Hot on the heels of my first coffee from Ecuador, reviewed yesterday, is another selection from Coe Coffee in Portland, OR! Today I’m looking at Coe’s Rosa Encarnacion. Check it out!
Purchase this coffee directly for $8.50/8oz (other sizes available, too)
Daily Coffee News article on Buckman Coffee Factory
Coe Coffee Peru Alarcon Bravo review
COE COFFEE ECUADOR ROSA ENCARNACION
Andrew Coe is a busy guy. He roasts coffee under his own Coe Coffee label as well as being an owning partner of Elevator Cafe & Commons in Portland, Oregon. Andrew has recently started roasting coffee under the Elevator name, too. It sounds like Andrew will roast Elevator’s mainstay coffees under that brand while Coe Coffee will be for experimenting, microlots and a more fluid roster of coffees. Conveniently, the whole operation is right across the street from one of Portland’s two coffee roasting co-ops, Buckman Coffee Factory, where entrepreneurs like Andrew can rent space for green storage and time on coffee roasting equipment. I don’t think half the roasters in Portland would exist without exceptional opportunities like this from Buckman and Aspect Coffee Collective.
I should’ve posted this review about a week ago, but unfortunately bad allergies and an early spring here in KC turned into an upper respiratory tract infection and I’ve been without tastebuds or any flavor perception for the better part of a week now! I need to plan for this time of year better in 2018! Today’s coffee from Coe is from the Imbabura region of Ecuador, in the north of the country, which I’m excited for since yesterday’s Máquina selection from Ecuador was from the far south. This is a washed coffee probably consisting of Castillo and Caturra varieties. Rosa’s coffee was grown around 2100masl and, interestingly, only about 15% of Ecuadoran coffee is washed, with the balance being a low quality natural process where defects and quality is not sorted as it is in a country like Ethiopia.
Andrew gives us tasting notes of, “Rich and fruity, flavors remind us of strawberry, blueberry, fig jam.”
I used my standard 1:16 ratio of 28g of coffee to 450g of coffee in a notNeutral Gino dripper with Kalita 185 filters. My Handground grinder was set on 3 for my cups and I brewed with Third Wave Water. I have to pre-empt this review with the fact that my allergies have off the chain for a few weeks now and I’m on the tail end of a head cold/upper respiratory tract infection, so my nose is only working at about 70% while I’ve been sampling this coffee! It’s a good reminder that most flavor notes come from the nose, not the tastebuds in your mouth! But, the show must go on and I can’t keep dragging my feet on this review any longer!
Even with stunted flavor receptors, this is a vibrant cup! It has a medium body with a relatively drawn out aftertaste. I get a nice dried apricot character to the acidity, which is somewhat mild but that gives a little tartness to the coffee, too. It may even lean a little toward green apple based on how it feels on my palate. There is a little bit of a tea-like feel to this coffee, too, with a dry finish and a bit of a drying effect on my tongue. There is a lot of caramel sweetness in this cup and it has a ripe strawberry fruit vibe to it, too, that I think contributes a bit to that dry sensation on the palate, just like eating strawberries!
Even with a half-dead palate, this is a nice coffee! It’s a perfect roast level to bring out a lot of sweetness and maintain a lot of character, yet also be a crowd-pleaser in a cafe setting like Elevator Cafe & Commons. I was really happy with both of these South American coffees from Coe Coffee and I definitely have Elevator on my to-visit list if I ever get to Portland again! It’s not too far from Coava and Water Avenue Coffee, so a nice trifecta!