Corduroy Espresso #38
Price range: $25.00 through $115.00
Wow, how time flies! Maybe four or five years in, and this is the 38th iteration of our Corduroy espresso blend. I suppose having blends like Bird Dog that are seventeen years old keep this seeming “new.” Or maybe it’s just the premise, doing its job: a coffee with ever-changing components blended specifically with espresso in mind, in order to better acquaint ourselves with familiar coffees and flavor profiles, and to push our understanding of what espresso can be, within reason.
But here’s a curveball: #38 is a single origin coffee, and a naturally processed peaberry from Brazil, to boot. That is, this iteration is not an attempt to see how we might be able to extract interesting espresso from something, as much as it is an acknowledgement of a coffee’s being perfectly suited for espresso. When we tasted it on the cupping table–with all of its brandied dark fruit and chocolate and hazelnut accents–we said, “dang! Let’s Cord this so we can drink it ourselves for a couple of months!”
The coffee was grown and processed by Marcelo Assis in Campos Altos, Minas Gerais. His farm is relatively large, with over 220 hectares divided into smaller plots. This lot is kind of a grab bag blend of paraiso, arara and IBC12 varieties, combining a handful of smaller lots, each with unique characteristics that contribute to the flavor profile. There is more “typical” natural coffee, along with a few lots utilizing extended fermentations. The resulting 5000 lb lot (of which we purchased about 2000) is a sweet and delicious concoction. It was also contracted at the top of last year’s coffee market spike, making it fairly expensive, especially for a coffee from Brazil.
In our shops, we are using 19 grams for a 40ish 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: Brazil, Minas Gerais
- Elevation: 1200 meters
- Varietal: paraiso, arara, IBC12
- Process: natural, patio dried for a week
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Wow, how time flies! Maybe four or five years in, and this is the 38th iteration of our Corduroy espresso blend. I suppose having blends like Bird Dog that are seventeen years old keep this seeming “new.” Or maybe it’s just the premise, doing its job: a coffee with ever-changing components blended specifically with espresso in mind, in order to better acquaint ourselves with familiar coffees and flavor profiles, and to push our understanding of what espresso can be, within reason.
But here’s a curveball: #38 is a single origin coffee, and a naturally processed peaberry from Brazil, to boot. That is, this iteration is not an attempt to see how we might be able to extract interesting espresso from something, as much as it is an acknowledgement of a coffee’s being perfectly suited for espresso. When we tasted it on the cupping table–with all of its brandied dark fruit and chocolate and hazelnut accents–we said, “dang! Let’s Cord this so we can drink it ourselves for a couple of months!”
The coffee was grown and processed by Marcelo Assis in Campos Altos, Minas Gerais. His farm is relatively large, with over 220 hectares divided into smaller plots. This lot is kind of a grab bag blend of paraiso, arara and IBC12 varieties, combining a handful of smaller lots, each with unique characteristics that contribute to the flavor profile. There is more “typical” natural coffee, along with a few lots utilizing extended fermentations. The resulting 5000 lb lot (of which we purchased about 2000) is a sweet and delicious concoction. It was also contracted at the top of last year’s coffee market spike, making it fairly expensive, especially for a coffee from Brazil.
In our shops, we are using 19 grams for a 40ish 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: Brazil, Minas Gerais
- Elevation: 1200 meters
- Varietal: paraiso, arara, IBC12
- Process: natural, patio dried for a week