Happy Easter, Passover, and more! If you’re a Pennsylvania resident, you can probably guess why I haven’t made my way into the Wilds yet: The weather hasn’t cooperated. The past three weeks have been a labyrinth of postponed beer festivals, downed tree branches, tenuous power grids, and winds strong enough to blow cars off the road. In Carlisle, the gusts were at least 60 miles per hour. None of this is conducive to travel. Nor was the lake-effect snow that fell across the Wilds!

Then came Easter, and I didn’t feel like leaving home during it, so I resolved to make the trip at some point in the two weeks or so after the holidays and before festival season begins in earnest. Good news: As I’m typing this, I’ve just returned from The Wilds, having visited two new coffee shops. Those will be coming soon, but this Zimmerman’s segment needed to be done.

One of my Christmas presents had been coffee from Zimmerman’s Nuts & Candies. That’s a candy shop, but so much more in addition. It’s full Willy Wonka. Zimmerman’s holds shelf after shelf of not only candy but local farm goods, including raw honey, homemade ketchup, and (yes) several varieties of coffee. So, in need of coffee before my trip to the wilds, I headed off to Zimmerman’s to search for a few interesting roasts to tide me (and my readers) over.

Zimmerman’s has its own proprietary coffee roasting operation called Rose Garden Coffee. Zimmerman’s is proud of the fact that they roast it Continental Style. Continental roasting heats the beans to slightly higher than the norm for a medium roast. The roasting process is halted when the desired color is reached for the beans by quenching them with water immediately. This leaves the beans with a lovely sheen and often a characteristic caramelization. It’s a bit less dense and rich than a high roast (which uses an even higher temperature). The House Blend (which I got for Christmas) is emblematic of a continental roasting style. It’s rich and buttery; exactly what I tend to favor. Thus, I was curious to see what variations on that theme were available, and got two new roasts.

First up was the Colombian. It was ground coffee rather than whole bean. Right out of the proverbial box, I knew this roast would be different. Upon opening the bag and smelling the grounds (this was a ground coffee), I made out the unmistakable signature of citrus or a floral bouquet remarkably close to citrus. That’s rare among Colombian coffees. There was also a robust chocolate quality, which is far more characteristic. After brewing it, the citrus notes dissolved into a barely-there fragrant quality. I could taste virtually none of the fruity power (or even the chocolate) present in the scent. Instead, the brew left me with a creamy, almost malt-like quality. That’s a quality consistent with what I would call some of the most drinkable Colombian roasts. I brewed it twice to ensure that this wasn’t in my imagination. It was not. What an odd effect! One caveat: Use a lot of it in the filter. Ground for ground, it’s lighter than I expected.

Next came a pure Guatemalan. The presentation here was almost the complete opposite of the previous roast. It was a whole bean coffee, and I could hardly smell anything distinctive. It smelled like…coffee. I ground it for 15 seconds (perhaps not enough), and heaped the grounds into the filter. Even without adding cream, a distinct smoothness accompanied a clear and present nut-like taste, or perhaps a caramel. It was less enzymatic than the Colombian and more classically Central American, but in a somewhat muted form. Fun fact: Milk doesn’t usually wash out the caramelized palette of a continental roast. That’s why continental roasts often find a home in lattes and other drinks meant to be as creamy as possible.

Both of these roasts make fantastic breakfast blends. Both are undoubtedly mellow. That was unexpected, given the power and forwardness of the house blend…a blend that might just be my favorite bagged coffee thus far (tied with Appalachian Mountain Coffee to the northwest). Both the grounds and beans were lighter than I’d expected for a continental roast, so I think they might have erred on the side of caution here and reined themselves in a bit in pursuit of general drinkability. I get that. Most people prefer a more delicate flavor, especially in their morning coffee, and especially if the roast is part of a fancy drink like cappuccino. In that case, the delicate caramel notes would bolster the chocolate.

Bottom line: I enjoyed both coffees, but their glorious House Blend takes my prize for everyday drinking. Note: These craft-roasted brews are nine dollars and change for a practically bursting bag. That’s amazing. Not getting wrecked at the cash register by coffee costs is a new experience. Let’s hear it for local roasters like these who put people first.

Prepare for several new posts over the next two weeks as I digest my epic trip into The Wilds. At some point soon, I might add several more pics of Zimmerman’s on this segment. Until then, stay caffeinated!

the first brew…

the second brew…

the shop…