Aida's Grand Reserve
Friday's cupping seemed to take forever to arrive, because we had a special treat awaiting us: Aida's Grand Reserve
A hand-sorted collection of peaberry-only coffee beans from El Salvador, this is Peter Guiliani's proverbial masterpiece. The cupping was a great time and the Grand Reserve was the hands down favorite. There was much discussion about the cost. Sorting and selection most certainly plays a significant role in developing any lot of coffee; but this is different. Just as cupping itself used to be for detecting defects, but now is largely used for quality evaluation; so are we now to the point that bean picking and hand culling is the "next wave" of pushing the quality barrier? As is the same with audiophilia, there are many, many tweaks between breakthroughs.
Each of us were lucky enough to get 2oz. of this 'blend' for our own evaluation. Man, I sweated the preparation, taking the extra time to make sure I had everything ready; mise-en-place. With a French press freshly decanted into a Nissan thermos, here we go:
Fragrance: berry explosion, chocolate, caramel, savory - even bordering on umami-like
Aroma: chocolate, the lighter spectrum of red wine pinots, less savory now/sticky sweet
Taste: wine sharpness, 72% chocolate, peas/asparagus
Body: round, instant salivation
Aftertaste: more, I want more - and a nice chocolatey linger
This coffee makes me think of a finely-tuned prize fighter corollaries, with all the power, quickness, grace and swagger that I could expect from a coffee. I'm thinking about someone like Evander Holyfield in his prime - beautifully unstoppable.
The only thing is... the price. At over $53 a pound, price is certainly this coffee's Waterloo. I was alluding to boxing because this type of thing gets me thinking about Friday Night Fights and the like. How would the Grand Reserve compare to other heavyweights like Misti Valley or my boy Tegu (that just sounds like a boxing name...)? There would be no knockouts here; but I think for my palate the Grand Reserve would get the split decision in the 12th round...
A hand-sorted collection of peaberry-only coffee beans from El Salvador, this is Peter Guiliani's proverbial masterpiece. The cupping was a great time and the Grand Reserve was the hands down favorite. There was much discussion about the cost. Sorting and selection most certainly plays a significant role in developing any lot of coffee; but this is different. Just as cupping itself used to be for detecting defects, but now is largely used for quality evaluation; so are we now to the point that bean picking and hand culling is the "next wave" of pushing the quality barrier? As is the same with audiophilia, there are many, many tweaks between breakthroughs.Each of us were lucky enough to get 2oz. of this 'blend' for our own evaluation. Man, I sweated the preparation, taking the extra time to make sure I had everything ready; mise-en-place. With a French press freshly decanted into a Nissan thermos, here we go:
Fragrance: berry explosion, chocolate, caramel, savory - even bordering on umami-like
Aroma: chocolate, the lighter spectrum of red wine pinots, less savory now/sticky sweet
Taste: wine sharpness, 72% chocolate, peas/asparagus
Body: round, instant salivation
Aftertaste: more, I want more - and a nice chocolatey linger
This coffee makes me think of a finely-tuned prize fighter corollaries, with all the power, quickness, grace and swagger that I could expect from a coffee. I'm thinking about someone like Evander Holyfield in his prime - beautifully unstoppable.
The only thing is... the price. At over $53 a pound, price is certainly this coffee's Waterloo. I was alluding to boxing because this type of thing gets me thinking about Friday Night Fights and the like. How would the Grand Reserve compare to other heavyweights like Misti Valley or my boy Tegu (that just sounds like a boxing name...)? There would be no knockouts here; but I think for my palate the Grand Reserve would get the split decision in the 12th round...
posted by twomartinis at 7:16 AM
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