Beans

A little black book recording encounters with coffee

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Epic. Seasonal. Crafted

It’s been a while since I’ve had anything from Grumpy Mule, not for any reason other than I don’t see it that often and when I do it’s usually already ground.  However, this all changed at the London Coffee Festival where I met a guy who

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Jairo Astudillo Narvaez

Here’s a coffee I tried from Square Mile Coffee Roasters, which I didn’t write up when I was sampling it https://goo.gl/photos/GgjfqG5vEPvmEUQp8

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Suke Quto

Suke Quto is a washed coffee from Ethiopia from Origin. Notes of brilliant orange and honey, vibrant Bergamot tea, juicy red grapes and a slight ginger lift. This must be one of the freshest coffees I had!  As I write this, it was roasted a mere five days ago.  Coffee

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Finca Las Illusiones

Finca Las Illusiones Technically, this is a filter coffee and it’s prepared by grinding 19g of beans with 290g of water, brewed for 3minutes.  I did this and I got a crispy juicy coffee. I then put it through the Sage and got a smashing acidic coffee that mellows

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Coffee Subscriptions

I’m sure you’ve seen all the adverts for coffee subscriptions in papers and online social media. A friend of mine showed me one and he was anxious for me to join so that he could get a free grinder. I was a £1 so I thought why not?

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Coffee Architects Espresso

Coffee Architects Espresso Here’s a second bag of beans from Coffee Architects.  This is their espresso blend of beans, sourced mostly in Columbia and Rwanda.  Having spoilt myself on Origin Coffee recently, who tend to have very precise roasting as to bring out as many flavours as they can,

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Fazenda Pantano

Fazenda Pantano Origin Coffee Fazenda Pantano   I ordered this coffee and had a personal email straight away saying who was roasting my order and when it would be ready, which was amazing.  As you can see, the roast date is clearly printed on the simply designed packaging. The coffee arrived

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Tweega

Tweega Origin Coffee Tweega This Origin Coffee is from Tanzania and is from a collective of small farm holders in the Mbeya region.  It’s a fully washed coffee has a light clean taste.  As a personal preference, although this coffee is superb, it’s a little light for me.

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Seasonal Collection Espresso

Seasonal Collection Espresso Origin Coffee   Season Collection Espresso     This is my first pulped natural coffee and it comes from a number of farms in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil.  The lead is Fazenda Lagoa which has been growing coffee for well over a 100 years.  I love the fact

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Delivery!

Origin Coffee, Cornwall, UK Woohoo!  Origin Coffee delivery

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Kochere

Kochere A second sample from Monmouth Coffee and a more citrus flavoured espresso.  Very nice and very fresh. Kochere Black tea and citrus with bright acidity and light body Sage Brewing Detail Dosage : 8 Grind : 16

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Monmouth Espresso

Monmouth Espresso Monmouth Coffee is a wonder.  It’s two coffee shops in London have queues running out the doors and into the streets and it’s wholly justified.  This is great tasting coffee and with my new machine, I simply had to buy a small sample. Monmouth Espresso Their

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Three Cliffs Bay

Three Cliffs Bay   Three Cliffs Bay   A good daytime coffee, satisfying and full of flavour. Sweetness and maltiness come through well as an espresso. Adding milk develops the caramel and toffee notes. Strength Number: 3 Sage Brewing Settings Dosage : 9 Grind : 11

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Italian Espresso

Italian Espresso Italian Espresso I saw in Waitrose that the Three Sixty Degrees coffee I’d thought so much of as a ground coffee was available as a bean.  I snapped up this and another one with some excitement. Unfortunately, the beans were simply not as good as the ground

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Waitrose Sumatra Mandelhing

Waitrose Sumatra Mandelhing This is special coffee, not because it’s from Waitrose, nor because it’s Sumatra but because it was given to me on my birthday whilst on a secret getaway. Sumatra Mandelhing In essence, back in November, on my birthday, I was got up at 4:20am

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Fazenda

Fazenda   Fazenda   This coffee was bought in a Dartmouth cafe boasting wood roasted coffee.  I thought this would have to be tried and my father-in-law commented it was the best latte he’d ever had.  The cappuccino I had was also delicious so I bought some of their beans, the

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Hands On Coffee Roasters

Hands On Coffee Roasters   Hands On Coffee Roasters   Hands-On Roastery is based in Wadebridge, Cornwall and during a camping holiday near Bodmin, we decided to walk to Wadebridge and then on to the roastery.  It was located on an industrial estate in a non-descript garage looking building.  Inside, we were

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Mexican Terruño Nayarita

Mexican Terruño Nayarita A smooth aromatic coffee from Mexico. This coffee comes from Raw Bean, who list the roasted date on the pack as well as the use by date, which is the sign of a roaster who takes care over their product. Mexican Terruño Nayarita

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Monsoon Malabar

A pack of ground coffee from Waitrose that has a deep earthy flavour, similar to other coffees from south east Asia.  These beans are grown in south west India and are laid out to absorb the moisture heavy Monsoon winds. Monsoon Malabar From the Independent: Waitrose took an early lead

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Columbia Narino

Columbia Narino   Columbia Narino   For us, the heart of Colombian coffee sits always in the mountains of Nariño. Here coffee grows at elevations as high as 7,545 feet, where warm tropical days and cool nights let the beans develop slowly. Complex and elegant, medium-bodied with a juicy acidity, herbal

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Caffe Verona

Caffe Verona   Caffe Verona A passion for the culinary romance of Italy inspired this seductive, full-bodied blend of Latin American and Asia/Pacific coffees, with Italian Roast added for depth. It’s rich and well-balanced with a dark cocoa texture and a roasty sweetness.

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Tanzania

This is the last of the Three Sixty Degrees packs and I’ve enjoyed them each.  They’ve all tasted different and I’ve appreciated trying them out. Tanzania This one is from Tanzania, which might be first for me! A full bodied, balanced coffee with notes of blueberries and

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Peru Lima Province

Peru  Lima Province This the third sampling from Three Sixty Degrees and it’s good, very good.  I’ve always said that Peruvian coffee is probably the coffee that got me into coffee.  This is everything I want it to be in a ground, filter format. Peru seems to be

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Ethiopia Yirgacheffe

Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Apparently, Ethiopia is the origin of all coffee, which is why, I guess, many of the coffee suppliers like to have a version within their range. This is my second sampling from Three Sixty Degrees and it’s good, not quite as smooth as the Antigua, but then

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Costa Old Paradise Street No. 3

I’ve been fairly hard in my thoughts about Costa Coffee.  I’ve always been critical of their heritage, given that they’re owned by a pub and it seems that they are everywhere from the high street to the supermarket to the garage.However, in more recent times, I’