Corduroy Espresso #31
$21.00 – $98.00
Our current iteration of Corduroy is an experiment using high grown quality coffees from Colombia–40% Geraldo Domingo El Sause (washed, from Nariño), 40% Edinson Oidor Buenos Aires (washed, from Cauca), and 20% Andres Munoz El Progreso pink bourbon (washed, Nariño). The blend is, in part, an attempt to revise what we always took to be a kind of horrible trend in specialty coffee: using high grown washed coffees to make under-extracted acid bombs that, to our palates, tasted of soy sauce and green tomato.
Espresso has traditionally/historically been made with natural or honey-processed coffees from Brazil, which means coffees that are grown at low altitudes, with lower acid levels. These coffees were not without their problems–bulk Brazil lots are usually on the cheap side, and natural coffees especially can exhibit off-flavors and defects. (Indeed, one old school defect that identifies a medicinal/iodine flavor is commonly called “Rio,” describing the coffees that would sit at the humid Rio port for an extended period of time before shipment, becoming a little moldy!) But generally speaking, the origin lent itself to pleasant shots: heavy and mild and sweet and not very bright. You know, the kind of espresso shot that a person could throw back multiple times each day, as was (and is) the case in Italy. But as the “Third Wave” took shape, shop owners started pulling espresso shots with the “better” coffees they were serving as pourovers and batch brews, and the results–to my mind and tongue–weren’t very good. In past years, I’d wander the floor of the Specialty Coffee Association’s annual trade show, looking for the best espresso I could find by sampling as many espresso shots as I could. And inevitably, I’d have to cut short my quest, because of all the miserable coffee I was tasting. It was far too bright and had a generic, savory flavor that I was told–repeatedly–was sweetness and farm or varietal-specific attributes. I started calling these grassy, lightly roasted coffees the “SCA profile.” Eventually, folks started realizing that the shots they were pulling were under extracted and acidic, with the remedy being a longer shot: running more water through these dense coffees to extract for material. It helped some with the acid and sweetness, with the trade-off being more volume, and a less dense shot in the cup.
This espresso is our attempt to redeem these SCA shots. We are putting a little more heat and time on these high-grown Colombias than we might normally for a brewing application, but they are still on the light/medium end of the spectrum, and have plenty of origin and varietal character. (I think our first few roasts have dropped around 404, instead of something like 397, with the “development”/sugar-browning phase drawn out a bit as well.) The result is an espresso that exhibits caramel and lightly-fruited flavors of plum and apricot. There’s a bit of a tannic element as well–a few tics below black tea and cinnamon bark–and structured acidity. In our shops, we are using 19 grams for a 43ish gram yield, with a long (10 seconds) pre-infuse and a total brew time of 40+ seconds. (We are running Synesso Hydras in most shops, with ramp up and ramp down.)
about the series:
“Corduroy” is a term for a stretch of road or path built with small logs laid perpendicular to the direction of the road itself. In the Maine woods during the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, these road sections were usually dropped over low-lying swampy areas in order to access tree stands that would be cut in the winter. After these roads were covered with snow and ice, the logs were twitched, or skidded, out of the woods with horses to the banks of streams and rivers that would float them down to the mills in the spring, after ice out. Corduroy roads were never designed to be a permanent or lasting solution, but rather a means to provide temporary access into a new territory.
- Location: Nariño, Colombia and Inza, Cauca, Colombia
- Elevation: 1800-2100 meters
- Varietal: caturra, Colombia, pink bourbon varietals
- Process: washed, dried on raised beds and patios
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Our current iteration of Corduroy is an experiment using high grown quality coffees from Colombia–40% Geraldo Domingo El Sause (washed, from Nariño), 40% Edinson Oidor Buenos Aires (washed, from Cauca), and 20% Andres Munoz El Progreso pink bourbon (washed, Nariño). The blend is, in part, an attempt to revise what we always took to be a kind of horrible trend in specialty coffee: using high grown washed coffees to make under-extracted acid bombs that, to our palates, tasted of soy sauce and green tomato.
Espresso has traditionally/historically been made with natural or honey-processed coffees from Brazil, which means coffees that are grown at low altitudes, with lower acid levels. These coffees were not without their problems–bulk Brazil lots are usually on the cheap side, and natural coffees especially can exhibit off-flavors and defects. (Indeed, one old school defect that identifies a medicinal/iodine flavor is commonly called “Rio,” describing the coffees that would sit at the humid Rio port for an extended period of time before shipment, becoming a little moldy!) But generally speaking, the origin lent itself to pleasant shots: heavy and mild and sweet and not very bright. You know, the kind of espresso shot that a person could throw back multiple times each day, as was (and is) the case in Italy. But as the “Third Wave” took shape, shop owners started pulling espresso shots with the “better” coffees they were serving as pourovers and batch brews, and the results–to my mind and tongue–weren’t very good. In past years, I’d wander the floor of the Specialty Coffee Association’s annual trade show, looking for the best espresso I could find by sampling as many espresso shots as I could. And inevitably, I’d have to cut short my quest, because of all the miserable coffee I was tasting. It was far too bright and had a generic, savory flavor that I was told–repeatedly–was sweetness and farm or varietal-specific attributes. I started calling these grassy, lightly roasted coffees the “SCA profile.” Eventually, folks started realizing that the shots they were pulling were under extracted and acidic, with the remedy being a longer shot: running more water through these dense coffees to extract for material. It helped some with the acid and sweetness, with the trade-off being more volume, and a less dense shot in the cup.
This espresso is our attempt to redeem these SCA shots. We are putting a little more heat and time on these high-grown Colombias than we might normally for a brewing application, but they are still on the light/medium end of the spectrum, and have plenty of origin and varietal character. (I think our first few roasts have dropped around 404, instead of something like 397, with the “development”/sugar-browning phase drawn out a bit as well.) The result is an espresso that exhibits caramel and lightly-fruited flavors of plum and apricot. There’s a bit of a tannic element as well–a few tics below black tea and cinnamon bark–and structured acidity. In our shops, we are using 19 grams for a 43ish gram yield, with a long (10 seconds) pre-infuse and a total brew time of 40+ seconds. (We are running Synesso Hydras in most shops, with ramp up and ramp down.)
about the series:
“Corduroy” is a term for a stretch of road or path built with small logs laid perpendicular to the direction of the road itself. In the Maine woods during the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, these road sections were usually dropped over low-lying swampy areas in order to access tree stands that would be cut in the winter. After these roads were covered with snow and ice, the logs were twitched, or skidded, out of the woods with horses to the banks of streams and rivers that would float them down to the mills in the spring, after ice out. Corduroy roads were never designed to be a permanent or lasting solution, but rather a means to provide temporary access into a new territory.
- Location: Nariño, Colombia and Inza, Cauca, Colombia
- Elevation: 1800-2100 meters
- Varietal: caturra, Colombia, pink bourbon varietals
- Process: washed, dried on raised beds and patios