In the Grinder - Our Daily Coffee Weblog

Twin Cities' Kare 11 News tracked the trail of specialty coffee all the way back to Café Imports. Here's reporter Chris Kallal's take:

"You may be surprised. One of the nation's best coffee importers is right here in the Twin Cities, supplying the best coffee shops and roasters in the country."

View the video now:

[Jamin roasting on our Jabez Burns sample roaster]

Last week we gathered everyone we could find around the office and forced them to drink espresso until they were sick and delirious. With us were our friends from Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza, Marcos and Felipe Croce, who grew and processed some of the coffee we'd be pulling. We roasted five of our current Brazil offerings (including many from FAF) to a medium espresso roast to evaluate them as single origin espressos and to explore their potential as possible components of a blend. We pulled 1 1/2 ounce shots for all coffees using 18 g of coffee in a double-basket between 25-29 seconds at 202 degrees. We tried them all in milk, but have only included notes for the straight shots. Here is what we found:

#1734 Brazil Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza Lot 11 Pulped Natural Hamilton and Celso Famlies
This was a powerhouse coffee on the cupping table, but we wanted to see how it would perform when prepared as espresso. This is a coffee we’re excited to watch develop and improve in subsequent harvests. We found it to be complex and sweet, with tropical fruit notes, pineapple, cherry, chocolate, sweet tobacco with a smooth, creamy body. More proof that good coffee in = good espresso out.

#1735 Brazil Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza Pulped Natural Silvio and Celso Families
This coffee was very good and showed great potential on the cupping table. The prep is a bit rough, but this coffee’s strengths more than overshadow its slight shortcomings. This is another coffee we think will continue to improve in the coming years. This was the sweetest coffee we tasted as espresso. This coffee was bold and rich and a little dry, probably due to the slight under-ripeness of some of the beans. This was a crowd-pleaser and would work very well as medium-bodied S.O. or as a component in a blend.

#1862 Brazil Eulino, Pulped Natural Microlot
This coffee was rich and buttery, with almond and bittersweet chocolate flavors. This coffee is holding up great, thanks to the Grainpro bags we packed them in at origin.

#1860 Antonio Rigno, Pulped Natural Microlot
This coffee has clean acidity and ripe fruit. The shot was chocolaty and sweet, very balanced with a sweet aftertaste. This was a favorite of many. This coffee is also packed in Grainpro bags.

#1807 Santa Terezinha Auction Lot
For those who love caramely, balanced, low acid espresso coffees, this one certainly delivers. This is an auction lot coffee packed in vacuum sealed mylar bags and is still holding up quite nicely. The prep on this coffee is very clean. We found the shots to be very balanced, low in acid, and very sweet.

I have to mention that the show-stopper espresso of the day was a late addition, and it wasn’t from Brasil. Our El Salvador from the Apaneca-Ilamatepec Mountain Range (#1882) had such a creamy mouthfeel and ripeness of fruit on the cupping table, that we suspected it would make an excellent espresso. We were right! This blend of 5 microlots was incredibly creamy and sweet, with ripe cherry flavors, caramel, and long-lingering sweetness in the finish.

You can view more pictures of the action over in our photo album.