What the heck is a varietal? Why is it on every decent bag of coffee: Heirloom Varietal, Caturra Varietal, Pacamara Varietal, Geisha Varietal… the list goes on (also sometimes called varieties). Do these names mean anything, or are they just a fancy words to make the label look better? Well, yes, they do mean quite a bit. There is information about our potential coffee purchases to be gained from these words, it’s just a matter of learning what they really mean, and discovering how this knowledge can affect our coffee choices.
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London coffee shop Tapped and Packed recently adopted a Bunn Trifecta to play around with. I trundled over to test the results, and chose a coffee I am already familiar with through various brewing methods and very fond of: Square Mile’s Tegu AA from Kenya. For such an expensive (though quite ugly) gadget which has had it’s share of non-committal hype, my interest was piqued even if my expectations were on the wary side.
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Yesterday I picked up some new coffee from Monmouth* – the Kenyan Gethumbwini Estate was the bean of choice. Having had a few disappointments using my Hario Syphon recently (mainly due to not having a controllable burner yet, only the wick burner), I had no great hopes for the coffee I started to brew. Everything seemed to go ok, anticipation grew…. and without wanting to brag too much, the result was the best cup of coffee I have made so far – I just wish someone had been home to brag to! Read the rest of this entry »