Today is International Coffee Day!? There’s practically a “celebratory day” for almost anything now. September’s Trade Coffee comes from Doma Coffee Roasting Company. The beans come from the Huila region in Columbia and were incredibly aromatic when I opened the bag. Fruit and floral aromas filled the air.

Making my latte, I am pleasently surprised by the sweet fruity flavors. I taste hints of raisin and caramel… kind of like an oatmeal raisin cookie. It also has this subtle coffee, nutty flavor that rounds out the aftertaste.

In the last post, I showed pictures of my Bodum coffee grinder seemingly only grind beans to a medium-fine level. I borrowed a Baratza Encore to grind beans and to see if there were any differences. I also ground the same beans through my Bodum to compare.

Looking at the Baratza grounds and then comparing it to the Bodum grounds, I’m happy to note that they look similar enough to each other. I do have to say that the Baratza is definitely a much heavier grinder compared to the Bodum. As a precaution, I also ordered a replacement burr to replace the current burr. I’ve been using this grinder for 7 years now.

Left is the Baratza. Right is the Bodum

In my last coffee post, I mentioned how my current Bodum coffee grinder seemed to be having issues. Specifically, I thought the “fine” setting was not normal “espresso-fine consistency that I’m used to for use in my Aeropress.

To look exactly how different the coffee grounds actually are, I went and ground coffee at three different settings: coarse, medium, fine. Basically I had the dial turned all the way to the right (coarse), in the middle (medium) and to the left (fine). Then plated it out to see what they looked like.

Looking at the grounds, there’s a signifcant difference between the coarse and medium grounds. Surprisingly, there’s a difference also between the medium and fine. However, I think that the “fine” is actually more of a medium-fine grind. I’ve seen ground beans with much finer / smaller particles.

I currenlty suspect that the beans are partially causing this issue as I didn’t see such medium-fine grounds in the last batch of beans. I have a new delivery of beans that came yesterday. We’ll see tomorrow.

September’s Angels Cup comes from Queen City Coffee Roasters. The beans are a light roasted single origin from Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

Before I start with what I taste, I’m want to say that there is something wrong with my current Bodum grinder. When grinding these beans, the beans manage to stop the grinder from grinding resulting in a loud “clacking” noise due to the grinder clutch. The coffee grounds does not look like the normal expected espresso-like consistency for the particular setting. To be honest, it looks large enough for a pourover or a french press.

Making my latte, I taste light fruity flavors only. I’m both surprised at the lack of “coffee flavor” but also that the milk flavor is not present. Generally the lack of the earthy, nutty, coffee flavor usually means that the flavor of milk has overpowered. Perhaps thats the power of the light roast?

August’s Trade Coffee comes from Feast Coffee & Culture Company. The beans are from Ethiopia’s Sidama region from a Shantawene village. Opening the bag of beans, I initially smell a pleasant floral aroma with a hint fruitness. A second whiff of the bag, I also get this nutty/peanut butter aroma.

Making my latte, I’m fairly disappointed at the lack of flavor. I didn’t taste much of that normal coffee flavor even when I drop down to a 1:1 coffee:milk ratio. It has a very light fruity and floral flavors with some sweetness. Ultimately, the lack of the “coffee flavor” is really disppointing for me.

August’s Angels Cup comes from Backstory Coffe Roasters. The coffee beans are single origin from the Rwanda’s Kilimbi Washing Station. Beans from Rwanda are rare compared to beans from Ethiopia.

The beans have a wonderful floral and fruity smell. Making my latte, I’m immediately greeted with a subtle smooth fruit flavor. It’s light, sweet and fruity. It doesn’t have a strong coffee flavor so it feels like I’m drinking a light chocolate milk. I really enjoy this latte for the lack of the bitterness.

July’s Trade Coffee comes from Drink Coffee, Do Stuff. The coffee beans are single orign coming from the Las Mercedes region in Columbia. From the roaster’s website, this particular coffee is able to control the process starting from growing to exporting. This kind of control in the coffee chain can be important to maintain that quality control

Making my latte, I wasn’t disappointed with the flavor. The initial burst of fruit flavor was a wonderful surprise. As I kept drinking, the fruitiness becomes this nice sweet lingering flavor at the tip of the tongue.

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?

So I skipped Angels Cup delivery purposely becuase I had an extra bag of coffee already waiting for me from Trade Coffee. May’s Trade Coffee comes from Steady State Roasting. I received an Anserma bag from the western part of Columbia. The beans come from the Anserma Co-Op.

Opening the bag, I’m greeted by a normal nutty and earthy aroma. Think of this as the normal roasted coffee bean aroma that first hits you when you walk into a coffee shop. Making my latte, I was surprised at how smooth the latte was. It also had a sweet floral flavor that lingered on the tongue after each sip.