The morning of our Music Fest Northwest show with Girl Talk I rolled everyone out of bed and made us go directly to stumptown coffee in Portland. I want you to be familiar with who they are. There is a real emerging coffee vanguard in the US that (in my humble opinion) EASILY rivals anything that Europe has to offer, and stumptown are at the crest of that wave.
As soon as we’d received our espresso drinks (all relatively short milk servings not a hair above 120 degrees), everyone had forgiven me for kicking them out of the hotel room 9 hours before load-in. I picked up a couple of pounds to go (an Ethiopia Wondo and a Kenya Gaturiri Reserve), which I had to impatiently wait to brew for like four more tour dates (backstage always had a french press but no grinder).
But now i’m just getting to this Kenya Gauriri Reserve and it is honestly blowing my mind. The packaged notes suggested to look out for: “Black currant, blackberry cobbler, baked pear, and blackstrap molasses…phenomenally balanced, syrupy yet clean and sweet cup.” I brewed it with a chemex w roughly 200 degree water and the extraction I got was everything suggested. It begins with an acutely gentle spice and then you get an unmistakably creamy sort of caramel sensation, and then it finishes with a hint of pear that is fully crisp. The cup as it cooled literally had three different phases of taste, all of which should have been somewhat contradictory and interfering, but that somehow were balanced and discrete from one another. I’ve had stumptown plenty of times and loved it (it’s my first choice when in New York), but after copping this selection I feel strongly that they need a presence in Los Angeles. Who do I have to call?
I have grown accustomed to expect all that is raw and robust from Ethiopian coffees. Usually i’ll even try to accentuate that by preparing the coffee in a french press, so as to seperate as few of the oils from the brew as possible. If a) you don’t oversteep it, and b) the beans are not burned, you can get an extremely “earthy” flavor but can also detect the spice and chocolate notes that the region is generally famous for, as well as a lingering hint of blueberries (if both a and b don’t work, the brew is probably sooty, and you should start over–think not-as-hot water, and a little more of it.
But recently, I was given a sample of Krankies‘ Organic Ethiopia Sidamo Natural Korate, and it was unlike any Ethiopian coffee I’d tried. The bean produced a far clearer taste than usual. Instead of a gentle afterthought, the characteristic (and uncanny) flavor of blueberries was immediately evident, and dominated the palate. The clarity of the attack and the cleanness of the finish made me be like “I EXPECT this out of Kenya, but YOU Ethiopia?” I went back for a second round and prepared it this time in a Chemex, and the clear, light berry flavor came through even more. I generally only drink coffee from this region in colder months, but this offering from Krankies is getting made daily this august until it’s gone.
If you are interested in knowing more about Krankies: who are incidentally a small-batch roaster and coffee retailer in North Carolina, their website is linked above. To see their offerings, (which range wildly) go here.
