I’ve been behind on my coffee posting. I think I’ve been also kind of slow in drinking coffee too. Anyways, July’s Angels Cup comes from Black Oak Coffee Roasters. The coffee is a Columbian single origin bean that’s been light roasted. This is a Caturra varietal if it means anything. To be honest, I haven’t spent enough time to learn about the arabica varietals. I’ve seen them on the various bags from the roasters but never looked much into them. I have noticed some taste differences but I’ve always attributed it to the roasters and roasting variabilities.

First open of the bag is nothing out of the ordinary. The beans have a pleasant normal coffee smell with a little bit of fruit aromas. Making my latte, the initial sip was a little shocking. It had a strong black tea and sweet caramel sugar flavor. After getting used to the initial flavor punch, I start tasting berry and chocolate flavors. Sometimes I’ll go for a 2nd cup of coffee becuase of the tea and caramel flavors seem to mix so well together.

From time to time, I’ll stop one of my coffee subscriptions in order to “catch up” with additional bags that I might have purchased when I run out of beans but the next shipment hasn’t arrived.

June’s Trade Coffee comes from Sterling Coffee Roasters. I received beans from Ethiopia’s Limu region. Reading this guide about the origin of the various Ethiopian beans, Limu is located in the western part of Ethiopia compared to Ethiopia’s Yirgacheffe (central/southern) or Sidamo (central/southern) regions.

Opening the bag, I’m greeted by a subtle fruit aroma. Making my latte, I’m underwhelmed by the flavors. There wasn’t the expected fruity flavor or floral flavor that I expected from Ethiopian beans. There also wasn’t an earthy flavor as well. Everything I tasted in the latte was extremely subtle. I get hints of fruitness, hints of honey, hints of earthiness but nothing outstanding. Is this the result of a light light roast? Or perhaps, the milk is overpowering everything?