Aomi Coffee – Andes Mountain

May 26th, 2020 | Posted by Laevateinn in Coffee | Coffee and Sweets - (0 Comments)

This week’s coffee is a light roast Andes Mountain coffee roasted on May 26th. Andes Mountain is in Ecuador. I am not sure which company/plant they sourced this coffee from. It is listed as a light, refreshing coffee with slightly sweet and deep notes.

The Beans:

Smell  – The beans themselves are decently fragrant. The tail end is the more interesting part as it has a bit of charcoal and burning wood chip notes. Reminds me very much of a camp fire.

Taste – When eating a bean as is, more harsh charcoal notes are present. There is also some earthiness but it is hard to determine exact notes due to how strong the charcoal is. This is somewhat disappointing as this is something I associate more with darker roasts.

Brewing:

As these are very fresh beans, the off gassing of CO2 is very visible. A very proper bloom. The sweeter side of the charcoal and wood chip smell also starts to become more present. This is probably the first coffee I have made that gave me flash backs to camp fires to be honest and it’s surprisingly not off putting. The normal coffee notes people look for are also mostly there. The warm coffee smell is definitely present but very subtle compared to most coffee I have brewed.

Drinking!

Ah, the part of coffee that makes all the work of finding, grinding, and brewing worth it.

As expected, there is a heavy emphasis on the charcoal notes in this one. There are other flavors but the ending charcoal notes definitely override a lot of the more subtle flavors that can be found when initially taking a sip.

This is a very mild brew. The acidity is extremely subtle and makes for an easy cup to drink. There is also a decent amount of woody/earthy flavors that can be teased out on the tongue. There is even a slightly fruity/almost strawberry or tart cheery like taste hidden in there. Surprisingly deep considering how strong the charcoal flavor is.

One big thing that helps this particular cup is letting it cool down. After letting it cool down to the higher end of warm lets the more subtle flavors shine through to the point where there is a calm, vanilla like end note to the swallow.

Overall, this is an interesting cup of coffee. I think it would pair well with a little raw sugar or similarly earthy sweetener and a little cream. Not too much, just enough to help emphasize some of the sweeter notes over the charcoal/campfire notes.Otherwise, letting it cool down a bit and drinking it black is also a good option if one wants to taste the subtle flavors. It definitely goes from campfire to woody/earthy with a hint of berries at a lower temperature. Given how mild it is, this is a very easy cup to drink.

I would not give it super high scores compared to some of the other fresh beans I have tried but it is a decent cup. 7-7.5/10 I would say. Of course this is a much better cup than most things you can get at the supermarket or even quite a few coffee shops. Having super fresh roasted beans is a luxury and one I plan to exploit fully.

Aomi Coffee – HQC 100% Kona

May 13th, 2020 | Posted by Laevateinn in Coffee | Coffee and Sweets - (0 Comments)

The first coffee I will be looking at is a bit of a surprise find for me. The shop that I mentioned in my introduction post carries green, non-blended Kona coffee beans. I’ve bought Kona beans in Hawaii from a reputable store in the past but it was a blend and it was a dark roast. I wanted to see if the more pungent flavors I tasted from the dark roast beans was due to the dark roast or not.

The beans I bought were roasted that day, May 13th, so as fresh as you can get. Leagues above the Kona beans you get from Amazon or most other online shops. The green beans are apparently sourced from Hawaiian Queen Coffee. The coffee itself is the Extra Fancy line from HQC, their highest priced coffee, along with the Peaberry line.

The Beans:

Smell -The beans do have a very earthy aroma. There is some notes of charcoal there as well despite the lighter roast. Unfortunately, so far I don’t get that pungent smell just yet.

Taste – The beans taste very much like soil smells. A very interesting taste. I can start to get the pungency I was looking for earlier.

Brewing:

Not much additional to notes came out when brewing the coffee. There was a touch of that ash in the aromas. One thing that was interesting was the bloom. It was a very subtle bloom so not a lot of CO2. The final smell, once everything had time to settle a bit, did start showing a little more character, a very pungent and almost sour smell.

Taste:

I first want to address the pungent taste. Kona coffee has a very distinct taste that matches my previous encounter with it. It has a very deep, earthiness that reminds me a bit of a matchstick or firework smoke. My theory is that this is due to the richness of the volcanic soil, which gives it a very unique personality. Because it is such a distinct flavor, I think I would be able to guess a Kona coffee from others even though I am on an amateur level.

A lot of people seem to describe this coffee as chocolatey. I did not find it very chocolatey due to how pungent it was. It has some of the bitterness of dark chocolate but it’s not enough for me to call it chocolatey. Instead, I think more of a ripe, acidic and sour fruit along with the very deep earthy, almost phosphorus like taste. It is definitely an experience and is very unique.

In more personal terms, I find it a little lacking in balance and taste overall. While very unique, it doesn’t have a flavor profile that I would consider drinking as a treat. And it is a treat level coffee. I paid 2700 Yen for 100 grams. That is part of the price I pay for getting guaranteed Kona beans as well as freshly roasted beans. This coffee is one of those things I am glad I had the chance to try and find the experience very valuable but also something I probably won’t seek out again.

For me, this would be a 6-6.5 out 10 level coffee. If it was the choice between this and, say, a more premium Blue Mountain , Kilimanjaro, or Colombian coffee, I would pick one of the others over the Kona. However, if you have a chance to try the Kona Coffee and want to, give it a go. There is definitely a crowd for the flavors in Kona coffee and I am can see part of the appeal. I just prefer more light, refreshing style coffees compared to the deep, pungent, slightly rough flavors you get in the Kona.