Archive for the ‘Coffee of the Month’ Category
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31
Aug
2010
September’s Coffee of the Month – Colombian Reserve
This month, for the month of September only, we decided to pull out all the stops and feature a coffee that we haven’t featured in a couple years. — our Colombian Reserve! Our Colombian Reserve has many flavor characteristics and contains a subtle, fruit-like sweetness with a peanut-y tone in the finish. The coffee itself contains a perfectly balanced, medium body and we roast it to a milk chocolate color at a medium roast level.
Region Information:
Our Colombian Reserve comes from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountains (Snowy Mountain Range of Saint Martha) which is an isolated mountain range separated from the Andes that runs through Colombia’s Northern region, along the coast. At it’s highest point, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountains reach 5,700 meters above sea level. These mountains are the highest coastal mountain range in the world.
People:
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountains are home to the remnants of the native American Tairona Culture. The Arhuacos, one of four groups of the remnants left from the native American Tairona Culture, grow our Colombia Reserve coffee. As a people, their main economic activity is subsistence agriculture. Most of the Arhuacos people haven’t even had a chance to enjoy their coffee as it is grown specifically to be an export to bring money into their economy. In spite of an ever changing environment and many new projects in the area by the Colombian government, the Arhuacos resist modernizing and live life the way they have for many years.
Thanks for reading!
Dan Ericson
“Coffee Guru”
CICR
2
Aug
2010
August’s Coffee of the Month – Beach Brew
Beach Brew is back! This time, we’re showcasing our Sumatra Medium Roast which brings a richness of flavor unlike any other coffee. Sumatra coffees (as a general rule) tend to have a heavy, buttery body. Sumatra is easy to find, although high quality Sumatrans are harder to come by. Even so, many regard Sumatra coffee in general as a great dessert coffee due its natural richness.
Dark vs. Medium Roast (in regards to Sumatra coffee)
Many people only ever get to drink darkly roasted Sumatra. While Dark Sumatra is a great coffee and many, many people love it (especially our Dark Roast Organic Sumatra)… many would love the slightly lighter roast of a Sumatra Medium even more. The common thought is: Darker = Richer, and that has a truth to it; However, Lighter = Richer is also a true statement.
Here’s the best way to describe it. Roasting coffee to a darker degree does two things:
- Natural “Coffee Flavor” is baked out of the coffee more than lighter style roasts.
- “Roast Flavor” is increased due to the length of time in the roaster.
Many people really like one more than the other… or enjoy a balance of one to the other. I personally drift more towards lighter roasts because I just really enjoy tasting the flavor of the coffee bean. Many others like the darkness introduced in the roasting process and really enjoy having that added flavor characteristic. I always say “That’s what makes coffee so great! It appeals to everyones taste buds in some way.”
I find the Sumatra Medium Roast to be perfect for lighter roasted coffee drinkers like me… as well as people that enjoy the depth of darker roasts. The natural Sumatran richness coupled with a good, medium roasting level provides all the flavor necessary to thoroughly enjoy this wonderful dessert coffee – even if you can’t relegate it strictly to dessert!
Dan Ericson
“Coffee Guru”
CICR
30
Jun
2010
July’s Coffee of the Month – Guatemala Medium Roast
It’s back! Our acclaimed Guatemala Medium Roast is featured this month for all to enjoy! We do, of course, carry it year-round but many wait to enjoy it for those special months that we offer it as our Coffee of the Month!
Sweet and tangy citrus accents set this Guatemala coffee bean apart from the others. With distinct and distinguished flavor and aroma, this medium roast pleases the coffee lover with its complexity and colorful aromatic qualities.
Of course, most of our customers already know there is much more to our Guatemala than the great flavor. Our Guatemala Medium Roast is a wonderful Agros coffee. It’s my personal favorite, actually. From the village of Trapichitos in Guatemala, comes this wonderfully rich, full flavored, original Guatemala coffee bean.
Agros’ website gives us a little more insight:
Trapichitos
“Place of the Sugar Mills”
Nebaj, Quiché, Guatemala
Size: 635 acres
Population: 61 families
Founded: 2000
Also known as La Trinidad (the Trinity), Trapichitos is an Ixil community that has persevered through great challenges. Squeezed together for many years on just 25 acres of land, the original 85 families organized themselves to purchase land 25 minutes from their homes. After five frustrating years and many fruitless attempts to acquire land, the community approached Agros for assistance in April 2000. Agros had never worked with previously organized groups in the Ixil, thereby, presenting a new opportunity. With Agros’ support, local leaders finally had the financial backing to approach the landowner. The 635-acre tract of Trapichitos was purchased in November 2000
Read More: http://www.agros.org/ag/our-villages/guatemala/trapichitos/
I hope you enjoy what is my personal favorite of our coffee beans!
Dan Ericson
“Coffee Guru”
CICR
1
Jun
2010
June’s Coffee of the Month – Peru Dark Roast
Coffee is great all year long whether it’s hot or cold outside. The problem, however, is that sometimes you don’t want a hot cup of coffee when it is over 90 degrees outside. As an Arizona guy (grew up there), I find that hot weather makes iced drinks SO much better! That same hot weather also seems to make hot drinks harder to enjoy.
Well, I’ve got the solution for you! Peru Dark Roast is here to the rescue. The Peru bean is literally the perfect summer coffee. It’s light bodied and refreshing yet packs a delicious flavor. Complete with subtle, gentle fruit tones and a slight smokiness, our Peru Dark makes a great hot beverage in the morning and will continue to be your perfect companion throughout the day by pouring it over ice!
If you venture over to our coffee page, you’ll see that it’s described as: “One of the highest in elevation in the region, this Peru bean has sweet, fruity tones that lend towards a naturally sweet cup. Our Peru is our lightest bodied coffee which makes it a great choice for the coffee drinker that enjoys drinking lots of coffee yet doesn’t want to sacrifice in the flavor of the cup. This coffee is great anytime of the day and compliments many meals.”
At CICR, we get so caught up in coffees that have a “strength” in flavor or provide the drinker with a “rich” cup of coffee, that the Peru often gets overlooked. Peru, while not having that super heavy flavor, has a wonderfully mellow tone. We always market it as our “guzzling” coffee but it’s also a wonderful compliment to food. When I’m eating a meal, I want my coffee to taste great, but not compete with what I’m enjoying. This Peru’s natural sweetness only goes to compliment the meal rather than combat it.
Enjoy this wonderful summer coffee!
Dan Ericson
“Coffee Guru”
CICR
31
Mar
2010
April’s Coffee of the Month – Guatemala Medium Roast and Ethiopia Reserve
Last month we brought back a yearly favorite and also introduced you to the name “PapuaMatra”, that we use to reference that awesome coffee at CICR. For April, we’re bringing you another coffee blend that received quite a warm welcome last year.
We also have a fun roasting name for it, although it’s a bit more awkward to say – “Guatetopia”. Our Guatetopian coffee is a fun melding of a Central American favorite with one of our African reserves.
Our Ethiopian brings a distinct blueberry-like fruitiness to the combo while the Guatemalan rounds the flavor with a steady base and a slight citrus tone. It’s an amazing, “odd couple” combination that leaves us all wishing it were around all throughout the year.
Our wonderful Trapichitos Guatemalan bean has more than a great flavor to it. It’s the first coffee CICR has carried that has a direct connection to our relationship with Agros. Check out this link to read about Agros’ work in Trapichitos. The country of Guatemala is bordered by Mexico to the north, Belize to the northeast, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast. It is known for having some of the most desirable coffees in the Americas with its high elevation coffees being among the hardest beans available (dense coffee is GOOD coffee).
For more about our Guatemalan coffee’s taste profile, check our our coffee description on our blog at this link: http://cicrblog.com/coffee/coffee/guatemala/.
Our Ethiopian coffee is one of our two current reserve coffees. The reserves are harder coffees for us to come by for one reason or another. We offer them because they add a flavor nuance to our coffee offering list that our other coffees miss. The Ethiopian is among my favorite coffee choices as it has an extremely distinct blueberry tone that really gives this coffee a uniqueness all to itself. As I type this description from home, I’m sipping a french pressed cup of Ethiopian and I have to add… it’s hard to concentrate on what I’m typing!
For more info on our Ethiopian coffee, check out our description on our website: http://www.camanoislandcoffee.com/buy-coffee-online/ethiopian-coffee-roasters.html
This is perhaps my personal favorite combo as it has both of my favorite French Press beans and I’m a big French Presser! It makes awesome drip as well so I’m pretty much covered whether I’m at the roaster or at home. This coffee is a deal at the standard price too! If you like it, make sure you get your fill of it this month and enjoy the deal because next month, the mix is only available if you buy both the Guatemala Medium Roast and also purchase the Ethiopia Reserve coffee at its full reserve price!
Enjoy!
Dan Ericson
“Coffee Guru”
CICR
1
Mar
2010
March’s Coffee of the Month – Papua New Guinea Medium Roast and Sumatra Medium Roast
Our fun blend of Sumatra Medium Roast and Papua New Guinea Medium Roast has been a yearly favorite by many. Just typing this, I can think of a dozen customers that get excited every time we bring this special blend back. At the Roaster, we’ve lovingly dubbed this coffee as “PapuaMatra”.
Usually we are a straight “Varietal Roaster”, meaning that we sell coffees that are only from a single country of origin (with the exception of our Varietal Supremo espresso). One of the reasons I enjoy our “Coffee of the Month” is for the shear joy of exploring great coffee pairings. As usual, we only try to make very easily replicated blends so our customers can enjoy this at home.
The profile of this coffee is an interesting, yet perfect blend of flavors and nuances that make this coffee as unique as it is interesting. Both Papua New Guinea and Sumatra are Indonesian countries and enjoy similar weather systems. This lends towards the compatibility of the two beans. The Sumatra coffee brings a full, rich, nutty base with a subtle dried fruit tone into the mix with a rich chocolate overtone found in our ever-popular Papua New Guinea. The result is this heavenly blend!
On a fun side note, the artwork on this Month’s coffee label is a new painting HOT off the press by a local artist out here, John Ebner. He’s actually a pretty well known artist and his work is amazing. This is the 4th label made from his artwork that we’ve done. I encourage you to check out his other paintings. His website is www.johnebner.com.
For those who’ve been waiting, it’s finally back! For those that haven’t tried this yet, you’re in for a treat! I know you’ll enjoy our “PapuaMatra” coffee immensely!
Dan – CICR
