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I’ve been very privileged to have tasted and tried over 100 different single origins and blends in the past six months; my informal and formal cupping / espresso notes show 112 different coffees rated. I talk about them as they are tasted on my twitter feed (subscribe!) and always have the best intentions of writing them up monthly here, but it doesn’t happen, so I wanted to just list a few standouts (there were many, but I’ll list a few) and save the cupping reports for next article.
From PT’s Coffee, The Beloyas, the Sidamo Special Prep, the Finca El Molino from El Salvador, and especially the surprising (for me) Sidamo Special Prep Espresso Roast single origin, the first single origin espresso I’ve scored 80 points in over a year. 80 = very good / excellent on my espresso scale.
We did a tasting with Counter Culture Coffee‘s offerings last fall and a real standout for me amongst truly great coffees was the Finca Mauritania Peaberry Microlot. Beautiful coffee. Another was the Aida Grand Reserve which, if still available is a must buy.
Intelligentsia Coffee Roasters continues to deliver the goods. I am blown away at their single origin offerings; have tasted them all repeatedly, and would recommend any of them. If I had to pick standouts, they would be the Agua Preta from Brazil, the Anjilanaka from Bolivia and the Kurimi Ethiopian Yirg. These are must try coffees. I also have very fond memories of their Christmas blend a few months back, the Celebration blend which unfortunately is no longer available.
A roaster in Toronto, RocketFuel didn’t get my hopes up with their naming (I don’t like coffee names that imply buzz, jolt, fuel, etc), but once I tried their XXX blend for espresso, I was quite surprised and impressed with it. I ended up scoring it 81 points (excellent), with a big bump upwards when milk was added.
Jim Hoffmann of SquareMile Roasters in London continues to impress with their less than a year old roastery – normally roasters need a lot more time to really gear up and start nailing roasts (49th sure did!) but Jim and Annete are hitting them out of the park. Just yesterday I tried their Spring Espresso blend and scored it 82/84 (excellent!), and even beter, their Colonia San Juan Estrellas from Boliva, and Kopabakagi Rusenyi, Karongi (I don’t even know where that is) which would both score some of my highest cupping scores for March/April if I’d formally scored them.
From Coffea Roasterie I had a fantastic roast of Beloya Selection 9 (lot 9), once again showing that Beloya was my coffee of the year. I especially liked Coffea’s roast of this bean – they brought out more chocolate and blueberries than other roasters’ versions of the Beloyas offered.
My roaster of the year, 49th Parallel Coffee (if I were to do another ‘best of the year awards) garners that opinion from me not because they had the best espresso I had in the past six months (they didn’t); nor because they provided me with the most epiphany moment single origin (that came from Ecco Caffe). No, 49th Parallel is my choice for roaster of the year for two reasons. I did not have a single coffee from them (or blend) that I could rank less than 80 points on the espresso scale, and very few below 90 points on the cupping scale. And second, they were so consistently great the entire year, especially on their blends, that it kind of reset the standard for me on how a roaster should do. Throughout 2008 and now well into 2009, I’ve had Epic Espresso, their signature blend on a weekly basis, and saw the blend start out last year great, and only get better as time progressed. It never had a downtime. I can’t say that for any other blend I’ve tried more than once or twice last year.
I also had some of the best single origin brewed coffee of my life last year thanks to their offerings. Standouts include the Beloyas (still available!) and the Aricha, both from Ethiopia, but also some great finds like the Costa Rica Herbazu Estate, the Kenya Rioki Estate, and the totally bargain priced Ethiopian Ademe Bedane (this drinks like a $40/lb coffee, for $16/12oz). I could go on, but if you haven’t tried 49th Parallel yet, you’re missing one of the best roasters in Canada and the US.
About the Author
Mark has certified as a Canadian, USA, and World Barista Championship Judge in both sensory and technical fields, as well as working as an instructor in coffee and espresso training. He started CoffeeGeek in 2001.