Happy New Year! It’s been a hot minute (Millennials used to say that) since the last post. I had a great series of trips planned to acquire coffee and adventure. Then, the check engine light came on. Then, the polar vortex hit. Now, it’s about to snow. Thankfully, Christmas yielded no less than five spectacular coffees, gifted to me or found at markets. It’s an amazing haul and should hold us over until next week when the air warms back up and my jalopy thaws.
Let’s save the best for first. Regarding coffee, I don’t believe in standing on ceremony. This blend, called Rose Garden, was an unexpected joy; unexpected because it hailed from several blocks away from my house. A local candy shop called Zimmerman’s is a local mainstay. I go there a few weeks before Christmas with my mom to get various specialty foods annually. This year, we also found coffee there. It’s their own blend, and it’s fantastic. Dense and leguminous, it was practically a meal. There was no indication of whether it was a medium or dark roast, or if it was primarily Guatemalan (my best guess), or Sumatran (also a contender), and it didn’t need one, because the blend stood on its own as unique. The package reads: “Roasted to please particular people.” I am, and it did.
hometown brew…
The next offering was the St. Remio bio-organic house blend. This was really interesting in that it tasted a lot like Turkish or Greek coffee. Intensity was promised, and intensity was delivered. There was a bit of an acrid taste to the otherwise full-bodied profile; a bitterness emblematic of that particular category of coffee. There’s an oddly specific reason for this: over-extraction. The coffee was extremely fine-grained, almost a powder, and when that happens, the coffee interacts with water rapidly, with organic compounds rapidly giving an astringent and almost rubbery flavor. It’s not a sign of bad coffee; it’s a niche taste that some aficionados prefer. It’s not normally my cup of tea (heh), but sometimes I’m in the mood for a touch of the exotic. I’ll freeze this for when I’m in a Mediterranean mood.
taste of the Mediterranean…
Hue. That was the name of the third roast I sampled. It came courtesy of BKG Coffee Roasters. You might remember them. They’re a small batch roaster out of Brooklyn, NY that we sampled over a year ago. Hue is a dark roast, but there’s no harshness here. In fact, I drink it specifically as a neutral force when I’m not in the mood for anything niche. The package advertises dark chocolate, molasses, and cherry notes. A quick whiff of the whole beans reveals the cocoa long before it hits your taste buds. That said, it wasn’t overpowering in the mouthfeel; when taken in its entirety the roast was quite mellow.
back to bkg…
Coffee number four was a pure Costa Rican ground coffee courtesy of Adventure Awaits Coffee Roasters, distributed by Great Lakes Coffee Roasters of Buffalo, New York. This was much more a traditional Central American medium roast. Hue’s rich chocolate and brown sugar were nowhere to be found here, replaced with that characteristic nut flavor coupled with an odd (but welcome) vegetal quality. This is a coffee I could drink daily. That’s oddly ironic for a coffee roaster called “Adventure Awaits,” but I’ve concluded that it’s tailor-made for the adventurous sort.
a new adventure…
Have you ever had a dark roast that drank like a breakfast blend? Me neither, until now. It was Third in the Burg. It’s an event every third Friday of the month in Harrisburg, PA. The focus is on art galleries and curio shops; they’re open that night throughout the midtown and downtown areas and often hold free events. The famous Broad Street Market is also open and is mostly a space for food and drink. Today, however, there was coffee.
The company I’d never heard of before. Misty Mountain Coffee is the name, and they’re from Richland, PA. That’s way down the road towards Reading (‘the road’ being Route 422). The town sounds familiar. Oh, now I remember! This is near Timber Creek, a coffeehouse featured on this blog months ago. I love the eastern countryside of Pennsylvania. Endless fields and small towns with deep histories create a tapestry. Misty Mountain’s roast room is in Richland itself, and they pride themselves on sustainably sourced coffees from Central America.
The woman selling their beans at the Market (along with some other wares) told me a fascinating story. She spoke of Jamaican coffee being offered by them. In fact, one of them was called “Jamaican-Me Crazy.” I opted for the dark roast, and interestingly enough, it felt way more like a breakfast blend, even as the first sips betrayed its deep, dark Central American roots. Even so, I wondered how such a naturally inherently earthy and aromatic variety was made to yield such a supple mouthfeel. Clearly, a trip to Richland is in order.
That’s all for this round. See everyone in either late January or early February when (let’s hope) there’s a break in the deep freeze and I can get back on the road, heading back into the Wilds! Until then, stay caffeinated, dear readers…
The Coffeehouse Journey 