Fresh Roasted Coffee Thread #3: now with 100% more vendor status, 50% less bootleg

[westcoastroasting]

We have a new Limited Release natural process Sumatra just in!

Most Sumatran coffee is earthy and sometimes rather one-dimensional, due to the standard wet-hulled processing which is dictated heavily by the weather, which is absolutely NOT ideal for natural processing. So when I see a fantastic natural processed Sumatra, I feel compelled to support the intensive efforts it takes to make this happen (including building canopies over raised beds to protect it from the frequent rain, extended drying periods, etc). This coffee is immaculately processed, displaying the big chocolate and herbal/foresty notes Sumatra is known for, but layered with an almost Kenya-like winey note, Bing cherry, orange zest, and hibiscus.

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[westcoastroasting]

Yet another new Limited Release just in!

New Colombia Huila Double Macerated Honey Pacamara!

A lot goes into a good coffee bean. In this case, terroir (where it's grown), variety (Pacamara), innovative processing (double macerated), and farmer collaboration all combine to create an amazing coffee (and that's all before I get my grubby paws on it). It all comes together to provide a creamy smooth, refined, fruit-forward cup that will knock your socks off, with loads of jammy, berry notes, pear-like sweetness, and jasmine florals.

[REX_WGN]

I always kept my nose in the technical stuff and never even saw this. I'm down to support a fellow NASIOC OG.

I have a typical coffee brewer at home and we like dark-roast coffee. What do you suggest?

[westcoastroasting]

Hey! I'd say the Sumatra would be a good place to start. Keep in mind I don't do dark roasts persay, because they generally overshadow the flavor of the bean, and I buy really good beans that are a shame to miss out on, when dark roasted. But the Sumatra would be a great intro, and go from there. You might be surprised!

[REX_WGN]

Looking forward to trying it!

[westcoastroasting]

Thanks for giving it a shot.

[westcoastroasting]

Got another Limited Release in!

No, you're not seeing double: this coffee is from the same farmers and supplier as the previous coffee featured below, processed in the same way, just of the Caturra varietal instead of Pacamara. I thought it would be fun to contrast and compare two varietals processed with the same excellent, experimental double maceration technique! With caramelly, honey-granola sweetness, notes of apple and plum, orange zest, and a dusting of cinnamon, it's wildly different, but fantastically excellent.

[REX_WGN]

The sumatra is awesome - first brew this morning! We had to get used to the lightness since we are used to the dark roast stuff but it tasted great! I usually drink 2 cups compared to my wife who drinks 1 but she drank my 2nd cup! lol

Great coffee. Highly recommend!

[westcoastroasting]

Haha, I'm happy to hear that! I hate talking about roast level for this very reason: people associate 'dark' and 'light' with certain things, but it's not necessarily correct. A light roast isn't necessarily sour, and a dark roast isn't necessarily burnt. The point, to me, is to find the roast that makes the bean taste best, whether that's a lighter or darker roast.

[westcoastroasting]

New Ethiopia Organic Halo Bariti Addisu Kidane Raised Bed Natural!

Somewhat unusually, this is a micro-lot Yirgacheffe from a single farmer, Addisu Kidane. He has been working the farm since he was a child, inheriting it from his father, and he supports his family of 8 (!) children through the production of the excellent microlots. He is a member of the Halo Bariti coop, which he takes his cherries to for processing. I love buying coffees like this that have a direct impact on an individual and his family, and it's not hard to justify, at all: this coffee is wild! Fruity, fudgey, and bodaciously herbacious, this coffee starts out as expected of a natural Yirg, with peach and plum, but wait for it! It goes hard into winey Pinot, fudgey dark chocolate, herbal notes, light floral honeyed notes....this coffee is exciting, and will make for some gonzo espresso for the adventurous types.

[westcoastroasting]

The new Limited Release is in, and wow, it's in the running for coffee of the year, and definitely one of the most unique.

New Java Riunngunung Estate Anaerobic Natural!

Indonesia is traditionally known for earthy, one dimensional, wet-hulled coffees, but there has been a recent uptick in high quality, uniquely processed coffees that stand shoulder to shoulder with the best of any other country, and they even held their first Cup of Excellence competition this year. This coffee is harvested from a corner of the plantation that reaches near-freezing temps, which stresses the coffee plant, slows development, and produces a better bean. It's not just unusual because it's a natural process, which is difficult in wet, rainy Indonesia, but it's anaerobically processed. Carefully picked cherries are soaked with lactobacillis for 3 days in closed containers, before being removed and laid out for natural drying on raised beds for 18-21 days, then hulled, milled, and hand sorted. The quality is exceptional, the flavor astonishing: deep and chocolatey, with intense wine notes, a basket of berries, and florals that recall elderberry and rose.

Absolutely stunning, and wild.

[westcoastroasting]

New coffee!

I regularly provide Sumatran coffees from this supplier, a collaboration between a renowned Costa Rican farmer and an Indonesian importer, and they do really excellent work. This peaberry coffee is hand-sorted and triple-picked, and it shows in the cup: huge body with notes of sweet tobacco and sorghum, cedar, burdock, tamarind sweetness and acidity, and leafy green foresty notes.

[westcoastroasting]

New Limited Release Timor-Leste Organic Eratoi Home Process!

A lot of people don't know where Timor is, off-hand, let alone know they produce some amazing coffee, with extraordinary traceability and transparency. Coffees are generally grown on a very small scale, and processed using small home mills, unlike most regions where even small lots are pooled and processed at larger regional mills.

I've been blown away by so many coffees from Timor: they're just so balanced, clean, and utterly chuggable, and I always want another cup. I've carried coffee from this sub-village, Eratoi, before, and this years coffee is expertly processed, clean, and sweet, with maple-fudge, toasted walnut, stewed peach, and orange blossom.

https://www.westcoastroasting.com/limited-edition/

[westcoastroasting]

New Limited Release Peru Organic El Diamonte Flores Family Raised Bed Dried!

Peru is an interesting origin. Most coffee is organically grown on extremely small, individually owned plots of land, interspersed with local crops like bananas, corn, and beans. This coffee is grown by 30 members of the Flores family, under the guidance of David Flores Chilcon. Each family member processes their coffee, with David's guidance, at their own micro mill, and then the coffees are fermented, depulped, washed, and dried on raised beds over 18 days. This coffee has loads of brown sugar, dried stone fruit, and horchata, with plummy, jammy fruit notes, and lemon zest effervescence.

[westcoastroasting]

New Limited Release Papua New Guinea Wahgi Valley Kimel Estate Peaberry!

This estate was founded in 1974, and has been run under expert guidance since, developing a stellar name for turning out consistently great coffees, while providing housing, schooling, and medical services for the 432 workers and their families, and using ecologically sounds means of production. This coffee is huge and complex, with notes of jolly green ranchers, pecan praline and fig sweetness, and herbal sage and even rosemary notes, making for an elegant and balanced cup.

https://www.westcoastroasting.com/limited-edition/

[westcoastroasting]

New Ethiopia Natural! Aricha, of former 'Misty Valley' fame, is a processing mill with a stellar reputation. They gather coffees from around 700 small shareholders, sort, and process (in this case, natural process). These are some of the highest grown coffees in Ethiopia; higher altitude slows growth, leads to denser beans, and is in general desirable. This coffee has notes of blackberry, grape, and peach, with delicate vanilla and chamomile.

[westcoastroasting]

Happy 4th! 'INDEPENDENCE' is the code for 20% off, good for 24hrs.

[westcoastroasting]

New Costa Rica Canuela Cafe de Altura Raised Bed Natural!

This coffee is from a cutting edge mill that's focused on improving quality and consistency using state of the art means, and this coffee goes through extensive sorting to remove lower quality beans. Naturally processed with the cherries intact, this coffee smells fruity even unroasted, like mango and cherry; when roasted, it's a basket of sweet berries, like raspberry and strawberry, anchored by sweet milk chocolate, some moderate pink lemonade notes, and grapey notes throughout.

[westcoastroasting]

New Costa Rica Canuela Cafe de Altura Raised Bed Natural!

This coffee is from a cutting edge mill that's focused on improving quality and consistency using state of the art means, and this coffee goes through extensive sorting to remove lower quality beans. Naturally processed with the cherries intact, this coffee smells fruity even unroasted, like mango and cherry; when roasted, it's a basket of sweet berries, like raspberry and strawberry, anchored by sweet milk chocolate, some moderate pink lemonade notes, and grapey notes throughout.

[westcoastroasting]

Next Limited Release is up, our first Ethiopia of the season!

This is a departure from my typical preference of super-fruity natural Ethiopias, but once in a while I like to throw in a high quality, washed coffee to mix it up. Dumerso is a woman-owned processing station, with 95% of the 400 workers employed there also women. They acheived both organic and Rainforest Alliance certification in the last year, and recently started a project to compress coffee parchment from processing into fire logs to give back to local growers, reducing deforestation. The care in processing shows: hugely floral, with honeysuckle and orange blossom notes, lemon preserves, tangerine, and gentle berry and stone fruit notes.

[westcoastroasting]

This coffee comes from the supplier Daye Bensa, run by the Dukamo family, who have turned-out award-winning coffees, including 2nd place in this year's Cup of Excellence. This coffee is from the Bombe area in Sidama, where the Abore washing station sits atop a stunning waterfall in one of the most gorgeous settings around. The coffee is as exquisite as the setting, and cost a fair bit more than my typical offerings: milk chocolate covered cherries, brown sugar, sweet muscat notes, and vanilla with light florals.

[westcoastroasting]

New Limited Release Honduras Santa Elena Adalila Argueta Honey!

When I saw that this coffee is Kombucha-fermented, I had to give it a try. Adalila Argueta owns a 2 acre (!) farm, and while in the past she has sold to middlemen, the last two years she has been working with Catracha Coffee to improve farm management and growing/processing practices, including the transition to organic fertilizers and fungicides to control coffee rust. This coffee is slightly fermented overnight before depulping, then fermented in barrels of water with Kombucha SCOBY for 24 hours, and only then laid out with mucilage still attached to the beans for honey processing on raised beds in the sun. This unconventional process leads to a super-clean, crisp flavor profile, unlike many experimental methods: leading with apple, pear, and apricot notes, the sweet, balanced acidity give way to soft milk chocolate and caramel notes, and even some maple syrup in the backdrop. The perfect fall>winter coffee!

[westcoastroasting]

New Limited Release Honduras Santa Elena Adalila Argueta Honey!

When I saw that this coffee is Kombucha-fermented, I had to give it a try. Adalila Argueta owns a 2 acre (!) farm, and while in the past she has sold to middlemen, the last two years she has been working with Catracha Coffee to improve farm management and growing/processing practices, including the transition to organic fertilizers and fungicides to control coffee rust. This coffee is slightly fermented overnight before depulping, then fermented in barrels of water with Kombucha SCOBY for 24 hours, and only then laid out with mucilage still attached to the beans for honey processing on raised beds in the sun. This unconventional process leads to a super-clean, crisp flavor profile, unlike many experimental methods: leading with apple, pear, and apricot notes, the sweet, balanced acidity give way to soft milk chocolate and caramel notes, and even some maple syrup in the backdrop. The perfect fall>winter coffee!

[westcoastroasting]

Normally around this time of year we start selling 100% Estate Kona from a unique 5 acre farm run by a husband and wife. Unfortunately, Kona experienced a 40% decrease in output this year, and coffee from this farm is unavailable, so for the first time in 15 years, we won't be selling this coffee. So, instead of Kona, we will offer some other unusual, surprising, and awesome coffees.

Holiday Release #1: Colombia Circasia Edwin Norena Double Carbonic Galaxy Hops Mossto Fermented Honey Gesha

Whoa. There's a lot in that name, so let's dive in a bit.

Grower: Edwin Norena is a third generation farmer, who is an agroindustrial engineer by trade with graduate-level studies in biotechnology. He is an aspirational grower, with a specific focus on fermentation technique and cultivar selection.

Farm: Finca Campo Hermoso concentrates on growing unusual cultivars, like Pink and Yellow Bourbon, Sidra, Gesha, and Cenicafe 1, a relatively new resistant hybrid developed Colombia’s national coffee research institute of the same name.

Bean: This coffee is the ultra-exclusive and rare Gesha varietal (a story in and of itself). Not only does Norena process this using double carbonic fermentation, he ferments it with the addition of Galaxy hops. Cherries are selective picked using a Brix meter to assure to ensure uniformity, then soaked first for 1hr, then the whole cherries are soaked for 72 hours in sealed tanks. After, they are pulped, then fermented again in sealed tanks for 96 hours with 'mossto' (residual fermentation from the original 72 hour session), only this time Galaxy hops are added. Then the heavily fermented honey coffee is laid out to dry on raised beds for 22 days, followed by 8 days of warehouse humidity stabilization.

Result: WILD! This is experimentally processed coffee turned up to 11. Bold, bombastic, and badass, this coffee has extreme floral notes, huge fruits, and oozing sweetness, with notes of ripe watermelon, tangerine, and chocolate covered strawberries, floral lavender and rose, hoppy piney IPA notes, spicy candied ginger and eucalyptus; it's a riotous, decadent cup, but don't think it's all about the hops. In Norena's words: “It was a development that we adapted from the world of wine to enhance the flavors of coffee, always trying to intensify each coffee process using the original coffee flavors.”



~ This is up for preorder. Any orders including this coffee will be held until the first roast, expected next week. ~

[westcoastroasting]

New Limited Release: Burundi Ngozi Bahire Double Washed!

Everyone loves Ethiopias and Kenyas, but origins like the Congo and Burundi don't get as much love, which is a shame, because they are just as capable of providing amazing coffee. This coffee is grown by a micro-group of producers under the guidance of JNP Coffees, which provides economic and empowerment programs, and ensures growers get paid far above market value for good micro-lots. This coffee is meticulously processed, and silky body delivers notes of caramel, cashew butter, juicy mandarin, apricot, and bergamot.

https://www.westcoastroasting.com/limited-edition/