I managed to snag one of the Angels Cup Holiday Gesha Box for 2021! I received four bags labeled A, B ,C and D. The descriptions of the Gesha beans had to be pulled online since Angels Cup is trying to be more eco-conscious and stopped providing the little cards describing each of the bags and the origin of the beans. I took snapshots of each of the bean description for your perusual.

Bag A: This bag has such a pleasant floral, and fruity smell. It’s very similar to the powerful aroma of Bag C. Very fruity and sweet to taste with hints of dark chocolate aftertaste. The latte smells amazing.
Bag B: This bag also has a floral smell and hints of fermentation/yogurt aromas. It’s not as fruity of an aroma as Bag C. The sweet fermentation flavor comes through immediately and overpowers the subtle fruit flavors.
Bag C: This bag is probalby my most favorite. It has floral, fruity, caramelly aromas. It’s fruity and sweet with slighty nutty and caramel after taste.
Bag D: This bag has the most floral aroma of the four. The florals dominate the taste ending with a nice nutty, toffee, milk chocolate after taste.

December’s Trade Coffee comes from Blueprint Coffee. These single origin beans are from Ethiopia’s Guji region. Reading the bag label is pretty nice. Blueprint shows the transperancy behind the sourcing of the beans starting from the where the beans come from. Blueprint has an article about “green buying” to read.

Making my latte, I’m greeted with a sweet fruity flavor that morphs into a pleasanet chocolate after taste that lingers at the back of the mouth.

Recently, I saw that Costco was selling this huge can of Bourbon Infused Coffee. It’s coffee…. I had to try it. From the description, these beans are first soaked in bourbon and then roasted. Opening the container, it never occurred to me just how big 25 oz of beans actually is. I included pictures of the size comparisons between a 12 oz and 25 oz. Opening the bag, I’m greeted with a strong bourbon aroma with slight oak smell and some yogurt-like fermentation. I’m a bit surprised at the fermentation aromas since it doesn’t seem like these beans were aged in barrels. However, the aromas remind me of the other bourbon infused coffee beans from Pappy& Company that I bought earlier in the year. Those earlier beans were roasted first and then aged in bourbon barrels.

Making my latte, the strong bourbon aroma translates to a strong “bourbon-like” taste. I say this becuase it doesn’t taste quite like bourbon and also doesn’t taste quite like coffee. There’s an initial shock of oak flavors followed by the bourbon aromas ending with slight floral and fruity flavors. The aftertaste though definitely has that bourbon aftertaste. The initial soak and subsequent roast must have permanently altered the aromas and flavors of the coffee beans. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing. But as a specialty “gimmick” coffee, I suppose it could be appreciated to some coffee drinkers. After making quite a few lattes, I’m not a huge fan of this kind of this kind of infusion.

November’s Angels Cup comes from Higher Grounds Coffee. These beans are from the Congo and I don’t recall having tasted Congolese beans in recent memory. Opening the bag, the typical nutty, floral and citrusy aromas permeate the kitchen. Making my latte, the citrus flavors really stands out immediately followed by a smooth nutty flavor that coats the back of the tongue. However, after subsequent sips, the flavors become subdued with a pleasant chocolate milk after taste.

November’s Trade Coffee comes from a roaster out in Carlsbad, CA called Steady State Roasting. The beans are Ethiopia’s Guji region. Frequent readers will recognize that I’ve actually received many roasted beans from this region in the past. The lattes I make are generally very delicious and always a solid choice.

However, this bag is slightly different. I find that the normal latte recipe gives a watered down espresso taste. This watered down taste takes away from the latte. Even the normal “coffee flavor” of the latte doesn’t have the normal strength typically tasted in the lattes. As a result, I’ve been decreasing the amount of water needed to brew inside the Aeropress to get rid of this watered down effect. So far, after a few tries, it’s made the latte very strong (typical) but suprisingly hasn’t really brought out more of the flavors. Puzzling….

October’s Angels Cup comes from 319 Coffee‘s Spring Blend. I’m not sure why there’s a “spring blend” when it’s currently Oct/Nov and Fall/Winter. As a blend, the beans come from Ethiopia, Brazil and Columbia. Aside from the relatively non-descript packaging, the aromas are amazing. Everytime I open the bag, I smell fruits and nuts. Making my latte, I taste sweet honey and berries leading to a very caramelly nutty aftertaste that lingers at the back of the tongue.

October’s Trade Coffee comes from Portrait Coffee. The beans come from Ethiopia’s Guji district. Making my latte, the fruity flavors are amazing. Fruity berries mixed with a subtle sweet cholate milk flavors makes this particular bag of beans really delicious. The Guji area of Ethiopia never fails to disappoint.

September’s Angels Cup comes from Goshen Coffee. As part of Goshen Coffee’s subscription service, these beans are marketed as high quality, rare and unique. This bag comes from Burundi. Opening the bag, the aromas of berries, nuts and fruits were amazing. Making my latte though, the first sip was amazing. The latte was sweet and fruity with a slight jasmine tea after taste. I enjoyed drinking the latte so much that I made a second one immediately after I finished. This is one truly amazing bag of coffee.

Last month, I received a bag of Kona Coffee. The Kona coffee gifter also left another bag of Kona Coffee beans to enjoy one the first bag is finished. This week, I opened up and started sampling Mulvadi’s Kona Coffee. Similar to September’s Kona coffee, the latte had a much stronger ashen flavor profile from start to finish. The only other flavor I can descern was a dark chocolate after taste moments after swallowing each sip. Between the two beans, I prefer the Honolulu Coffee more.

Trade Coffee sent Ritual Coffee for September’s coffee. The beans come from a single farm in Honduras. Ritual Coffee have always roasted consistently good beans that lead to great lattes. I was excited to see this familiar red bag after opening the packaging. Ritual was the original coffee subscription that started me down the path of wanting to try different roasters.

Making my latte, I taste a sweet nutty flavor that lingers at the back of my tongue after each sip.