Benetti’s Coffee Experience – Adado Natural

Benetti’s Coffee Experience is a local-ish coffee place that has been around since 2007, but I hate to admit that I know precious little about the operation. It’s in a part of Kansas City (Raytown, 20+ minutes from home) that I just never find myself in. After tasting their Adado I will definitely be making the effort to get over there soon!

For you quick-readers: just-ripe strawberry with a little tastebud-tightening astringency, a little blueberry on the early sip and as it cools something similar to kiwi, hints of peach in the late aftertaste and maybe something similar to honeycrisp apples. Refreshing and fruity with toned-down sugariness, for a natural.

I stumbled upon this coffee at a small local specialty coffee supplier called About the Coffee. I scored the last bag of this Adado on the shelf. I was super happy to see it was a small 4-ounce sample bag and it only cost $5.75! It was roasted 11/12/14 and I evaluated it over the course of 11/25-11/29.

I sampled this coffee in two ways: AeroPress and Chemex. My AeroPress technique uses 17g of coffee to 240g of water. I use an inverted method, immersing the grounds for two minutes and then pressing, finishing around the 2:40 or so mark most of the time. In the Chemex I use 30g of coffee to 480g of water and aim for a total time of around 4:00 although I usually shoot past that to around 4:30.

The dry aroma of the coffee beans and after grinding has a lot of the berry tones I’m coming to associate with Ethiopian naturals and I was picked up hits of blueberry and strawberry as well as something a little roasty.

In the Chemex cups I got a little blueberry sweetness up front followed by a sense of the flavors spreading out to hit the sides of my tongue, where I’d pick up a lot more strawberry character. This lasted into the finish and aftertaste, too. Whereas the strawberries in the Case Study coffee were just pure, sugary sweetness the Adado from Benetti’s reminded me more of the fruit when it is barely ripe. Strawberries have that astringency that can make your taste buds tighten up a little and I was getting that feeling from this coffee.

This was more pronounced in the AeroPress, where the fruit acidity seemed to be a little more forward and the slightly astringent mouthfeel seemed turned up a bit. Don’t get me wrong, this coffee isn’t tart or sour. The strawberry notes in this coffee are very similar in flavor and feel to a just-ripe berry while the Gelana Abaya was more like a strawberry that is on the other end of the spectrum and about to get a little past ripe. I like them both!

As the Chemex cup cooled I got something a little earthier in the flavor, too, but that same light astringency I associate with green tea and strawberries in the mouthfeel. Kiwi, maybe? I couldn’t quite nail it down, but that was the first thing that popped into my head. In the aftertaste of the cooling cup I was picking up peach notes, too, and maybe even a little honeycrisp apple.

In any case, this is a nice coffee and a good choice for a natural from Ethiopia for people who don’t like the sweetness too in-your-face. The fruity notes are there but the mouthfeel is slightly more refreshing than the sugary naturals that I’ve been drinking lately. This coffee was great even as it cooled to room temperature and I suspect it’d be a good candidate as a cold brew.