled at a 1:2 ratio in 32-34 seconds, including 2-3 seconds of preinfusion at 200*F. Brewed cups struck a balance at 1:16 ratio on the faster side, at 2:30 total brew time for a 23.4g > 375g recipe, also at 200*F.
As stated in the Monthly Roundup last week, I also have a bag of Wild Child from Thou Mayest Coffee that I’m in the middle of. So far, I’ve used about half of this coffee, and I’m starting to think it either may not be to my tastes or it may not have been properly roasted, but I’m also not ruling out my brew recipes. As I’ve stated before, I typically start targeting the middle of brew recipes and shot parameters, knowing I can always adjust up/down as needed. Both first cups and shots tasted vegetal and sort of hollow or “green”, not quite developed to extract sweetness. I’ve often heard brewing hotter can counteract this, which I did, and though it helped, the coffee still seemed to lack some sweetness and was sort of “hollow”. I might try using the IMS Precision Double or EspressoParts HQ Double basket for the second half of the bag, which will tend to favor sweetness over transparency and clarity in espresso. For brewed, I’m not as confident because pushing extractions to gain more sweetness can often times make the coffee more hollow and bitter, which I fear might happen. Keeping an open mind, but verdict is still out on this one.
I’m also cracking into another fantastic Ethiopian, Gedeb from Mast Coffee Co, another new to me roaster discovered through Crema.co. This coffee is described as having notes of Tropical fruit, Juicy, and Milk chocolate, and that is spot on. It’s big and sweet overall, with juicy acidity, but then as you start to give it more thought, you notice the tropical fruit notes, and the sweet and silky milk chocolate providing a lingering backbone. First shots at 18g to 40g in 32s or so have tasted pretty good, but I’m going to also try speeding that up some to see if I can turn up those tropical fruits.
I was able to do just that with the V60, brewing cups around 2:40 total time with a 22.7 gram dose to 375 grams of water, a 1 : 16.5 ratio. This delivered pretty tasty, transparent, and very approachable results.
Next Up
Coming through the pipeline are Rwanda Kanyege and Colombia Los Lotecitos from Maquina Coffee Roasters, and Peru Pablo Mamani from Ritual Coffee, by way of Crema.co. I'm really excited to try Maqunia for the first time and looking forward to having another coffee from Ritual, who never seems to disappoint. Speaking of not disappointing, I can honestly say I'm super happy using Crema.co so far. I've had nothing but great coffee from them while discovering new roasters and controlling how often I receive it. In two separate recent instances I sped up my shipment because I'm finding it's just easier to queue up what I want and request the orders, rather than go through my old ways of deciding which roaster to order from next, and looking to see who has something that looks good.
I actually end up paying less than I would if I went directly to many of these roasters, and I don't have to worry about minimum orders to meet free shipping requirements, just fresh coffee, straight to my door, when I want it. Crema.co is a supporter of meticulist.net, but I can honestly say I would feel the same way regardless, and am super happy and proud to have found a supporter that I believe in. Now's a great time to give it a try and get your Dad something nice for Father's Day too, click through for $10 off your first order. Thanks for reading, and be sure to follow along on instagram and comment to let me know any questions or what you want to see!