Today I tasted two coffees. I actually look forward to tasting new coffees, or even new crops of coffees we used to enjoy.
To date I have not tasted a Vietnamese Arabica. Vietnam is the second largest exporter of coffee in the world behind Brazil, with only 5% of the current production Arabica based. Although I am not sure what the varietal of Arabica the Vietnamese coffee I got, I can tell you it was not to my taste.
It is always in desperation that we have to push a coffee past second crack to get some distinct flavours, and the coffee from Vietnam we tried we had to do just this.
Luckily you smell before you taste, but even in bean form I was dubious of this coffee. When I put the fresh brew to my nose I could smell something medicinal and then started detecting camphor and cedar. On tasting I detected cloves and peppers, not an enjoyable experience. Personally I detested this coffee. In fact I threw the beans in the bin that where not ground.
The second coffee we tasted (after thoroughly rinsing mouth and brew equipment) was a coffee from Santa Barbara in Honduras this was quite enjoyable. The coffee we tasted was roasted to a City+ level, but flavours are apparent at most roast levels. For this roast level, when placing the coffee to the nose I detected light roasted Almonds and Caramels. On drinking the coffee, baker’s biscuit with subtle brown sugars presented themselves. A medium bodied coffee with a sweet after taste. This will be great on its own, but the subtle flavours may be lost when adding milk.
We will make the Santa Barbara available as soon as we know how many bags we can get.
