Due to the Kopi Luwak incident, I found myself wanting some good coffee. Normally I try to keep only one bag around but, given the flavor profile of the Kopi Luwak, I needed my good coffee fix.

Today’s coffee comes from Mexico. I think this is the first time I’ve had a Mexican coffee. Similar to a lot of the previous coffee’s I’ve tried from Aomi, the main flavor profile they list is “Refreshing”. It’s described as, unsurprisingly, a very honey like coffee.

The background of the coffee is interesting. Grown near Oaxaca, the beans are selected, refined, and blended over the course of various tests. They check and re-check each level of the process in order to try and create the perfect blend of beans. The beans are then dried on Petate sheets. Petate sheets are made from the key thatch palm and are used for a variety of things in South America, including sleeping pads and drying of various grains, fruit, and other perishables. It is said that some of the flavor profile of the beans is due to this very traditional drying method.

The Beans:

Smell – Very interesting smell. Strong wheat and grass notes to the beans. Quite pleasant on the nose. Gives me high hopes for the coffee.

Taste – These are some good beans to eat. The front is very mellow and soft, with a roasted wheat taste coming out. The flavor transforms after the initial bite to a slight bitterness then some good wild berry-like flavors come through. I would not mind eating these on their own just as a snack. Here’s hoping the actual coffee matches the beans in deliciousness.

Minor update, I ended up doing something I normally don’t do. I ended up sucking on one of the beans just because I had a few in front of me. The honey flavor is really strong when just sucking on the bean instead of biting down on it. Very interesting indeed.

The Brewing:

Ah, this coffee had a very satisfactory level of bloom. Basically doubled in size from the off gassing. I love to see and hear it.

Drinking

No real strong smell to the coffee itself. Not surprising. It’s only now that I am chronicling my coffee journey that I’ve noticed how generic the main coffee smell is. The actual smell I associate with coffee is the roasted bean smell. I wonder if they make a coffee bean cologne or similar?

The taste is very much roasted or caramelized nuts. There is an acidic and pungent twinge in the background that helps give it a more fuller flavor profile. Really smooth in the mouth. As with most light roast specialty coffees, it is lacking the more earthy, darker tones some might expect. This particular bean may benefit from a a medium roast to help pull out the toffee like flavors that are hovering in the background.

When allowed to cool to a warm, not quite hot temperature, some of the more nutty flavors come out with a lot less sweetness to the edges. A very standard, good coffee flavor. It loses some of its specific traits but it also comes through as a nice, good, solid coffee. I put it that way because sometimes I don’t want to think about the very specific, delicate tastes or analyze a coffee to death. Going too far can ruin the fun. That’s partially why I stopped measuring and go by eye/gut when making coffee.

When cooled to a more lukewarm temperature, the bitterness intensifies quite a bit. The tang of metal is also present. Not bad to be honest. For those who don’t mind the sharper taste, letting the coffee “age” a little is not a problem.

All in all thought, this is a very good cup of coffee, especially coming off of the Kopi Luwak. The cost of these beans was 810 yen for 100 grams, roughly 7-8ish US dollars. As such, from both a taste point of view and a price-performance ratio, I can definitely say I enjoyed this cup of coffee. It may become one of my regulars once I finish going through all of Aomi’s selection.

9/10

I am going to preface this one with a general note. I did not actually intend to get these beans. It was my fault for not reading the label properly. I do not recommend or condone the current Kopi Luwak coffee trade and would say to steer clear of the trade in general.

Kopi Luwak, also called cat poop coffee. Coffee cherries are eaten by civets, partially digested, and pooped out. This process allows enzymes to mellow out the harsher flavors and acidity of the coffee beans and create a reportedly great cup of coffee.

When this type of coffee was first discovered, this may have been true. Now, the story is different. Instead of letting civets naturally eat the coffee cherries at their own pace and intermingled with a proper diet, companies are capitalizing on the hype and capture civets for mass production. These civets are fed a steady diet of various coffee cherries at various states of ripeness, destroying the civets diet in the process. Quite a few factors here mean that the flavor Kopi Luwak is known for doesn’t exist in the modern world. And, doesn’t need to exist in the modern world now that we’ve gotten so much better at coaxing out the finer flavors of coffee in general.

For more information on this topic, I suggest looking up the Cut the Crap campaign, or the various BBC or National Geographic articles on the subject:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/04/160429-kopi-luwak-captive-civet-coffee-Indonesia/
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-24034029

For the coffee itself, it was at least interesting to see what the hype is about and get a feel for if the result is desirable or not.

The Beans:

Smell – Very nutty. Reminds me of peanuts with a little bit of hazelnut in there. Not much else there. Pleasant enough though.

Taste – The beans have a very berry-like taste but it quickly becomes a more dry, flavorless texture. Interesting. Normally beans don’t lose their flavor as quickly as this one did. It may be do to how the enzymes affected the make up of the beans in general.

Brewing:

Very little CO2 off gassing even though they are freshly roasted. There is a thin, generic coffee smell when performing the pour over but very little specifics.

Drinking:

The main part, the big one. The whole reason the world requests this “rare” coffee in such large quantities. The first flavors are very light, almost metallic at first but not quite. No real specifics jump out at me. There is little to no acidity in this cup. Mellow. Almost tea-like in some aspects. Reminds me of a much less sophisticated a Port of Mokha coffee I had from Blue Bottle a while back. It has minor hints of sweet lemon and berries but very much on the edge of the flavor profile. It is really easy to drink but not super interesting or

It gets more generic if you let it cool down too much. The hints of flavors are washed away by the oddly acidity-lacking base coffee flavor.

All in all, this is much better than grocery store, most Starbucks, etc. But, it is a disappointment when compared to specialty coffees and even the Starbucks Clover specialty coffees. For the price, this is not worth it and there are many better, more nuanced coffees out there. If you are looking for a tea-like coffee, The Port of Mokha/Yemen coffee is the better luxury coffee choice in my opinion.

The Kopi Luwak comes in at 4320 yen for 100 grams, roughly 40 USD. It is priced high and the taste is just not worth it. Even if the coffee was produced humanely, still not worth it.

4/10