Review 11: Lincoln Coffee House, Reading

Source: Lincoln Coffee House
Date: 23/05
Country: Rwanda/Guatemala
Beans: 60% Rwandan Gisuma; 40% Guatemalan Finca la Esperonza
Preparation: Americano

Nose of grounds: N/A
Colour of brew: Rich, reddish-brown
Nose of brew: Light, earthy
Early flavours: Chocolate, toffee, nutty - almond or hazelnut
Finish: Even, rounded, no bitterness

Tasting notes:

It's been a fair old while since I've posted a review - just over a year, in fact. It's not that I've stopped drinking coffee; it's just that I got busy and stopped updating. And not only that but I've started another blog in the meantime - a collaboration with some friends around the sheer joy of food. Go and have a look at food.matsuya.co.uk.

I was walking in a part of Reading that I don't normally see that much, and I noticed that there was a new coffee shop. It looked interesting, so I dropped in.

I was hoping for a good filter brew, but the only options were espresso-based. Going for the americano, I noticed that their brew was written on the wall - and very interesting, too. I've never had a Rwandan coffee and don't know anything about it; in fact, I'd never heard of either coffee bean (Gisuma and Finca la Esperonza). I found out a bit of information about each on the internet, but not a lot; but what I've seen looks interesting.

Tasting the coffee, I immediately felt that this was slightly different to usual. There was very little nose to it, and no sharp aromas at all. Tasting it, I immediately got a hit of sweetness - a nutty toffee with some chocolate to it too. It was beautifully rounded with no bitterness or acidity at all; it really slipped down easily. None of the flavours were what I would call 'bold' but everything was fairly subtle, which I really liked. The only thing I might hold against it was that it was a touch watery - perhaps there was a little too much water in it but I wasn't convinced that the strength of the brew was right.

But an excellent coffee. If I was having it again I'd have an espresso, to see what the flavours were like a little more concentrated. On the whole, though, a really worth-while visit and a great coffee to kick-start my reviews again.

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!