Kansas City is a bit of a coffee enigma. My first round of coffee research in anticipation of heading here turned up several potentially good spots. This initial scan surprised me. After all, the fact that Calvin Trillin has turned this city into a heart-stopper culinary tour has little bearing on the coffee, and I generally don’t have high hopes for coffee in Midwestern cities.* As I began to dig a little deeper, however, I discovered that much of that good coffee promised appeared to be an illusion. The PT’s cafe out in Overland Park that I was so excited about? Closed. Espresso dell’Anatra which I read so much about? Also, closed. It seems there’s a decent amount of desire to provide good coffee in Kansas City, but something lacking when it comes to the population’s actual demand.
Fortunately, I remembered that Kansas City is home to The Roasterie, whose coffees have scored well in the past on sites like Coffee Review and include many Cup of Excellence selections. The cafe, located in Kansas City’s cute, and well-off Brookside neighborhood, also has a Clover machine. These indicators are all tell-tale signs of promising coffee. The Roasterie Cafe quickly made the top of my list.
Situated adjacent to a business district strip, the Roasterie offers ample seating situated throughout various sections of the cafe. On one end, sit some black leather chairs while the other end has wooden benches. In the middle are various wooden tables and chairs, some seated next to garage doors that presumably open when the weather is nicer. This expansive seating sits under exposed duct work and ceiling fans that resemble airplane propellers. You’ll notice pretty quickly that aviation history has been adopted as this roaster’s theme from the deco font and prop plane artwork used on the packaging to the enormous DC-3 mural staring at you as you walk in the front door.
The coffee menu immediately impressed me. In addition to shots of their Super Tuscan espresso blend pulled on (one of two) three group La Marzocco GB/5s, the Roasterie offers several filter coffee options with a variety of blends and single origin coffies. You have a choice of a rotating, Fetco-brewed coffee or your choice of bean brewed via French Press or on the Clover. In a real bit of menu genius, the Roasterie brews multiple sizes of Clover brewed coffee, including 8, 12, 16 and 20 oz cups. I could do without the larger sizes, but being able to order a smaller 8 oz cup for $2 is terrific and creates a financially viable way to create do-it-yourself Clover-brewed flights of different coffees.
Over several visits, I gave the menu a good run through.
I start off with a Decaf Colombia Pitalito on the Clover, which was decent darker decaf with some nice brighter notes. Nothing special, but good for a decaf (3).
I found the Honduras COE Finca El Triunfo, also on the Clover, less exciting than I would have liked given its COE credentials. It was dark and spicy with some notes of bark and savory, woody herbs. I cant say I loved it and even picked up on some soapy notes in a couple of sips, but overall found it above average and full of complexity that just didn’t come together. (3-)
I finished my Clover trifecta (a confusing phrase these days) with a cup of the Bali Tri Hita Karana, a naturally processed coffee. This coffee was a nice, not too overpowering natural with notes of chocolate and blueberry as well as some fragrant pear. This full-bodied coffee was dark, heavy and sweet. (3+)
I liked the Tuscan espresso best. It was sweet and sour with notes of caramel and sugar and a solid burst of lemon. It leaned slightly towards roasty, but in a good way. (4-)
In the end, I wasn’t wowed by The Roasterie’s coffees like I wanted to be, especially given the range of choice. They seemed like good quality beans with lots of potential, but were generally too dark for my preference. The culprit, I suspect, is The Roasterie’s approach – air-roasting – which I’ve found can produce some really stellar espresso, but which I tend to think falls short as a roasting method for filter coffees. I’ll readily admit that my experience with different roasting methods is limited so this may not be the culprit, but either way, I think the coffee could be roasted in a way to more fully bring out the character of the bean. That said, the Roasterie is well worth a detour if you find yourself in Kansas City.
*As a former Midwesterner, I’m entitled to make such disparaging remarks.
Name: Joe the Art of Coffee
Location: 44 Grand Central Terminal, Graybar Passage, New York, NY
Roasters: Ecco Caffe
Rating: 3+/4- (depending on the time of day)
My previous post on Joe…er wait…that’s Joe the Art of Coffee said most of what I needed to say about what this micro-chain of cafes represents to New York City. Cafes in these parts, however, seem to want to regularly redefine themselves by switching roasters, much like Madona or Lady Gaga regularly change personae. Ninth Street Espresso and City Girl Cafe, for instance, have both made that change, and it seems likely that New Yorkers will see this changing more frequently as other New York roasters, such as Cafe Grumpy, and new-to-New-York roasters, such as Blue Bottle, come fully online. Last fall, Joe switched from long-time roaster Barrington Coffee Roasters to the West Coast’s own Ecco Caffe.
The transition to Ecco created quite a flurry in the coffee blogosphere (1,2,3,4,5,6,7). The move was generally met with what I’d call reluctant excitement. I can’t speak for others, but my feelings on the matter are that I like Barrington, but prefer Ecco. Still, a part of me is sad. With Barrington only up in Massachusetts, it’s still a semi-local roaster. Unless Ecco also opens a roastery in New York (a rumor that’s basically been squelched with Ecco’s planned relocation to San Francisco), Joe’s switch represents a (small) step backwards when it comes to embracing local roasters.
In the past, I’ve been to 4 out of 5 Joes and desperately need to thoroughly canvass the other shops, but time this trip was short. Instead of heading to one of Joe’s more seminal spots, I picked the one that was most convenient – the Grand Central Terminal kiosk. I wouldn’t ordinarily pick this location to showcase Joe’s coffee, but I’ve found them to be reliably good in the past.
Staff at this location pull shots of Joe’s seasonal espresso blend espresso on their tiny two-group La Marzocco GB/5. For filter coffee, they serve all-day cups of Joe’s House Blend, brewed in a Fetco and stored in a thermal carafe. If you get there before 11, which I didn’t, they also serve a rotating single origin coffee.
The House blend is nice enough for a darker roasted coffee. It was nutty, clean and smooth. I’d easily drink it again, but while there was nothing to disturb me, it had nothing to offer either. It’s the perfect passive coffee. (3-)
What’s too bad about Grand Central Joe is that they don’t serve any single origin coffees past 11. I’ve had many of Ecco’s single-origin coffees and they are typically very good. I can see why this location may not want to keep a second pot on hand, but this Joe should provide a pour-over option like many of the other Joes do. If such an option had been available, I would have almost certainly given this Joe a 4.
The big redemption was that the espresso was excellent. I’d say it was the best shot I had on this trip to New York. (4) It was like a super sweet lemonade espresso, full of that west-coast brightness that I don’t always like, but which worked exceedingly well in this shot. To counter the bright intensity, I picked up on some cocoa and herbal notes, and despite them, I detected something floral. I know salt is often considered a defect, but this shot seemed to have some pleasant saltiness, which accentuated the chocolate notes like it might do for a caramel. I’ll try to resist pointing out that this excellent coffee came from the west coast (oops, I just did).
The bottom line. Get to Joe for the espresso, but get to this Joe early if you want a cup of coffee. Just remember, though, that caffeine, like candy, is no substitute for serious nutrition. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.
The bane of any espressophile’s existence are those highly popular, cute little capsules of pre-ground coffee known as pods, which completely remove all elements of craft from the espresso-making experience. The argument goes, that you might was well robotize a chef or replace an artisan with a machine if you’re thinking about replacing the barista with a pod. The nuances and variables at work in making a good espresso are still well beyond the systematization and scientific control that pods profess to offer.
While there is wealth of well-established anti-pod reasoning that is replicated across the internet, I still feel somewhat obliged to inform and mildly proselytize against the espresso abomination that pods represent, primarily because they are so popular and increasingly wide-spread. A quick summary of the major strikes against pods is as follows:
The coffee contained within is pre-ground and often quite old. Even in its hermetically sealed, oxygen free state, coffee ages rapidly and the coffee in pods can’t compare to a comparable freshly roasted, freshly ground coffee.
The quality of the coffee inside pods is rarely on par with the world’s better coffees. Perhaps it’s a chicken and egg problem – customers demanding higher quality shop elsewhere lessening the demand for higher quality coffee. But even if you suddenly saw Intelligentsia beans in a pod (God forbid), the quality would be less as per item 1.
Pods can’t account for the tremendous number of variables involved in making good espresso. Espresso is a fickle beast and takes great care and attention. Pods have done a lot to remove the worst offenses from the process but don’t allow someone to coax out the best.
Pods are expensive and produce even more waste than the typical espresso. At 50 cents or more a shot, pods get expensive and the packaging is troubling from an environmental perspective (not that coffee isn’t already a little troubling in this regard already – just look up water consumption and energy involved to make a cup of coffee).
Still, there must be some appeal to pods, right? Otherwise, they wouldn’t be such a hot commodity. The bottom line is that pods are often an improvement given that home espresso is an undertaking that rarely produces a worthwhile outcome except amongst the most committed and obsessive individuals out there. And heck, there are a lot of cafes and providers of “coffee”, where the final product is pretty poor. Pods standardize and idiot-proof the process of espresso-making for those who haven’t, can’t or won’t give the time, equipment or training investment need to get good espresso.
But even if pods have some redeeming value, they hardly seem to produce the type of coffee that this blog sets to seek out. My limited pod experience with an occasional Keurig in an hotel room or with free samples of Nespresso at Williams-Sonoma certainly leave me wanting something more. What I needed, though, was an official, blog-worthy single sampling of pod coffee that would allow me either to make a hasty generalization that all pods are bad, or otherwise rock my world with the realization that I had been unfairly dogmatic towards these capsules of suspended coffee grounds. Nespresso bills itself as an elite product and garners much praise (and ridicule) in the pod world and seemed a suitable target for my sampling. After all, George Clooney shills serves as Nespresso’s “brand ambassador.” This is a man so rich that he could hire his own barista. If he’s endorsing the product, then it’s got to be good, right?**
I therefore headed to ritziest location I could think of – the Upper East Side Nespresso cafe Boutique, which is surely one of the most expensive pieces of coffee real estate known to man. Situated right on Madison avenue, the cafe is vast compared to most New York City cafes, which should signal something about the economics of this particular business. You have to wonder whether the combined food and beverages sales come even close to paying for the rent. Indeed, the back half of the shop is a showroom and demo area. The goal of this operation appears to be to get a Madison Avenue demographic to buy a machine, which then locks you in to the use of Nestle’s line of proprietary pods, which don’t work on other pod machines. It’s the old “give them the razor so they buy the blades.”
I stepped inside and sat down at the bar with my nephew who promptly ordered a hot chocolate. That drink was actually quite good – using two kinds of real chocolate – so long as you don’t mind paying over $5 for a 5 oz drink. In fact, high prices seemed to be the theme as I glanced through the menu at the 16 different espresso pod options. A pod shot costs either $4 or $4.50, which is a bewildering figure when the going rate for espresso at most New York cafes is $2-3. That’s an even more bewildering gap when you consider the waiter at the Nespresso store merely drops a capsule into a machine. That $2-3 espresso at another cafe includes a barista (hopefully) grinding and pulling your shot.
The menu consists of 16 pod options or “Grand Crus”: seven standard blends; three “pure origin” coffees; three blends specifically designed for Lungo, or long shots; and three decaffeinated blends. Why it is that Nestle calls these options “Grand Crus” is a bit of a mystery since the term refers to the region or terroir of the land from which a coffee (or more often wine) comes. Since most of these options are blends, which consist of coffees from different areas, a single pod doesn’t really relate to a single Grand Cru. Then again, many of the pod names are confusingly named after a mix of tempo markings (Arpeggio), geographic locations (Livanto) and styles, not blends, of espresso (Ristretto).
After all that menu critiquing, I opted for the Rosabaya Pure Origin. As single origin coffees are often finicky, this may not have been the most fair test of Nestle’s espresso, but for some reason, the description of this coffee attracted me more than the others. It was also pricier and seemed like one that should be pretty easy to tell if it arrived as promised. Besides, I wrote to Nespresso to give them an opportunity to guide me through their coffees. They wrote back that I’d be welcome to stop in to any store and try them myself, or possibly arrange for a guided visit with an individual store on my own. I therefore figured that I was entitled to whatever customer intuition I had. I apparently haven’t yet achieved George Clooney status.
The results? I have to say, up front, that this was not the terrible espresso I was bracing for. It had a syrupy mouthfeel and certainly the promised winey notes along with some cocoa and a slightly sour tone. The crema was thin and light, but endured reasonably well. It wasn’t quite as off-colored as it appears in the photo above, which was taken under the red, bar-area lighting. It was a decent, if slightly flat-flavored shot with a slightly musty aftertaste that had me debating whether to give it a 3- or simply a 2+.
All in all, this espresso wasn’t bad and I’d gladly drink a shot of this over much of the so-called espresso out there. But the $4.50 price is inexcusable given the lack of work involved in making it. In the right context (maybe an office, home or a gas station), I’d probably drink it again, but I can’t recommend the cafe. And, if this shot is indicative of pod quality more broadly, then I’d say that human-made espresso is still very, very safe.
**Oh wait. George Clooney was getting paid for his adds, has no obvious credentials as someone knowledgeable about coffee, and he signed up for a string of commercials that would only be shown in Europe.
This post is sorely overdue. I say this because I frequent Modern Coffee and have frequently recommended it to friends. I say this because the coffee is good. I say this because Modern’s rotating, truly multi-roaster menu is rare – almost non-existent – in the industry. But most importantly, I say this because despite these things and despite the fact that Modern has been open for almost 6 months, I’ve so far failed to write a review.
One justification I make for my procrastination is that I wanted to give Modern a little time to settle into a routine. Owners Robert and Kristen, two Peet’s veterans, opened the doors without the usual cafe planing and build-out extravaganza we’re used to reading about these days. As I understand it, they picked up the keys on a Wednesday, slapped on coat of paint over the weekend and were serving coffee by the following Monday morning. Regulars of Crema, the Illy wholesale client which used to occupy this space and which moved to the old Primo’s kiosk off the 12th Street BART station, had to do a double-take when they stepped inside for their Monday morning coffee.
Since opening, and even since taking these photos, Modern Coffee has continued to evolve and develop. Robert and Kristen have added shelves, tables, decorations and a chalkboard wall menu. They’ve acquired their line of demitasses, custom mugs and t-shirts with the Modern logo. They’ve added grinders, begun selling brewing equipment and beans and finally settled into something of a semi-regular rotating menu of different coffees and roasters.
To get down to brass tacks, though, the real reason that I’ve failed to post on Modern Coffee is that I had to find the right tone for a cafe about which I’ve lost objectivity. You see, I frequent Modern with some abandon and have gotten to know Robert and Kristin along the way. Not to say that this was hard. They are probably some of the most down to earth and completely approachable people I’ve met when it comes to the-wave-of-coffee-that-must-not-be-named. Hopefully, though, the fact that I buy all my own coffee and spend so much time there out to count for something. At the very least, I figure I’m qualified to provide you with some insight into this fairly unique operation.
What sets Modern apart? It expands on the idea of the multi-roaster cafe as it has typically been practiced in the Bay Area. Places like Cafe 504, Mojo Bicycle Cafe and Haus offer an espresso by one roaster and filter coffee by another. Modern ratchets this experience up one notch, serving both espresso and filter coffee from multiple roasters on a rotating schedule. The usual suspects include Verve, Four Barrel and Ecco Caffe, but you’re likely to find at least a few quality coffees in the shop from other roasters such as Ritual, Barefoot, De La Paz and This Joy+Ride. Sometimes bags of these coffees are for sale and other times they rotate into the brewing cycle.
On any given day, Modern offers you a choice of two espresso blends (in addition to Four Barrel’s decaf), with shots pulled on their La Marzocco GB/5. The exact line-up rotates weekly, but typically includes any two of Verve’s Street Level and Sermon blends, Four Barrel’s espresso, or Ecco Caffe’s regular or reserve espressos. The menu, at least so far, doesn’t include any single origin espressos.
For filter coffee, you have two choices. You can chose what is usually a single origin coffee or sometimes a blend that is brewed in a Fetco brewer and stored in a thermal carafe. This coffee rotates regularly throughout the day. You can also have Robert or Kristen brew-to-order your choice of whatever bean they have in the store via an Abid Clever Coffee Dripper.
I won’t get too specific in my reviews of individual coffees since the variety and range is so huge and since I’ve consumed too many cups to pick just one. Overall, though, my experience is that both espresso and filter coffee quality is very high. The shots I had last fall of Verve’s Street Level espresso, for instance, were easily better than those I had in Verve’s own cafe, and the cup of Ecco’s Colombia auction lot coffee I had brewed for me on the Abid was absolutely stellar (both clearly a 4). But even the Four Barrel espresso, which I tend to like less and any of the Fetco brewed coffees, which I tend to like less in other cafes, are consistently good here. I find it difficult to pin myself down, but I’d be hard-pressed to rank any coffee I’ve had from Modern as falling below a 3 with most coffees ranging between a 3+ and solid 4.
If there’s a weakness to Modern, I suppose it’s in the organic development of the shop, something I find hard to fault as it mirrors this own blog’s development. Their slow build out approach means that stepping into the shop may lack some of the splendor of stepping into a much-hyped new branch of Intelligentsia, Stumptown, or Blue Bottle. Robert and Kristen’s Mom and Pop approach to business – getting to know their regular customers and caring about what their customers think – can also be deceiving. The result of this low-key approach is that Modern Coffee may be a force that’s easy to miss.
But don’t be mislead into thinking that this cafe isn’t employing a concept to be reckoned with. Although it does so in its own quiet way, Modern is paving the way for a new model of cafe similar to other higher profile spots out there such as Billy Wilson’s Barista and Jay Caragay’s Project Hampden out in Baltimore. These three cafe – there’s no others that I can think of – are not beholden to a particular roaster and can offer customers a chance to taste some of the best the industry has to offer. Bay Area residents, the next generation of coffee bar has arrived.
As the New York coffee turf battle continues, it seems not unsurprising that Ground Support, an Intelligentsia account, opened up just around the corner from City Girl Cafe, server of Stumptown coffee. I suppose the only question is why it took Ground Control, open for only half a year, so long to do so. City Girl has been serving Stumptown for over a year and served Counter Culture before that. Of course, given the path taken by other cafes such as Ninth Street Espresso with regard to roasters, it seems like City Girl could very well be on a trajectory of becoming an Intelligentsia wholesale client by sometime in 2011.
I don’t know if Ground Support and City Girl provide something of a window into the brief history of specialty coffee in New York City and how that movement has affected design, but compared to Ground Support’s more slick approach, City Girl seems to reflect something more of New York cafes of yore. The tables are the standard marble top variety, the wood bar is unassuming, the display cases seem ordinary and the overall vibe is far from eye catching. There are nice touches like the crystal chandelier, the deco girl paintings and statues, and the large coffee cup shingle hanging above the door. Overall, though, City Girl resembles a tricked out version of a typical New York City cafe that happens to serve better than typical coffee along with homemade baked goods.
City Girl staff pull Hair Bender shots on their three group La Marzocco Linea. I wasn’t too impressed with this particularly long shot of Hair Bender. It had some good chocolate notes and wasn’t bitter but it lacked the depth and nuance this blend can have at its best. Instead it struck me as a bit heavy, leaning towards musty. (3-)
I was excited to see City Girl offers up a real range of filter coffees, with three different choices caffeinated choices. I believe they brew these on a Fetco (please correct me if I’m wrong) and store the coffee in air pots. I opted for the Colombia El Jordan, which was a nice nutty coffee, clean with some lime acid notes. It was generally a good, but unremarkable coffee (3).
City Girl represents a class of New York cafe a bit like Blue Spoon or The Brooklyn Standard, which somehow inevitably falls short for me. These places do a decent, but somehow substandard job with a high quality coffee product and due to the oddities of New Yorker myopia are likely a welcome addition on their own block despite the availability of better coffee right near by. The power of this myopia is not to be overlooked in a place like New York where many people consider a neighborhood other than their own something almost akin to a foreign country (many upper east/west-siders might scratch their head in confusion if you asked them when the last time was they had traveled to the other side of the borough). That said, a place like City Girl would be a great leap forward in many parts of the country or even many parts of this same city, like the Upper East side, which are nearly devoid of anything resembling a cup of coffee as good as this.
What works for a New York cafe when it comes to operating as a successful business is something of a mystery to me. There are countless coffee closets popping up precisely because the rent is so high, and then you stumble into a cafe like Ground Support, which is positively gargantuan by New York City standards. It’s even bigger when you count the courtyard that get’s taken over when the day isn’t the sort of blustery, frost-biting kind my nephew and I braved to get there.
Perhaps a place of Ground Support’s stature can survive because it meets some simply New Yorker expectations. Someone told me that New Yorkers still expect a cafe to have a sandwich. Ground Support delivers with a full menu of sandwiches and baked goods that up the ante over the usual lot (just see the menu photo below). Apparently then, there’s room for a spacious cafe as long as it bills itself as a lunch spot? Whatever it is, Ground Support seems to be making it work since they’ve been around now for over half a year.
Of course, it’s not only large. Ground Support’s space is well crafted and is clearly appealing to the up-scale adult crowd. The enormous, concrete bar supports pastries and treats up front then wraps around and runs the full length of the cafe. There is seating up front, specifically a bench perched just behind sliding doors which presumably open when it’s not bitter cold. There’s also several rustic wooden tables populating the skylit back section. Ground Support feels polished, clean, modern and comfortable and is simply a really nice place in which to enjoy a cup of coffee.
That coffee comes in a few varieties. Baristas pull Black Cat espresso from their three group La Marzocco Linea. My shot looked good with plenty of reddish, enduring crema. It was pleasantly creamy with bitter chocolate notes and a hint of anise. I need a better side by side comparison to know if my lack of enthusiasm had to do with Black Cat blasse or something about the quality. While I’d endorse this espresso it wasn’t over the top. (3+)
For filter coffee, Ground Support brews Intelligentsia’s House Blend in a Fetco brewer and stores it in thermal carafes. I’m pretty luke-warm on Intelligentsia’s house blend and feel like Ground Support may be trying too hard to fit those New Yorker expectations I spoke about early. It seems like they might be playing it safe with this option.
As though they could anticipate my potential complaint, Ground Support offers a brew-to-order Chemex option, and when I ordered, staff gave me a choice of the Colombia on the menu and a Pacamara Peaberry (which is from Nicaragua, I think). The Peaberry’s light, tea-like body formed a nice menu contrast to the Colombia, which can be sharp and full. The Peaberry was very bright, perhaps pushing sour, with some nice caramel sweetness underneath. (3+)
I suppose my major complaint about this coffee is the large quantity. Don’t be confused. I’m not commenting on Doug Zell’s recent post on coffee prices. I think the roughly $5 per 16 oz price is quite reasonable given that it was enough coffee for two. My issue is just that I think a customized cup of coffee ought to be fully customizable. As a mostly curmudgeonly misanthrope, I vastly prefer the 8 to 12 oz option. Fortunately, I was in a rarely outgoing frame of mind. I shared my coffee and didn’t even pick up the tab. Thank you friend.
The bottom line then is that Ground Support succeeds in raising the bar for the average New Yorker. It’s good coffee, good food and good atmosphere. It won’t make my top lists for New York but it is a worthwhile stop if your in that part of town.
The second coffee I ordered from Go Coffee Go was this Washed Ethiopia Amaro Gayo from Novo Coffee in Denver, whose Arvada and Denver Art Museum cafes (not to be confused with the kiosks inside the DAM) I last visited over two years ago. The Brodsky brothers source and roast consistently high quality coffees. They impressed me then and I hoped the same would still be true with this coffee.
I debated this order as well, opting for the washed Amaro Gayo rather than the sun-dried/natural/dry-processed version of the same coffee. Echoing the future cries of the coffee cognoscenti, I placed my order before I read Geoff Watt’s plea for fewer, if any, dry-processed coffees even though I probably find myself more closely agreeing with James Hoffman’s take on this particular issue – not all naturals are bad. Although sometimes overwhelming in larger quantities, it’s hard not to be impressed with a good natural. Still, I had some delicious washed Ethiopian coffees on my palate, such as Ecco Caffe’s Ethiopia Yergacheffe Dama Co-op, so I thought that Novo’s washed Amaro Gayo would be a fun comparison.
The coffee shipped out promptly, but due to the weekend and UPS delivery, didn’t arrive until 5 days post roast. Due to some work travel, I wasn’t able to actually get and open the bag until the coffee was 9 days old. This made me sad, but the coffee still seemed fine. It was no peas porridge in the pot.
While not quite as nuanced or as complicated as that Ecco Dama, it was still a very nice example of what coffee from Ethiopia can be. It was dry, crisp and delicate with notes of white sugar, peach, pineapple and some very subtle floral notes. I found it surprisingly thick, yet still clean and light.
A shot of this coffee as espresso didn’t work particularly well but highlighted some anise notes to the coffee, while brewing it via French Press and a Clever Coffee Dripper with gold cone filter highlighted some verbena. But as I do with most lighter roasted, washed Ethiopian coffees, I preferred this one with a Chemex filter (primarily in an Abid CCD) or in my siphon. Both methods really highlighted the delicate aspects of this coffee and didn’t overpower them with a heavier body.
I ordered two different coffees from Go Coffee Go on the same day. The first to arrive, in just 2 days, was my order of Belle Espresso from Klatch Roasters. A pretty good turn around time, although not entirely surprising given that Klatch is located in Southern California while my other coffee hailed from Denver.
You may know this company better by its former name (and former packaging/logos) Coffee Klatch. If that’s still not ringing a bell, this the roasting operation run by Mike and Heather Perry, best known for the awards they garnered at the 2007 World Barista Championship, when their espresso blend won the title of World’s Best Espresso and Heather Perry placed second in the competition (still, the highest that an American has ever placed).
I visited both of the Klatch coffeehouses almost two years ago now (a third cafe is scheduled to open this month). At the time, I was happy with the coffee but disappointed by the cafes. I had high expectations given the collective roasting and barista accolades this father/daughter team has earned. I never did get around to trying any of the coffee at home, which is probably the better venue to explore this roaster’s product, unless Klatch has improved the customer experience in the shops (which is quite possible given this lapse of time).
In ordering, I debated between the Belle espresso and the World’s Best Espresso. While the latter has a pretty stellar reputation, I figured such high marks combined with the inevitable changes to the formula that must have happened since 2007 (due to the seasonality of any coffee) wasn’t the kind of complexity in expectations I felt up to analyzing. Not that the Belle espresso has done poorly in the past. In 2006, this blend earned a more than respectable 94 on coffee review, a point the packaging still proudly displays (even though the beans used in this blend have long-since changed as well). In the end, I went with the Belle, mostly because I was in the mood for the richer, more luscious profile promised in the blurb by Go Coffee Go’s Professor Peaberry (and which I also read about on the Coffee Geek Boards).
The challenge with espresso is that shipping can sometimes be too fast. As a general rule, you should let espresso rest at least 4-5 days after roasting. It typically peaks in performance in the 5-9 day range. Ignoring this rule, I can often get passable, if slightly sharp and gassy tasting, shots. The Belle espresso on day three, however, was noticeably burnt tasting and heavy on char, which had me worried. The lesson here is that you shouldn’t even think of firing off a shot of Belle before day 5.
By that point, this espresso was coming into its own. The worst of the roasty qualities had nearly faded, yielding instead to a rich and creamy semisweet chocolate and caramel profile, just as promised. It grew better and the flavor peaked around days 7-9, but I found it still performing admirably several days longer than that. My notes also included and hint of berry, mint, cream, and a thick but still clean mouthfeel. This is not a bright espresso but neither is it heavy or smokey. It’s simply a very fine specimen of this breed of darker, sweeter, chocolate-centric espressos.
The Belle works well alone or in milk, exhibiting just enough nuance to keep things interesting while sticking to a fairly safe and comforting range of flavors. My limited experience with it as a french press produced a decent enough cup of coffee, but I’d keep to brewing it as espresso. The Belle won’t wow the espresso explorer with novel tastes, but it isn’t designed to. This espresso is a crowd pleaser and made this crowd of one quite happy.
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