Friday, April 3, 2009

Espresso Testing










I have almost a year of trial and error with my espresso formula. I think i am close but not enough. Wednesday i was in Café León coffeehouse with owner Arturo Rodríguez who also is the owner of the roaster company where i pack Café P11. The coffeehouse is a very nice place located in downtown Guatemala City, with all its interesting blend of tourists, neighbors, bureaucrats and drop from the sky testers like us. We were there with the help of two baristas making tests over my espresso formula, by the way trying to make a drinkable espresso from a single origin coffee like Guatemala is a complete different story that trying to make it through the blend of coffees from around the world, here you have a lot less opportunities to get the characteristics that are easy to find in others origins. We did our proofs, checked different grinds, the cookies, the crema, and more. I think i am closer but need more time and more tests, we'll see. Semana Santa begins tomorrow so we will travel to El Salvador beaches to get some rest. Hope i could post something from there. Cheers!

8 comments:

  1. You need to send a postcard or something from there to here ; )

    The crema looks good and once you find it being the way you want it to be, let me know ; )

    There's a guy from India who uses Robusta only for espresso and swears by it. It was OK, but I myself would not drink more than a taste.

    I imagine it would be harder not blending different varietals.

    Hang in there, you'll get there. No need to hurry.

    Cheers! (sat or sun for the post)

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  2. I will get something here and i will send it to there.
    Washed coffees like Guatemalans are acid, very thin and produce few crema, in the other hand they are terrifying aromatic and very complex in flavors. You can roast towards dark to get rid of acidy but you'll get a marble of coal, so we have to find in hundreds of coffees from different altitudes and regions (from Guatemala only) which ones performs the very best to get what i want, at least for a year, :)
    With robusta you get the crema but i prefer stick to Arabica.

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  3. If we happen to make it there, you will have to take us here for sure ; )

    Cheers!

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  4. Greetings From A Coffee Lover in England!
    Regards
    Tony.

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  5. Greetings from an Espresso drinker in Nyack, New York!
    Regards,
    Squirrel

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  6. I hope that when you find the formula you can do a tasting for your friends in El Salvador

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  7. Sure CM will be a pleasure!
    Bienvenido Squirrel!
    Sure Chambita, dalo por hecho.

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