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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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 »
This afternoon I sat in Penny University for close to 2 hours – unintentionally, I lost track of time being surrounded by people so passionate about the beautiful dark liquid.
Although the coffee was a bit over-extracted today (problems due to the hot weather resulting in difficulty reducing the temperature of the lower bowl of the syphon, I think) the Square Mile Yirgacheffe is now quite possibly nearing the top of my favourties list – despite having disliked it the very first time I tried it through the syphon a few weeks ago. Perhaps it is the summertime affecting my tastes, leaning them toward the lighter brighter coffee, or perhaps merely the fact that I had grown so accustomed to well-rounded coffees with more of the rich chocolate notes, that the yirgacheffe was at first out of my comfort zone. Read the rest of this entry »
