Filed under: barista, coffee, cupping, espresso, roasting | Tags: cupping, Dark Horse Espresso, Hanks, Momi, roasting
We’ll get back to the roadtrip with the roaster again soon. But first, I had the pleasure of stopping in at Dark Horse Espresso Bar the other day to cup with one of my favorite baristas, Momi (look halfway down on the link). I brought in samples I was evaluating sent to me from Cafe Imports in Minneapolis.
I’m a big fan of bright coffees, Ethiopians, high grown Centrals, but every once in a while I like a nice easy drinking cup. I had tried a couple great Mexican coffees on my travels down in The States and wanted to add a nice one to the inventory when we FINALLY fire up the roaster.
What I originally thought would be just Momi and I turned into an impromptu public cupping. Max from Hank’s on Church stopped in and another barista from Montreal named Sameer happened to be in house. First off, I should mention that I wasn’t quite happy with my roasting of these samples. I had put a smaller charge into my sample roaster than I normally would and at the end of the roast, the coffee seemed to get away on me a bit. I also took them a bit darker than I normally would, closer to a full city roast instead of a city roast. I had cupped production roasts at Stumptown and was experimenting with going a bit darker in this exercise. Oh well, lesson learned. 
We cupped a Tanzanian Peaberry, Washed Congo, a few natural Sidamos including one from only red cherries, a Columbian Supremo, and 3 different Mexicans. Even through the roastiness, some of the coffees that stood out were the Peaberry, the Sidamo from red cherries, the Colombian, and one of the Mexicans. The day after cupping at DH, I ended up reroasting the samples to my usual city roast and found the peaberry to have an apple crisp type quality. The Sidamo had heaps of beautiful red fruit with an interesting bit of bergamot you’d expect from a Yirgacheffe. The Colombian was easy drinking and paired really nicely on the Chemex with some coconut cupcakes my wife made. And finally, the Mexican was really great, huge body, with chocolate and rich cashew nuttiness. Unfortunately, the Congo was a bit of a disappointment at both roast levels. Next samples to roast…dare I say it, DECAF! Cheers.
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detourcoffee blog 
Kaelin! That was fantastic experience! It was so much fun and learn a lot from it. It was great to do cupping with you and using coffee that you roasted (because I think you are a wicked roaster!). That day was my dream day came true (and hoping more to come!!!)
Thank you so much and see you soon!
MoMi
Comment by MoMi March 1, 2009 @ 9:48 pm