Because my everything has kept me from really keeping up, I'm going to review all of these on one page.  They are no longer available on the website - but you won't go wrong with trying what they are currently roasting.  I found all 3 of the ones I tried to be well roasted and great examples of their kind.
​

The Nicaragua was warm, inviting and a very friendly afternoon sipping coffee.  The body was about a 6 on a scale of 1-10.  I like the medium or lighter bodied coffees in the afternoon.  I guess like some people would have tea.  The acidty was not in your face.  There was a brightness, but not so much it overpowered the sweetness of this  delightful cup.  

In the cup there was a nuttiness that was walnut to me.  The sweetness was cocoa with some brown sugar and vanilla.  The acidity was citrus.  lemon with a squeeze of lime.

I prepared it in my Kalita Wave, V60 and Aeropress.  I got more acidity in the V60 and a lot deeper chocolate in the Aeropress.  I used the Aeropress to make iced coffee with it too.  Really nice on those hot days in July.

1-10
I gave this coffee an 8  It was a pleasant cup to enjoy while I was catching up on work in the afternoon. I drank more than one cup while I was loading balloon aprons.

Growing up I thought all coffee came from Columbia.  The tv commercials showed Juan Valdez with his donkey, smiling and approving.  Stereotypes were rampant in the 70s.  

Now that I have a better understanding of coffee and enjoy beans grown all over the world, I appreciate Colombian coffee for it's reliable and comforting nutty taste.

this offering from Carrier doesn't disappoint.  There is a slight peanut taste, but I also got hazelnut and almond.  The body was full with a nice medium acidity and very little bitterness.  Along with the nuts I got dark chocolate and a sweetness that had hints of pineapple, apple, pear and a hint of something gardeny.  Maybe carrots - they are a sweet vegetable.

I had this one most often int he morning.  That's when I prefer full bodied coffees.  Heavy coffee, lighter tasting foods.  That's how I start my day. At least in the summer.  In winter it will be heavy coffee & heavy foods like oatmeal.  
Kalita Wave
V60
chemex

I don't know that I preferred any particular way of making it.  They all produced a good cup.  Standard 16:1 ratio.  I've switched to that over my old 15:1. I still prefer very strong coffee, but my husband does not, so we are meeting int he middle.

I wasn't sure about this.  Barrel aged coffees can be hit or miss for me.  Sometimes I enjoyed quite a bit.

I'm no good at picking out flavors of the coffee in addition to the whiskey, but I feel like I got some fruit and spicy vanilla.

Sometimes I find barrel aged coffees to have a soggy taste.  The tastes all mush together.  This one was fresh and crisp with a clean coffee/whiskey taste.  The aroma is nice and that really carries the taste into the experience.  Made into a concentrate and drizzled over vanilla ice cream this was HEAVEN.

It was a great afternoon coffee.

Like I said - you can't get these but check out ​http://www.carrierroasting.com and try one of their other offerings.  You won't be disappointed.  

IG ​http://instagram.com/carrierroasting 
​Twitter twitter.com/CarrierRoasting  
​Facebook www.facebook.com/carrierroastingco

 

I am a total sucker for good packaging.  Throw in a clever name and I'm extra happy.  Reference Olivia Newton John and it just gets better.  I remember being so excited for the movie Grease. I had the soundtrack before I saw the movie and listened to it over and over and over.  I still love the movie and the soundtrack and I've passed that on to my kids.  The kid was "bad" Sandy for Halloween last year.  I know Olivia Newton John was in other movies and I like her other music, but Grease is still the one I think of when I hear her name.

Hotbox has some other delightful names.  Frank Sumatra & Kenya Dig It are the ones I've sampled.  They also have a few blends, also with great names -  the French Press of Belair, Soulshine and Moonshine which is their decaf offering.  

Instead of coming in a bag they are in cans that remind me of the ones tennis balls used to come in.  I loved opening a can of tennis balls.  When we lived in San Francisco there was a handball court on base near us.  Or maybe it was a wall to practice tennis against.  Either way, my friend Vincent and I would spend time bouncing balls against that wall.  We tended to lose the balls and have to get more.  He was a gentleman and always let me open the can.  Pretty chivalrous for a 6th grader!  

If you read the website - and I think you should - you'll see that the can is  not just for the sake of cool.  It's recyclable and keeps the beans fresh.  Stale beans are the worst.  Yay for practical packaging!

There is something else about Hotbox that's more important than cool packaging or clever names - they have great customer service.  Periodically paypal will decide that I can NOT use my debit card for a transaction.  There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason behind it.  Just happens.  The folks at Hotbox were very helpful and I was able to get the coffee ordered.  It's nice to talk to a person when you're having problems.  Kid says I'm showing my age because I still use the phone, but  I'm almost 49.  I LIKE phones and I like these guys for knowing how to use one.  Not everything can be handled with an email.  Again, check out the website to learn more about the people behind the coffee.  The About page is really interesting.  

And they support athletes.  I've only said a million times that running saved my life.  Just another reason to be a fan of the company.  

Shipping was fast and they have a roasted on date on the can.  I can not tell you how much it annoys me when there is on roasted on date.  I don't hold fast to the drink it in 2 weeks or else rule that I have heard, but I also know that fresh coffee is better than old coffee.  I don't want beans that were roasted 6 months ago, or even 3 months ago.  I may have some that I drink a month or two later if they're still around, but they were fresh when I bought them.  Hotbox shipped my beans the day after roasting and the date was proudly written in on the package.  I like that.

So I like the company and all the eye candy, but what about the beans? 

The aroma was light with a hint of spiciness, some sweetness and an overall comforting coffee smell.  The scent of coffee at breakfast.

The acidity was lighter and friendly.  Sara (@mommyinpieces on IG) said it was Robust without hitting you in the head.  I think that's a fair description.  It was smooth but not dead.  The body was medium.  Not water, not syrup.  Just a nice sturdy cup of coffee.  

The taste was sweet, a little fruity with a lot of chocolate .  The fruity was kind of a lemon berry.  I got the citrus in the aftertaste and the chocolate was dark cocoa, but not bitter baking chocolate.  Think of lux chocolate mixed with a high quality cream to produce a smoothness.  As the cup cooled the acidity was a little more prominent and the citrus taste came through a bit more.  

It wasn't bad at all as it cooled and might make for a great iced coffee.  You know if it wasn't cold and I wasn't already frozing.  (my husband rolls his eyes when I use that word)  I won't be drinking this iced anytime soon, but I did have it hot several ways including as a latte.  It made for a nice espresso.  Not the dark roast that is traditional, but I'll make espresso out of anything I've found that good coffee always works even if it's a lighter roast.  It did make nice cold brew coffee milk.  

I had it with some ice cream and that brought out the spiciness that I picked up on in the aroma.  Goes well with pineapple upside down cake ice cream if you're in the mood for that sort of thing.  

You can find it on their website
​http://hotboxroasters.com/product/bolivia-newton-john


Check them on Facebook, Instagram (where I found them) and the Twitters.  

If you go to their facebook page I saw a coupon.  Just have to use it fast because it's only valid through tomorrow, but there is no time like the present to order good coffee!  

I first had coffee from Topeca as part of an Angel's Cup tasting flight.  Obviously I liked what i tried because I went back for more.  I purchased these two.    Today I'm going to talk about the Nyeri PeaBerry Kenya.  

Peaberry coffees are bouncy little coffee beans that happen when the cherry seed fails to split into two seeds.  I think that happens about 5% of the time.  Because you can't tell by looking at a coffee cherry if it's normal or peaberry they have to be sorted by after the cherry is removed - usually by hand.  That's one reason they tend to be more expensive.  Another is that many people claim they are premium beans.  That the flavor is more intense and sweeter than in regular coffee beans.  Other people say this is just nonsense used to make a little more money.  I have no idea.  I have really liked the peaberry style beans I have had, but I have not ever done a side by side comparison to see if I could tell the difference.  

As is normal I geeked out over the packaging a bit.  I like the simple bag with a pop of color.

I brewed this with the V60, Aeropress, Kalita and Bunn.  Most often with the V60, but I did prepare a couple of thermoses withe the Bunn.   For everything but the Bunn I lean towards a 15:1 ratio.  For the Bunn it's a few scoops.  I use that one when I am sending coffee with my husband.  He works long mornings and likes when I can send him coffee.  Can might be the wrong word.  I always CAN , but I work until 1 or 2 am most nights so I don't always get up and do it.  After this long I don't expect that he is ever going to learn to work the coffee stuff himself, so he's happy when I do get up and make him a thermos of java.

The aroma was dense and held a promise of sweetness to come.  I got brown sugar and a hint of spice.  There was also an orangy tone to the aroma as well.

Tasting gave me grapefruit instead of orange.  The acidity was bright and friendly but not astringent.  A tiny bit of bitterness, but not in a bad way.  Not all bitter is terrible.  Sometimes it's a friendly bite that is enjoyable.  

That promise of sweetness was more than fulfilled.  In many ways the sweetness reminded me of the pomegranate molasses I enjoy so much.  If you've never tried that find a middle eastern market and get some.  You'll thank me later.  It's tart and sweet and richly flavorful.  That's exactly how I would describe this coffee.  There is a tart sweetness that carries a rich flavor with tastes of pomegranate, raisin and maybe some date.  I didn't get brown sugar exactly in the taste.  There was a sugary sweetness but it was more like the molasses I described.  

The body was sturdy.  Maybe and 8 out of 10.  The aftertaste lingered with the fruity flavors coming through.

You can still find the coffee on the website 

Check them out online at http://www.topecacoffee.com
​On Facebook, Instagram & The Twitters

Of course if you are in or near Tulsa you can just go by and get it yourself.   

Putting Delaware on my map is Brandywine Coffee Roasters.  I love good good coffee and I geek out about good packaging, so when the two come together I'm all sorts of happy!  

This was my first experience with this style of bag and I love it.  My least favorite bags are those that require tape to close.  The standard metal tie ones are ok, but sometimes those come loose.  Zipper top bags are good and this one with a zipper on the back instead of the top is perfect.  I've since gotten a few other coffees from roasters who use this bag.  I'm hoping it becomes more standard.  The graphics were beautifully drawn and I loved the wax seal.  Lots and lots of detail because as their mug says, they're into the art of coffee.  

Great packaging is one thing, but it's really what's on the inside that counts.  In this case it was a beautiful, sweet, easy to drink all day coffee.  Brandywine roasts on Monday and from what I can tell, not much more than has already been ordered.  When you look at their site you see the coffees and the day they will next be roasted on.  They ship the day after roasting and before you know it, you have really fresh coffee.  I like that method, but I can see that it takes more effort than just roasting and selling.

The coffee aroma was sweet and though I got a hint of spice and maybe nuttiness in the aroma, I didn't pick that up in the taste.  It could have just been me - or the wax cubes I keep in the kitchen.  Usually those don't interfere, but who knows.  What I smelled was nice and fun, but just not exactly what I tasted.  I also got some berry scent and a sugary sweetness in the aroma.  Those did come through in the taste for me.

The body was rich and full.  I've had people hear honey processed when I talk about coffee and they think there is honey in it.  No, it's a method of going from cherry to dried bean, but in this case the rich syrupy body was honeyish. 

The taste was berry, more raspberry than strawberry even though the aroma was more strawberry than raspberry to me.  The acid was not overwhelming, being very balanced throughout with a light citrus.  Not full on orange or lemon, but maybe like the lemon/tangerine water I drink.  You get it, but it's like a fleeting ghost of a taste than teases you.  It wasn't a flat coffee though.  There was a liveliness to the acidity, but it wasn't overly bright.  It didn't smack in you in the face an announce "here I am!"  I guess I could say it was confident, but not aggressive.  

 There was a sweetness and that combined with the creamy body made it a filling coffee.  Some coffees are dry like red wine and some are juicy like melon.  This was closer to juicy with a fruity sweetness both in the sip and the aftertaste.  I drank 3 cups right away - for accurate note taking of course.  LOL

I also ordered a mug.

They included a pencil and eraser in my order.  The pencil was EXACTLY what I was looking for.  I'm working on a shawl with some black roses and I have to make the rings the same size by wrapping the yarn around an object 15 or so times.  I was struggling to find the exact right object and the pencil proved to be it.  

You can find Brandywine Coffee Roasters online at http://www.brandwinecoffeeroasters.com
one Instagram, Pinterest & Facebook as well.  

I have one other coffee from them to post a review on and I am really looking forward to trying some of their other offerings.

For my second order from Rook Coffee I got the Ethiopia yirgacheffee and some Honduras.  I've enjoyed both, but today I'm going to talk about the yirg.

As before the shipping was fast and the coffee was fresh.  Again, I got another happy note from Mike @ Rook.  I love notes in my orders.  Makes my day.  Right now the box this came in has moved on to AR.  I shipped my parents some stuff in it.  The box from my first order is still here.  I use it to hold one of my in progress projects.  They use really sturdy boxes.  

This was a happy coffee.  

The aroma was sweet and floral.  Maybe some tearose scent.  Think fresh flowers and fruit though.  Not the overly sweet, overly strong perfume that my friend calls Old Lady perfume.  The stuff that whomps you on the head and leaves you dizzy.  It's not that.  Think of standing in a market smelling the fresh flowers and fruit.

It had a nice even body that was light/medium  and medium depending on how I brewed it.  I used all sorts of methods with this one.  Aeropress, V60, Kalita, Bunn, Beehouse.  I didn't use the french press or peculator but I don't use those often ever, so that's not a surprise.  

Right up front I got the peachy flavors that I expected.  I also got some other fruits.  Berry and maybe something like a hint of kiwi.  Not full on tropical but leaning that way.  The acidity was citrus with a rich blood orange kind of tangerine flavor.  The finish left me with a tiny bit of spiciness and some cocoa.  The sweetness was sugary not syrupy.

It was great with spinach/goat cheese salad and also with fresh corn tortillas.  I love those when they are hot off the griddle.  Very addictive.  The coffee was really really bad with some gluten free cookies.  To be fair, everything but milk has proven to be really really bad with them.  

I also got a new mug.  This is the Chowder Mug and it's HUGE!  It might look like a normal mug here, but trust me, it's not.  It's great for soup I guess, but mostly it's perfect for those days you want a lot of coffee or don't want to share. Like when Dan has been annoying and I don't want to make him coffee.  I make a pour over every morning - and we split it.  With this mug I can pour myself a cup and say "Sorry hon, there just wasn't any left over."  except we've been married 28 years and I'm not very passive aggressive.  The conversation usually goes "You're annoying, I drank all the coffee, make your own!"  We've probably only been married that long because he's as calm as I am not.  

The coffee is available on their website and so is the mug.  http://www.rookcoffee.com

I've never been to New Jersey, but I will get there one day.  I'm eventually going to get to every state.  I've been to 29 of them, so I'm more than half way there.  When I do finally get to NJ I'm going to try to time it so that I'm there for the Rook Run.  It's a 5k that raises money for The Valerie Fun.   I internet like the people at Rook.  Might even like them in person, but like I said, I've never been to New Jersey.  The fact that they sponsor a 5k makes me like them anymore.  Running saved my life.  I'm still as slow as an inured turtle, but I'm a lot faster than I was 170lbs ago.  I may never get faster, much less fast - but it makes me happy so I do it.  

Find Rook Coffee online at http://www.rookcoffee.com
faceook, twitter and instagram too.

I love when when I get notes from roasters.  Always the little things that people remember.  Something I will have to keep in mind when I ship my own items to customers.

​I saw Prospect on Instagram and while I didn't need another CA coffee, I ordered anyway.

They didn't have a mug, but they did have stickers and I do like my stickers.

I went with the Ethiopia Guji Cheri because it was a natural process and I like the heavy, full bodied sweet coffees that method produces.

I was not disappointed.  This was a nice full bodied, juicy sweet coffee

I made this one in the Kalita, V60, Aeropress and Beehouse.  I also fixed Dan a thermos of it with the Bunn but he didn't give me an opinion on that method.  The roast was nice and even.  I've seen enough coffee to know that it's not always true that coffee is all the same roast.

This review is specifically of the V60 method which is how I prepared it most often.

I got a sweet fruity aroma with a hint of chocolate.

The taste was sweet upfront with a juicy fruity acidity.  I got some berry sweetness, maybe strawberry and the acidity reminded me of peachy tangerine.  As it cooled I got a chocolate note and a hint of apricot.  The sweetness was sugary, cane sugar - not like molasses or brown sugar.  It was smooth, low on the bitterness scale.  

The aftertaste was shorter when the coffee was hot but increased and lingered as the cup cooled.  That's where the chocolate notes come in.  I didn't get much of that upfront, but it was there on the tail end.

Foods:

It was excellent with the seed mixture that I have for breakfast.  It's a chia seed pudding mixed with hemp seeds and flax.  Whatever fruit I have on hand for sweetness and flavor.  It was also good with my omelette.  Went well with baked pork shops for lunch but didn't really balance with my chicken salad and was terrible with chili.  Chili really demands a darker roast but I tried it anyway.

This coffee is still available on their website 

http://www.prospectcoffee.com/collections/coffee/products/ethiopia-guji-cheri

​And they are on Instagram and Twitter

In September I had a really good mail day.  Got my tasting flight from Angel's cup AND my coffee from Flight Cofee Co.  They have a rocket on the bag!  I have been looking for rocket mug ever since! I LOVE rockets! And space, and Star Trek/Star Warts/geeky things.  


I'm really enjoying the Kenyan coffees this year. The taste always reminds me a bit of fall with dark fruits like currant and fig.   The fig part is a little funny since my grandparents had fig trees and we used to get them in the summer, not the fall.  However, I still think of the taste as a fall taste.

Until this year I didn't think I liked Kenyan coffees.  The ones I had previously tried were either overly bright - like drinking astringent - or overly roasted with the whole licking a bbq grill experience.    I'm glad I gave them another go because the ones I've had lately have been wonderful.

When I made my first cup of this coffee (Aeropress)  I drank it while working on the computer.  I was sitting there writing an email when I kept noticing a sweet smell.  I wasn't wearing perfume, there wasn't anything cooking and I hadn't changed out the wax melts recently...I couldn't place where this aroma was coming from.  then I realized it was my coffee.  It was a pretty nice scent!

That sweetness carries through from the aroma to the taste.  With the V60 and Kalita I got a bright, grapefruit acidity up front and then a dark sweetness right behind that.  The brightness also reminded me of that dried pineapple in a bag of dried fruit.  Concentrated sweetness that is bright and happy. I was going to write bubbly but that just seemed wrong when describing a dried fruit.  For the sweetness think honey and raisins, fig,  some current a hint of spice.  The spice was there in the aroma too.  

It had a nice strong body and a long sweet finish that really lingered.

In the Aeropress the fruit tastes were more pronounced and the acidity was still bright, but less so.  I also picked up a bit more of the spice taste when I used the AeroPress.

Flight Coffee Co. represents New Hampshire on my map.  Sometimes it's hard to decide who to choose when looking for a roaster in a particular state.  Why did I go with Flight?  I like their Instagram and they had a rocket in the middle of their name.  Of course reading about the company is what pushed me over into ordering.  I like when I can read a company's story and the why behind their coffee.  

Sharing the who is also nice.  I like when I can read about the people behind the coffee.  Grover reminds me of a lighter version of my Dennis - who also risks his life protecting us from the UPS man and is terrified of the coffee grinder.

The Flight Coffee website also has information on coffee varietals and is overall a good read.  Check it out!

The coffee is still available on their website as of this writing.    The price is good and I can attest to the freshness and fast shipping.  

Just wish they had mugs.  I do like mugs!

Spyhouse Coffee Roasting is my first coffee from Minnesota.  I like their story and I had heard good things. Check out their US page on the website.  It's interesting.  They went from focusing on the art of art to the art of the bean, though they have kept their focus on people. A lot of the time the coffee I choose has as much to do with the company as it does with the coffee itself.  Lots and lots of people can roast a good bean - but that's not all there is to choosing coffee.  Not for me anyway.  Supporting companies with a philosophy that I can agree with is important.  Some summer I will try to make it up to a cafe and have a cup in person.  I'm too allergic to cold and snow to go any other time of year.  

I went with a Costa Rican coffee since I don't have it as often as others.

Plus the story behind the beans is cool too.  Aguilera Brothers is a family business that manages 6 farms and a micro mill.  There are 12 siblings who inherited the business and keep it going.  Check out their story on Spyhouse.  You can also download an info packet if you want.  I don't need to download an info pack for me, I'm sharing some of this with people who don't interwebs so well - and now I have the information printed out for them.  Without typing it myself.  I could type it - thanks to growing up in an age of actual typewriters I type VERY fast.  I'm just a fan of anything that lets me be a little lazy.  

I brewed this a couple of ways - the Aeropress and the V60.  Liked both methods.  Did the V60 more often because my husband always wants me to share.  I got a bit more sweetness with the Aeropress though the two methods were actually pretty similar with this one.

The aroma was sweet and floral - almost a candy scent.  

As far as drinking it goes this was an interesting cup of coffee.  It really changes from sip to swallow.  At first it was smooth and quiet but as you swallow the brightness really comes through and lingers - along with a sweetness.  Like the shy person that is really bright and bubbly once they open up to you. 

I got a tart sweetness and it wasn't candied like I thought it might be based on the aroma.  It wasn't bitey tart like a tart apple but like a tart pear.  The red kind, not the green ones that I don't like much. 

I picked up on the honeysuckle in the florals, but not an elderflower which wasn't bad because I don't like elderflower.  As the cup cooled I got more of the pear taste coming through and something that reminded me of muscadines.  

This is a great coffee for sipping while knitting and crocheting.  I didn't really have it with any food - fiber art time is generally food free.  I did once have a couple of m&ms while drinking a cup.  It was a terrible match!  That's why it was a couple and not a handful.  I can thank Spyhouse for keeping me on my diet that day.  LOL!

I got an awesome enamel mug too!

Here's all the info on the beans, region etc.  I like when it's on the label.  I'm never going to be one of those bloggers that remembers to tell you those sorts of details.  This is all about coffee I enjoyed drinking, and I did enjoy this one a lot!

As of this writing the coffee is available on their website at 
http://spyhousecoffee.com/collections/coffee-offerings/products/aguilera-brothers-costa-rica


You can find them on Instagram  
Facebook and of course the Twitters 

Some time ago I was at Kaldi's Coffee in Kansas City.  They had a Keep Cup with their logo on it and I'm always on the look out for cups I might like - so I got it.  This one, right here.

It quickly became one of my favorites.  It also became one of those that I have an irrational attachment to and resentment of anyone else using.  My husband also liked it and would grab it saying things like "let me get my coffee cup"  To which I always replied - "that is NOT YOUR coffee cup"  For the sake of marital harmony - I got him his own Keep Cup.  It came yesterday.  Won't be a photo of it because he's go it with him in the car, but it looks a lot like the Kaldi's one, except the band and cup colors are reversed.  That's one of the awesome things about Keep Cups - you can really really customize them.  Something classic and dignified or like my new one - a child's sippy cup for coffee.

It's bright and fun and fitting for a balloon artist like me.  Also, the colors tell a story.  In college my hair was bright pink.  Most recently it's purple and aqua - and yellow is one of my favorite colors.  I paint my kitchen yellow because it's bright, happy and fun.  The kitchen is the heart of the home, so it should be bright, happy and fun.  So you can see why those are the colors I chose for my new cup.

I'm a sucker for good packaging and the Keep Cup people did not disappoint me.  Check out this mailer!!

When I got it there were two cups in it, so it was tall, like on the left.  However I noticed that it is very versatile and while it might or might not work for two of the large size cups, you can do several small, a couple of mediums, some mediums and some smalls.  All sorts of things.  I know that I'm going to Pinterest the heck out of the box and it will soon become a place to store my knitting projects in progress.  

The colors and fun, the packaging is cool, but there's more to the product than that.  Keep cups are designed to cut down on disposable cup use.  On their website they have a section that helps make the impact of reusable cups personal.   I just started and entered 4 times - the amount of times I used my keep cup last week.  5 more uses and I will have saved enough energy to power a light bulb for 24 hours.  I'm a grown up and all of that, but even for us big kids it's more engaging to see it presented like this instead of graphs and numbers.

Reusable or not, cool website or not - I would use this if it was hard to clean or left a weird taste in my coffee.  It is super easy to clean and my coffee tastes fine.  I spend a lot of $$ on my beans - putting them in something that is going to change the taste is a big no no!

Visit http://www.keepcup.com.au/  and check them out.  They are an Australian company, but if you're in the USA like me, that's not an issue.  They have an order page set up just for us and shipping is from LA, so it's not expensive.  

This was written as a guest post for KC Coffee Geek.  Check out www.kccoffeegeek.com  for lots of coffee news, reviews and information.

My second coffee from Madcap Coffee Company.  I had wandered into Second Best to see if they had any of their El Salvador beans on the shelf.  They might have, I never got that far.  I saw the bag of Kenyan from Madcap and went for that.  I'm really loving Kenyan coffees right now and I already liked Macap - so it was a no brainer.  

The Madcap Coffee  website has a lot of interesting information about the region and the farms where the beans are grown.  Check it out at https://madcapcoffee.com/buy/coffee/kathakwa


When I squeezed the bag the air that escaped the valve smelled AMAZING!.  I'm that person who gets excited and tries to drag you into it.  
 I went around the aerial studio making everyone smell it.   Everyone agreed that it smelled heavenly.  Kept my fingers crossed that the smell would lead into a cup that was equally wonderful.

No worries on that front.  It was a very tasty cup of coffee.  Actually now it's been several very tasty cups of coffee.

I did an Aeropress first.  Mostly because I could not wait.  I'm not known for my patience.  No pictures of that - but photos of an AeroPress in action are not hard to come by.  This cup was actually my second cup - made with a V60.

One of my Instagram friends has been doing something called the Pool Pour in his V60.  I didn't see a lot of information on it online, but it seemed pretty straight forward.  Make a hole in the grounds and start your pour there.

So I tried it.


I actually like the results.  I seemed to get a nice even bloom.  Not that I wasn't before.  Sometimes things with coffee can be very subtle.  I might like method A but for whatever reason method B is just better - even if it doesn't seem like it should be. Another coffee person may have a totally opposite opinion.  

Enjoyed the coffee more with the V60 than the Aeropress.  I'm going to have to play with the recipe a little to see if I can get it just right.  I used 17gr of beans & 220 gr water for my Aeropress and 30gr/coffee 450gr water for my V60.  As I said before, things can be subtle and of course they can vary from day to day.  That's why I say coffee is as much an art as a science.  I can give you ratios, but if your coffee is older or the house more humid than mine - it's going to taste different.  Or maybe my perfect strength is not the right one for you.  

Anyway - back to the coffee in question.

Cup #3 was brewed in my Kalita Wave.  Again with the 30g coffee/ 450gr water

So far this has been my favorite of the cups.  

With all 3 the aroma was heavy and sweet.  I got a fall baked goods kind of scent.  A hint of spice, some sweetness like soaked raisins.  Maybe that's why I like the Kenyans so much right now.  Fall is in the air and the heavy, dark fruitiness of the Kenyans this year just fits.  I found myself wishing they would make this coffee's scent as an air freshener instead of the boring apple pie fall scents they come out with every year.  

The taste was bright and vibrant and very complex.  Each sip brought a new taste.  There was a heavy sweetness to it with some dried fruits, like raisins and darker fruits like red plums or maybe even prunes.  I love prunes and snack on them a lot - I guess that taste would be dried plums, but the drying concentrates the tastes and sugars.  I also picked up some citrus.  The website tastes notes say tangerine but I would go for mandarin oranges or clementines.  I got some spice, kind of peppery maybe or cardamom.  With the Kalita I got hints of cocoa which I did not get with the other two methods.  With the Aeropress I had more citrus in the cup and lost out on some of the darker fruit flavors that I enjoyed so much.  

Despite being a medium/full bodied coffee with a heavier dark taste, there is a lot of brightness to this cup.   It's a balanced brightness though - not an in your face slap.  It's a good wake you up coffee but also a nice after meal drink.

 In the past my problem with coffees from Kenya has been that they were roasted too dark and lost too much brightness leaving just bitter sugar OR they were overly bright giving my mouth that just washed out with astringent taste.  The crops this year seem to be better or the roasters have just figured it out.  Either way, it's good.  

The mouthfeel was nice, full but not heavy.  I would compare it to Earl Gray tea.  It's full and deep, but not heavy like syrup.  The aftertaste was a little dry with a bit of a citrus taste.  That's when the mandarin taste came through for me the most.  

The foods... Didn't hate this one with bananas.  That's becoming a thing with me lately.  Mostly because I have a LOT of bananas lately.  (big sale at the farmer's market the past few weeks)  The sweetness of bananas does not always work with coffees, especially bright ones.  This one wasn't bad at all.  Bananas, walnuts and raisins in my oatmeal and it paired pretty well.  Another time I had it with eggs, spinach and goat cheese.  Also a win.  With coconut curry?  Yeah, not so much.  The spices clashed.  Good with baked chicken and regular potato - but not so great with the bite of sweet potato.  Not bad with a peanut butter cup either. (not that I would ever break my diet and eat a peanut butter cup)

None of the ways I prepared it was bad.  Each brought out different things in the cup.  The Aeropress was more citrus and a little brighter.  The V60 had more of the  spice in it and Kalita had more of the darker fruits.  I should make espresso with this and see what happens.  Some sort of fancy drink with foamy milk and flavors.  Maybe make my own pumpkin latte with more spice and less sugar than the Bucks version.  Mmmmmmmmm, I know what I'm doing this afternoon.  

Thank you to KC Coffegeek for giving me a chance to share my thoughts!  Check out Madcap Coffee.  I've enjoyed both of the coffees I've had from them.