Corduroy Espresso #39
Price range: $25.00 through $115.00
Wow, how time flies! Maybe four or five years in, and this is the 39th 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: #39 is a single origin coffee, and a honey processed SL-28 from Costa Rica, 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 single coffee’s being well suited for espresso. When we tasted it on the cupping table–with its caramel and milk chocolate base, clean and delineated orchard-like fruit and acidity that is poofy, rather than piquant–we said, “dang! Let’s Cord this so we can drink it ourselves for a couple of months!”
We also thought it would be really cool to have an SL-28 on bar. It’s a coffee varietal that is mostly associated with Kenya, where it’s manifestation in the cup tends toward savory red (and sometimes darker) fruits. It’s also a coffee that can show screaming acidity when grown in Kenya. And, truth be told, that’s what we were kind of expecting when we sampled this coffee–a Costa Rican lot with brighter acidity than your typical CR. On the cupping table, we thought it was a bit mellow for an “SL’ representation. But then the wheels started turning. It was definitely yummy, if not overly bright. So what if we used it for espresso?
And now its on bar across our shops. Of course, this is not a brazil. There’s still PLENTY of acidity, and indeed, perhaps too much if you underextract it. But it also has lots of caramel cookie sweetness when you hit it right. It also makes a delightful brewed coffee. If you like Early Riser-type roast levels and b alanced acidity and body, give this one a try.
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 39th 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: #39 is a single origin coffee, and a honey processed SL-28 from Costa Rica, 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 single coffee’s being well suited for espresso. When we tasted it on the cupping table–with its caramel and milk chocolate base, clean and delineated orchard-like fruit and acidity that is poofy, rather than piquant–we said, “dang! Let’s Cord this so we can drink it ourselves for a couple of months!”
We also thought it would be really cool to have an SL-28 on bar. It’s a coffee varietal that is mostly associated with Kenya, where it’s manifestation in the cup tends toward savory red (and sometimes darker) fruits. It’s also a coffee that can show screaming acidity when grown in Kenya. And, truth be told, that’s what we were kind of expecting when we sampled this coffee–a Costa Rican lot with brighter acidity than your typical CR. On the cupping table, we thought it was a bit mellow for an “SL’ representation. But then the wheels started turning. It was definitely yummy, if not overly bright. So what if we used it for espresso?
And now its on bar across our shops. Of course, this is not a brazil. There’s still PLENTY of acidity, and indeed, perhaps too much if you underextract it. But it also has lots of caramel cookie sweetness when you hit it right. It also makes a delightful brewed coffee. If you like Early Riser-type roast levels and b alanced acidity and body, give this one a try.
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