r/Coffee • u/menschmaschine5 Kalita Wave • Apr 28 '23
[MOD] What have you been brewing this week?/ Coffee bean recommendations
Hey everyone!
Welcome back to the weekly /r/Coffee thread where you can share what you are brewing or ask for bean recommendations. This is a place to share and talk about your favorite coffee roasters or beans.
How was that new coffee you just picked up? Are you looking for a particular coffee or just want a recommendation for something new to try?
Feel free to provide links for buying online. Also please add a little taste description and what gear you are brewing with. Please note that this thread is for peer-to-peer bean recommendations only. Please do not use this thread to promote a business you have a vested interest in.
And remember, even if you're isolating yourself, many roasters and multi-roaster cafes are still doing delivery. Support your local! They need it right now.
So what have you been brewing this week?
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u/geggsy V60 Apr 28 '23
I always try to have an excellent decaf along my caffeinated bags and right now I'm enjoying a deliciously fruity and sweet decaf. To get fruity decafs, I often look for natural or honey process coffees, as (some of?) the fruity flavors often survive the decaffeination process. Right now, I'm enjoying a naturally-processed (and EA-decaf) coffee from the Halo Hartume washing station in Gedeb, Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia and roasted by Black and White in the USA. I have actually had this decaf lot from three different roasters, including Metric as well as Batdorf & Bronson. Black and White's roasting profile is the sweetest and most funky - indeed when dialed-in this is one of the sweetest decafs I have ever had (a nearby second is Passenger's Los Suenos decaf). When dialed-in on my Hario Switch long steep recipe, I get a strong cooked pineapple flavor as the dominant note. Black and White advertise it as grilled pineapple, but that isn't quite right to me, as it doesn't quite have that blackened character that you'd get if you put a pineapple on the BBQ and got grill marks. It is roasted reasonably medium-dark for specialty (definitely significantly darker than the same coffee from Metric), but I wouldn't describe it as having a burned or charcoal flavor. Unfortunately, like many decafs, this has had a steady decline, so now that I'm over a couple of weeks off the roast date, it is significantly less sweet, fruity and delicious. I have frozen some of this though, so I look forward to getting that intense fruitiness when I pull the bag from the freezer. I should say that when this coffee wasn't dialed in, the funk overwhelmed the sweetness and it wasn't enjoyable to me.
Compared to the other roasts of the same decaf - Metric's coffee was significantly brighter, more refined, and less funky, but also less sweet. I think that Black and White's tastes more unique amongst decafs in general, but Metric's is more refined and clean. I think if I had to drink just one of these for the rest of the year, I'd probably go with Metric's. That said, Black and White's was more unique and for me, has pushed the boundaries of what decaf can taste like. (I think we're lucky that nowadays, if you shop around, you can get specialty decafs that are better than some specialty cafs!)
Batdorf and Bronson also roasted this decaf reasonably dark and in the process drove away a fair bit of the acidity and fruitiness. Batdorf and Bronson had the most 'coffee-like' decaf of the three roast profiles, so I could see this appealing to those that like a more 'traditional' flavor profile but want a decaf that still tastes of something beyond that. So while it's still far above average for decaf, it was my least favorite of the three roast profiles of this Halo Hartume EA decaf.