It seems to be that time of year when there is an influx of exceedingly delicious coffee here in Melbourne! More Kenyans are starting to surface after a bit of a dry period, and there's plenty of Rwandans around too.  I wanted to briefly highlight a few of my favourites which are currently available.

First up, I was truely "wowed" by a new Kenyan coffee sourced by Campos in Dec 2011 / Jan 2012 when they made a trip to origin, and now in their Roburs and on their web store. The Yadina AA lot currently on offer has a distinctly strong aniseed and blackcurrant flavour. I was a little surprised at the roast level used here (albeit only a small amount of oils) but in the cup it is just extraordinary, so kudos to their roasters! Many Kenyans have that blackcurrant flavour but this lot takes it to a new level for me, and I've tasted a lot of different kenyan coffees. None of them have had the depth of blackcurrant / aniseed pastilles flavour that this lot has.

The Rwanda Coko coop filter roast I picked up on the weekend from Small Batch Roasters is also a stunner through aeropress at work. Think sweet mandarines. We just can't get enough of it! For those interested in Small Batch, I've found them to be a great source of filter roasts locally here in Melbourne. While many roasters are still pushing their espresso roasts as "suitable for espresso", I actually prefer the slightly lighter roast profile on offer from roasters such as Small Batch. It really brings out the sweetness and acidity when using a filter brew method such as Aeropress or Hario V60.

I'm also expecting a shipment of the El Salvador Ernesto Mendez natural process coffee from Ministry Grounds, roasted for espresso. I have high hopes for this one too, and will report back with a few tasting notes.

Ministry Grounds have also just announced their roasted coffees on offer for next week. Rwanda Kayumbu Lot #7 from the most recent Cup of Excellence is up for grabs (filter roast), along with an Indonesian Gayo Bukit Aceh that sounds like a full-bodied cup of spicey goodness and a Kenyan Nyeri Kijiji.

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a kilo of this Geisha coffee from La Candelilla in Costa Rica as soon as it arrived at Ministry Grounds. I've roasted this one for espresso, but didn't want to lose any of the florality, sweetness or fruit flavours the geisha is known for. Quite a challenge, when 1kg is only two roasts for me.

I decided on a three minute drying phase ramp up to 100 degrees, then increase in heat output up to 195 degrees first crack at 10:00.  First crack was actually at 196 degrees, and then the slow ramp up to just shortly after the end of first crack at 205 degrees at 13:00 was when i dumped the beans.

I'd definitely rather go too light than too dark on this one, but i'm actually really happy with how this first roast has turned out. You can see there is the slight mottling still present which only disappears well beyond first crack. The ground coffee reveals a nice light espresso colour, and smells like geisha! Clean, sweet and floral.

Some people may think this is too light for espresso but in my opinion if you want to impart more roast flavour than this there are better (and less expensive) coffees you could choose. Plenty of kenyans would take a darker roast and retain the sweetness, for example. There's just not much point buying a geisha at this stage of the game and then roasting the florals into submission. Geisha is still quite rare and the most expensive coffee varietal, so it deserves even more care and attention to detail.

I'll post an update with tasting notes both here and on Ministry Grounds as soon as it's had 5 days to de-gas. I'm also going to attempt my first ever coffee scoring here on BrewMethod, and i have a little something special planned for that.

The Esmeralda coffee farm in Panama has consistently been one of the most sought-after coffees of recent years. Esmeralda coffee is sold at auction and can reach some pretty lofty prices, but only in coffe terms! Panama Esmeralda is without doubt one of the best coffees in the world, and I still think it's amazing that we can buy a 250g bag for less than half the price of a cheap French champagne.

To my taste, Esmeralda offers a more complex, even more intense sweetness than a good Kenyan but without the acidic Kenyan bite. Even finding Esmerelda coffee in Australian cafes, especially the floral Geisha variety, is quite a challenge! I've had aeropresses of the Geisha variety at One Drop, but never had the chance to try an espresso roast! That's something I had always wanted to try.

Campos Coffee recently won some at auction, so you can now buy esmeralda geisha in their web store and in their cafes as roasted beans for espresso. I love the fact that Campos unashamedly roasts such high quality beans for espresso - while i agree that such quality coffees can also be enjoyed using pour-over or syphon brew methods, i see no reason the best coffee in the world shouldn't be enjoyed as an espresso beverage! But only if roasted well, and if the espresso recipe is right.

So here we have a photo of the Panama Esmerelda roast from Campos.

Reportedly, Campos went through 7 different roast profiles before settling on the final roast profile. Seven test roasts would really allow for a good amount of fine-tuning, and i'm pleased to report that the sweetness and florality of the Geisha roasted for espresso is all that it should be!

There's an incredible array of tasting descriptors one could use for the sweetness in this coffee - honey, orange peel, ripe citrus fruits, brown sugar... so many unique flavours fill the mouth it's almost impossible to pinpoint even a subset of the usual sweet flavours tasting notes. 

It's not the high-acidic bitey sweetness of a Kenyan coffee, and it's not the jasmine-like florality of an ethiopian yirgacheffe either. It's got a balanced body similar to a great costa rican, but with boat loads of sweetness that the Geisha is renowned for.  The sweetness has great length, too - half an hour after your drink, it still lingers. I love that in a coffee.

Instead of listening to me waffling on, i'd recommend snapping some up. Chances are the opportunity to try this special coffee roasted for espresso won't come up too often! The lot size is relatively small, too. Head to campos or order via their web store linked below:

Esmerelda Geisha roasted for espresso

I roasted an interesting new coffee tonight from Indonesia's Wahana Estate coffee farm. It's been a while since I roasted a really good indonesian coffee, but this one smells particularly delicious!

The photo below shows just how even and clean this coffee roasted up - only a small number of beans were slightly under ripe. If the smell matches the flavour profile, I'm expecting this one to have considerable body, be strong and have a thick sweetness. Who knows if it will actually taste like this... but check back on the weekend and i'll update with tasting notes!

This is an espresso coffee roast with first crack at 10:10 at 195 degrees, and dumped at 213 degrees at 14:00, before second crack. Online coffee store Ministry Grounds recently got hold of some of this one and roasted it up to offer to their lucky newsletter subscribers!  I hope some of you out there took advantage.  If that's you, feel free to leave your own tasting notes in the comments.  I'd be interested to know what some other people think of this one.

Here's a photo of the roasted beans: