Following previous posts the astound reader might assume that I had my fairy tale ending to my coffee quest. I found a setup that works for me. The coffee is nice, to the point where it leaves nothing to be desired. The sky is blue and the birds are singing.
Of course not. To be honest I’d be sad if there were nothing left to be improved or at least explored. The journey is the destination if you so will. Or less philosophical: I’m a perfectionist who’s never fully happy with his results so I continue. And while I pretend to suffer we both know that I enjoy it.
So let’s go. I’m getting to a point where I have a lot of control over most variables in coffee brewing:
It’s boring when everything works well so let’s add one I haven’t touched in a while: The coffee beans.
There’s more then boredom to this though: My coffee has a flavor note to it I can’t really name. All I can say is that I don’t like it. And that I suspect that it’s coming from the Robusta part of my blend (80% Arabica / 20% Robusta). The idea is simple: Let’s try blends with less Robusta, but from the same roaster. Because I love their style.
More is more. Why choose a blend with Robusta at all? My first try was a 100% Arabica.
The weird Robusta taste was indeed gone, proving my initial suspicion of its origin. However, I didn’t like the resulting coffee either. It was not creamy anymore. Hardly any chocolate notes. It approached the speciality coffee style. You know what I think about that.
Let’s try a more balanced approach: The Armonioso Blend. 90% Arabica with 10% Robusta. First things first: This coffee smells amazing. Even better than the other ones, and the bar is high. It pulls like predicted: More cream than 100% Arabica. The taste is wonderful. No weird notes anymore.
But I can’t say that it’s really better than the other ones. It’s different. I’ll have to dig deeper.