Instructions & Brew Guides for Roasters’ Cup Taste & Test

What You Need To Do:

 

  1. Firstly, check your kit to make sure you’ve received everything you need to conduct the tasting.
  2. Read the overview of The Roasters’ Cup to understand the project & what these coffees offer.
  3. Read the brew guides & tasting notes, to understand the best way to brew the coffee & the expected flavour profiles. Set up your gear to start brewing & tasting. 
  4. Please complete & send your surveys by Wednesday 23rd March 2022.
  5. Once received, we’ll send out your giftpack.

What You Will Need:

Inside Your Kit

1 x 200gm Colombian Single Origin Coffee – Plunger

1 x 200gm Ethiopian Single Origin Coffee – Plunger

1 x The Roasters’ Cup Overview & Research Instructions

1 x Brew Guide (Plunger) & Tasting Notes – Colombian Single Origin Coffee

1 x Brew Guide (Plunger) & Tasting Notes – Ethiopian Single Origin Coffee

At Your Place

1 x Coffee Plunger or Filter

1 x Digital Scale/Scale

Some Milk (if needed)

The Surveys:

Surveys

There are three short surveys. The first is a GENERAL survey about you, coffee & your overall impression of The Roasters’ Cup project. Then there is a TASTE survey for the two coffees.

Make sure you match the coffee with the corresponding survey, then answer the questions.
The links to the surveys are in the main email or you can click here.

  1. General Questionare
  2. Columbian – Plunger
  3. Ethiopian – Plunger

The Roasters’ Cup Range

What is the Roasters’ Cup?

Our Roasters are obsessed with coffee, they meticulously select green beans, sourced from some of the world’s most intriguing plantations. Then, through trial & experimentation, they work to find the perfect roast profile, drawing out the bean’s true character & flavour. The result is a sensory experience, distinctive, delicious, & uniquely rewarding for lovers of specialty coffee.

Each release is one of a kind, small parcel, limited edition coffee.

Where can I buy them: You’ll find them at the grocery store.
The Price: $12 per 200gs & discounted to $11/10 per 200gs.

This is what we think the Roasters’ Cup will look like when you see it on the shelf.

Brew Guides

Roasters’ Cup, Colombia, Quindio Region

Produced by Hernando Arcila

Tasting Notes

This coffee is grown by Hernando Arcila at his farm, Finca La Glorieta, located outside of the city of Armenia in the beautiful Quindio Region of Colombia. Hernando is well respected in the coffee growing community & known for his continued exploration of coffee processing methods to further enhance the flavours his coffee can achieve.

This coffee is an extended fermentation & washed processed coffee. This means that the coffee beans have been fermented as whole cherries (the exterior fruit flesh & the coffee bean make up the coffee cherry) before being washed & dried.

At Finca La Glorieta they do it a little differently. They ferment the coffee cherries inside of Grainpro* bags for 48 hours. Because temperatures in Armenia can be quite high the bags are placed inside water tanks to stabilize the temperature which allows for a controlled fermentation. This method allows for the coffee beans to absorb the fermenting sugars of the coffee cherry/fruit before they are pulped & washed.

When fermentation is complete, the coffee is pulped, washed, & placed on raised beds for drying over an 18-day period. The result, a sweeter fruit flavour to the coffee while retaining the clean acidity and smooth body of a washed coffee.

*The GrainPro Bag, also known as SuperGrainbag or SGB, is a widely used solution that effectively protects coffee during transport and storage. This bag is most used as a liner for jute bags, as it protects the green coffee beans from loss of quality and damage through moisture.

Process: Washed
Varietal: Caturra
Altitude: 1350 – 1400 MSL
Plunger Recipe

Coffee: 18gm  |  Water: 300ml  |  Time: 4 min

  1. Heat your water. You’re looking for an ideal temperature of 93°C.  If using your jug, allow it to cool for a couple of minutes after boiling.
  2. Pre warm the base of your plunger or carafe. Pour some hot water (from your tap) into the carafe & swirl it around so the glass heats a little. Remove this water from the carafe.
  3. Weigh the coffee; 18gm & add the ground coffee into the base of the carafe.
  4. Pour 40mls of hot water over the coffee, give this a gentle swirl to get the coffee wet & allow the coffee to ‘bloom’ for 30 seconds – The bloom will release more of the aromatics in this coffee.
  5. Add the remaining water, 260ml.
  6. Start a timer on your phone for 3.5 minutes.
  7. Once the brewing time is finished, give the coffee a gentle stir.
  8. Place the lid/plunger over the surface of the coffee & you can slowly plunge the coffee.
  9. Immediately decant the coffee from the plunger into a cup, allow the coffee to further cool for another minute and taste!
  10. If you are interested – wait another 3 minutes to taste the coffee warm, & then let the coffee cool and taste again. This way you can experience the way that the flavour of the coffee changes as it cools.
Taste Experience

Here is what you can expect in terms of flavours & aromas when you first taste the coffee, & as the coffee cools. The flavour and aromas are also different if you drink the coffee with milk.

Hot – This coffee should have a strong caramelised nut flavour with a hint of sweet peach. The acidity is citrus like with a smooth but light body.

Warm – The caramel flavour intensifies, & the nut flavour fades. A mandarin sweetness comes to the front. The acidity becomes sweet & juicy as the temperature shifts & the body thickens becoming round & smooth.

Cool – The mandarin flavour becomes dominant, & the juicy acidity is pleasing. The after taste lingers of sweet caramel with a very subtle bitterness. A super pleasant way to finish this coffee.

With milk – The experience differs; the sweetness of milk intensifies the caramel flavours. Masking a lot of the citrus notes. Sweet & lingering caramelised nuts on the finish.

Overall – Sweet and Smooth. The juicy nature of the acidity makes for an enjoyable taste experience.

Roasters’ Cup, Ethiopia, Guji Region

Produced by Oromia Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative Union

Tasting Notes

OCFCU is a smallholder coffee-grower-owned co-operative union representing more than 200,000 coffee farmers throughout Ethiopia’s coffee-growing regions. The union is tribally based, covering all the areas where the Oromo people live which include many of the best known coffee growing districts in Ethiopia. Guji is located to the south of Ethiopia’s coffee growing regions. The area is relatively lush, with large forest trees & banana palms growing in & around the farms providing plenty of natural shade cover for the coffee trees.

The OCFCU was established in 1999 to bring strength to the coffee farmers of the tribal lands. By achieving Fair Trade status and working together as a Co-op they have been able to use social premiums paid through Fair Trade purchasing to build 31 schools, provide additional classrooms to existing schools, construct 10 medical clinics in rural areas, install 86 clean water wells, improve roading infrastructure, build 34 new coffee processing mills, & 5 flour mills.

Ethiopia is renowned as the birthplace of coffee. Its steep history and extensive ‘natural’ coffee forests have led to a long genomic sequence for coffee varietals with potentially thousands of unidentified varieties being grown on farms and within forests throughout the regions. This diversity of plant varietals has led to many of the coffees from the regions being known as the landrace varietals.

The steep elevations and abundance of rainfall allows for many of the coffee processing centres to use the washed method to produce coffee with crisp bright acidity & a light and delicate body.

Process: Washed
Varietal: Landrace
Altitude: 1550 – 2200 MSL
Plunger Recipe

Coffee: 18gm  |  Water: 300ml  |  Time: 4.5 min

  1. Heat your water. You’re looking for an ideal temperature of 93°C.  If using your jug, allow it to cool for a couple of minutes after boiling.
  2. Pre warm the base of your plunger or carafe. Pour some hot water (from your tap) into the carafe & swirl it around so the glass heats a little. Remove this water from the carafe.
  3. Weigh the coffee; 18gm & add the ground coffee into the base of the carafe.
  4. Pour 40mls of hot water over the coffee, give this a gentle swirl to get the coffee wet & allow the coffee to ‘bloom’ for 30 seconds – The bloom will release more of the aromatics in this coffee.
  5. Add the remaining water, 260ml.
  6. Start a timer on your phone for 4 minutes.
  7. Once the brewing time is finished, give the coffee a gentle stir.
  8. Place the lid/plunger over the surface of the coffee & you can slowly plunge the coffee.
  9. Immediately decant the coffee from the plunger into a cup, allow the coffee to further cool for another minute and taste!
  10. If you are interested – wait another 3 minutes to taste the coffee warm, & then let the coffee cool and taste again. This way you can experience the way that the flavour of the coffee changes as it cools.
Taste Experience

Here is what you can expect in terms of flavours & aromas when you first taste the coffee, & as the coffee cools. The flavour & aromas are also different if you drink the coffee with milk.

Hot – The fragrance of this hints at the flavours to follow. Floral strawberry flavours with a Jasmine note are present upfront & a subtle dark chocolate through the middle. A tannic black tea to finish.

Warm – The floral nature of this coffee comes through, and the Jasmine is quite prominent. The strawberry disappears becoming more apricot in flavour. The dark chocolate is present throughout without being dominant. The black tea finish begins to linger but is not drying. The acidity becomes sweet & quite juicy as the temperature shifts & the body thickens.

Cool – Jasmine & apricot with hints of chocolate. The flavours remain the same throughout but on paper this doesn’t explain the complexity that this coffee has. The black tea finish leaves a very subtle bitterness. Pleasing all the way to the end.

With Milk – The sweetness of milk intensifies the chocolate flavour and masks some of the floral attributes. The apricot is still present while the black tea flavour is a little lost at the end.

Overall –  Sweet and smooth, a real delight to drink & showcases why Ethiopia is truly the birthplace of coffee.