Review 3: Paddy & Scott's

With my work I travel to a lot of client offices and sometimes spend a few days there. The type of coffee machine they have makes some difference to how my day goes. Usually I start off my day with a travel mug of Lavazza Rosso coffee brewed at home in a cafetiere, and if the coffee machine at the client is poor, that will be it for the day.

On this particular week in February I was travelling long distances (50 miles) morning and evening, and the tiredness was creeping up on me. So I decided to fuel up and, with the coffee machine serving instant brown liquid, I had to shell out at the cafeteria.

I found that the cafeteria served Paddy & Scott's Slow Roasted coffees. I'd never heard of them before, so I thought I'd apply the coffee tasting to them to see if I could tell the difference that they claimed was obvious.

Source: Paddy & Scott's Slow Roasted coffees
Date: February 2014
Country: ?
Beans: Arabica
Preparation: Café espresso maker (espresso shot)

Nose of brew: Strong and bold espresso aroma, with a sweet fragrance on the edge - like candy floss (cotton candy). Maybe a slight hint of spices
Colour of brew: Deep brown, on the orange end
Initial flavours: very even. No sharpness or burnt flavours; maybe a bit of bark. No trace of the sweetness of the nose.
Finish: a bit of sharpness in the finish, but not overwhelmingly so. Pretty smooth but not a long-lasting finish. No great bitterness and no particular after-taste.

Unfortunately, though I looked over their website I could find nothing about the beans themselves apart from the fact that they only seem to do Arabica bean coffees. But the key thing they seem to market is that the coffees that they make are slow-roasted. I love a bit of slow-roasted meat, but I hadn't heard of slow-roasting coffees (in fact, I don't know much about roasting at all). I'll do an additional post about roasting once I've done a bit of research, but for now I can talk through the flavours.

What I definitely found was that the flavours were very even. Often I find that one thing dominates - spices, or a savoury burnt flavouring, or flowery tastes, or something else. But in this case it was really very even. The flavours of the coffee all came through subtly; there was definitely some spice, and a bit of fragrant sweetness, but nothing too strong. It wasn't too bitter nor was it too bland.

Was it interesting to drink? Not particularly. I wouldn't say that I knew much about the slow roasting but it is very possible that the slowness added to the evenness of the flavours. It would be a good coffee to drink on a daily basis though I felt that it lacked a bit of punch, even as pure espresso. And later on when I added a bit of water to see if that developed any of the flavours, I couldn't say that anything came out.

But in the end, all that was important was that it kept me going for the day!

Review 2: Mocha Djimmah

Source: Whittard's Coffees of the World
Date: 1 February 2014
Country: Ethiopia
Beans: Arabica
Preparation: Cafetiere

Nose of grounds: Earthy, slightly sweet, quite light and airy
Nose of brew: citrus, spice
Colour of brew: deep brown, but not opaque.
Early flavours: spices
Finish: earthy and light

Tasting notes:

The Mocha Djimmah is another coffee from Ethiopia, like the Yirgacheffe about a month ago (this wasn't intentional - in fact, it doesn't necessarily say which country it comes from). It is also the lowest strength rating in Whittard's Coffees of the World box; it has a rating of 2.

The spice flavours of this coffee are noticeable but not so prominent as to become unpleasant or lose the idea that you're tasting a coffee. In the past I have been given coffees from far-flung places such as Uganda which seem to lose the feeling of drinking coffee and become more like a cup of soup.

On the nose there is no single dominating note. And throughout the tasting, the different flavours rise slowly to the front of the taste and then fall back slowly again. The coffee is well balanced, though I can see that it is definitely worth its strength 2 rating; it is a light coffee that I could probably enjoy in the late afternoon.

Interestingly, when I started using wine tasting techniques I found more flavours - a touch of saltiness and a little more spice.

Coffee maker's notes:

This soft, fruity coffee comes from the southwest of Ethiopia, the birthplace of 'Arabic' coffee. In taste this is as close as you will get to wild coffee. The plantations grow in the shade of the dense forests until they are ready to be picked. The young coffee 'cherries' are then laid out to dry in the scorching sun. This process helps develop the beans' rich flavour and winey, spicy aftertaste.