Coffee Reviews

There are dozens of places where they review coffees, but the worlds best known is
Coffeereview.com

Except for a rare exception we talk of course about Single Origin Coffees.

They review a lot of coffees, but only US roasted stuff.
I also think their scores are a tad too high to be true, but it gives already an idea about the beans.

And countries.

If you look at their Top 30 of last year we notice Ethiopia and Kenya with 7 entries each. Duh! Just what we expect, and for European roasters who get their hands easier and faster on those African 'gems' we would percentage wise probably see even more of them.
Panama, Nicaragua and Colombia scored well last year, and this could be right. We noticed great crops in these country's, while Costa Rica, Honduras, Peru, Mexico, Guatemala and others had not their best year.

Nice to see one Brazil in there, Fazenda Rainha, exactly the one Brazilian Fazenda we liked most this year. Their Pulped Naturals are rated very highly by us, although this one was a natural!!

Here a link to our fav coffees of last year.

BAC 5

Belgian Aeropress Championship is celebration it's 5th anniversary!!!

And this on March 15. That's a Sunday.

And we'll do a day full of coffee fun.

We open the joint around 10 for all competitors (27) to start training.

At 11 we have a meeting with judges and competitors about the rules and the planning of the event.

At noon we start competing :
9 legs of 3 pressers.

Then 3 semi finals of 3 pressers.

Then 1 final with 3 pressers.

The end should be around 16h.


We'll have black coffees and beers and some food.

The competitors pay a €20 entrance fee. This guarantees them of a price.

There are serious prizes for top 3 participants.
With a Seattle flight for the winner, if this person is willing to represent the country at the next World Championships in this city at the beginning of April. (in between 9 & 12).

Sponsors of this years event are Limarc Coffee Hardware, 32 Coffee Merchants, Coffee Hit online shop, Aerobee.

3 judges will come down all the way from The Netherlands.

On this moment there are still a couple of spots available for those interested....
mail me
caffenation@gmail.com

Later on we'll announce the coffee, rules and names of competitors

CU there.
Rob

2014 Winning Aeropress Recipe Video by Shuichi Sasaki

HOW TO MAKE AEAROPRESS METHOD by Shuichi Sasaki (WAC2014 Winner) from Good Coffee on Vimeo.

Clint Eastwood Sudden Impact Coffee

Mr LGB Winter 2015

The idea of our Mr LGB blend is having 2 (or 3) fully washed coffees, for clean and bright cups.
This Winter version is very well balanced, cause it has a nice creamy mouthfeel on top. 
And it loves milk!!

Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Konga Sedie (60%):
The small farmers that live in the Konga area bring their coffee to the Sedie station. On average, each farmer owns 2 hectares of land. Besides growing coffee, all of them have some additional subsistence crops. Some of them raise cattle as well. Acacia, Podocarpes and Cordial Africana trees are also grown on the land to provide shade for the coffee plants. All the picked cherries are processed at the Sedie station and then stored in a local warehouse before they are transported to Addis Ababa.

Colombia Huila Iquira Castillo (40%):

Iquira is a municipality located in the Huila Department in Colombia in the center West of the country. This part of the country has been difficult to travel to over the last ten years and is still a little dicey and pretty remote. Coffees from here, when done right, are very spectacular though.
Farmers in this region have slightly larger farms than most in the south, sometimes 10-15 hectares of land. They pick, pulp, ferment and dry their coffee on raised beds with parabolic covers. They tend to work similar varietals, some old, some relatively old and some new but the style is pretty much the same.

Top 5 Coffees of 2014

Yearly we list the best coffees we roasted and brewed.
It was a great year with 40 different Single Origin Coffees!!! We are proud we serve this wide variety of beans and flavors. We don't like to eat the same food all the time, or drink the same wines every week; change keeps the appetite high we think.

It's not always easy to keep the quality high though, with such a diversity, but after lots of years of practicing we get it in our fingers. And the help of all those hard working Ethiopians. In 2013 we only bought 1 grade 1 screening, now we had plenty and this you can taste.

Ton loads of fantastic Ethiopian this year!!! 12 in total, with 11 from the 13/14 crop. That's one a month and totally deserved. Even more, we don't understand why other roasting company's buy a lot of more expensive, but average, 'Centrals' in stead of a washed Yirgacheffe or Sidamo coffees. Even conventional labeled Yirgacheffes cupped higher than some award winning Central or South American coffees!
And Kenya on filter of course. Nothing beats the bright fruity cups from Nyeri or Kirinyaga.

For the upcoming year we heard a lot of good on the Ethiopia and Kenya crop, so expect to get us going into the same direction.
This year Rwanda and Burundi beans seem to suffer less from potato disease, and the latest Brazils and Colombian look very promising.

FILTER TOP 5 OF 2014 :
1) Kenya Nyeri Gikirima : Super clean, tomato acidity, melon and of course sweet sweet sweet.
2) Ethiopia Sidamo Guji Grade 1 : Silky, caramel, chocolate, prunes, what a coffee!
3) Kenya Kirinyaga Kiangoi : Sweet citrus, mandarin, raw sugar with a touch of vanilla
4) Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Adado grade 1 : Perfectly balanced cup with florals and chocolate notes
5) El Salvador Ilamatepec Finca Fatima : A sweet crowd pleaser

ESPRESSO TOP 5 OF 2014 :
1) Ethiopia Sidamo Guji Grade 1 : coffee of the year.
2) Indonesia Tana Toraja Washed PB : Sesame, prune, hazelnut, plenty of body and spices.
3) Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Microlot Moplaca Natural : body and sweetness, butter and honey. Fruity
4) Colombia Huila Iquira Castillo : Very creamy and clean cup. Now in our Mr LGB Winter!
5) Costa Rica Tarrazu Monte Canet Estate : Full bodied clean cup with notes of marsepan.
split with El Salvador Finca La Alpina Pacamara : mighty big bean with smoked accent and a chocolate undertone

Who want to read more about all of these coffees, best click here to discover more about most of our coffees from the last 26 months.

And to keep you at the front end of your seat :
Next upcoming Ethiopian coffee and base for Mr LGB Winter 2 :
Ethiopia Sidamo Korate Grade 1  : pipe tobacco, subtle acidity, waffles and mild

and again a Burundi Cup Of Excellence coffee, yes!

CD 2014 Top 10

Honestly, i like writing this post more then the TOP 10 Coffee list.

2014 was a remarkable year on the music front. I felt like we made a 180 degrees turn at the bar.
Where Bert and I were always driving forces behind the cd and ipod players, we saw Emiel, Joke And Yannick take over the steering wheels.
Where i'm still stuck with my feet in the late 60's-early 70's mud, these youngsters focus more on contemporary stuff.

And this you can already see in the Top 10.
And; always we had real CD's in the list, but that changed with the number 1; only played fully digitally, from download on.

1) The War on Drugs :  Lost in the dream. This CD won dozens of prices this year, and with reason. It reminds us at the young Springsteen and a bit of Pink Floyd and goes on where Muchacho left us with Phosphorecense in 2013.
Addictive rhythms, mysterious voices, brilliant composing, good lyrics. Lost in the Dream had it all.

Here a link to the album

2) Disco not Disco : Post Punk, Electro & Leftfield Disco Classics 1974-1986 on Strut.
Strut albums cover these charts every year. This year with Disco not Disco compilation that should be on every espresso bars' playlist!
"Can i lick the crunch of your biscuit?"
Hypnotic and funny, and vibes that bring me back to my youth when i liked this kind of 'white boy punk/funk/disco'.

Listen yourself.

3) Black Sabbath : Sanctuary : Greatest Hits :
I know this band my whole life but never went any further then their Paranoid chapter. This CD is totally different from the other metal bands from the past.
Or as i read it in their biography :
The group took the blues-rock sound of late '60s acts like Cream, Blue Cheer, and Vanilla Fudge to its logical conclusion, slowing the tempo, accentuating the bass, and emphasizing screaming guitar solos and howled vocals full of lyrics expressing mental anguish and macabre fantasies. If their predecessors clearly came out of an electrified blues tradition.

For €5 you have a CD in your bar that can be played daily. A must buy.
Check

4) Kavinsky : Drive original Movie Soundtrack.
Dark & Wicked.

5) Bombino : Nomad
Desert guitar punk boom.

6) Funky Chicken : Belgian Grooves from the 70's
Two Belgian CD's in 1 list!!! As funky as it goes. Brilliant.

7) Intergalactic Lovers : Little Heavy Burdens
What a voice.

8) Coeur de Pirat : Coeur de Pirat
Subtle French stuff for the morning cups.

9) The Pioneers : Long Shot.
Bring on the good mood.

10) Jack White : Lazaretto
Head Banging Psycho shit for the dark evenings.