Bold Bean Coffee Roasters San Sebastian

Bold Bean Coffee Roasters are a roasting company with two cafes in Jacksonville, Florida. They sent me a few coffees to share with you and today’s review is of their San Sebastian, from near the town of La Plata, in the famous Huila coffee growing region of Colombia. You can buy this coffee for $15/12oz. bag directly from Bold Bean. Some of the other details about this coffee is that it is 80% Caturra and 20% Colombia varietals coming from the OCCICAFE cooperative with about 250 member farms. Elevations for these farms are in the 1500-1890masl range and this is a washed and sun-dried coffee like most Colombian coffees are. I don’t know if it’s the same coffee from the same producer, but I reviewed another Colombian San Sebastian roasted by Novo, earlier this year.

Colombian coffees have been firing on all cylinders for me over the past 8 months or so. They have been bright and fruity and a joy to drink and this example from Bold Bean is no exception. As it bloomed in my Gino pourover this coffee gave off deep molasses aromas that were intensely sweet. The coffee itself had medium body as a pourover and, while I know the descriptor “juicy” gets overused and doesn’t mean much, it was a juicy cup! By that I mean that it left my palate wet (rather than the dryness that a lot of coffees can leave behind) with some acidity hitting my tongue and cheeks.

This coffee opens up nicely as it cools and once it does, it peaches for days! There is a lot of sweetness in the cup, too, and a bit of roast character and the overall impression is like a sweet, lightly grilled peach. I always love getting peach flavors in my coffee and this one was very apparent in the cooling cup and it was simply delicious!

Since I had really enjoyed Novo’s San Sebastian as espresso, I decided to give Bold Bean’s a run in the Gaggia, too. I found shots of Bold Bean’s San Sebastian to be full of dark brown sugar and lemon acidity, giving it sort of lemon candy quality and the finish was sweet and loaded with caramel. The espresso itself was a little on the bright side for me, but the finish and aftertaste were awesome! A bit more tuning could probably turn this into a darn good espresso shot, but for me, this coffee was all about that peach flavor I was catching in the Gino dripper!