Dagger Mountain Colombia Nariño

After trying Dagger Mountain’s killer Kenya Kiriani last week, I couldn’t wait to dive deeper into the box of coffees they sent! Another random grab out of the box and I had their Colombio Nariño in hand. I love Colombian coffees and Dagger Mountain has a knack for roasting for lots of sweetness and brightness, so I couldn’t wait to check this one out.

Dagger Mountain Roastery

Purchase this coffee for $15/12oz.

Dagger Mountain Kenya Kiriani AA review


DAGGER MOUNTAIN COLOMBIA NARIÑO

Dagger Mountain Roastery is located in Valparaiso, IN, not far from Chicago, and was started by Andy Urschel after a stint at Counter Culture in the Windy City. They have a tasting room/cafe that shares space in an industrial area of Valpo with the roastery and despite being off the beaten path, it’s a destination for coffee cognoscenti who know where to get a good cup!

Today’s coffee is from a high elevation farm in Colombia’s Nariño department, Galeras. It’s a mix of Castillo and Caturra varietals grown at 1700-2200 meters above sea level. This area of Colombia is relatively dry and, in combination with the crazy altitude, some pretty complex coffees come out of the area surrounding the active volcano, Volcan de Galeras.

Dagger Mountain gives us flavor notes of, “tropical fruit, almond, citrus” for this coffee. I used my standard 1:16 ratio of 28g of coffee to 450g of water in a notNeutral Gino. I used a Handground grinder set at 3.5 and Third Wave Water in my brewing. This cup has relatively light body for me, yet a density of flavor that makes it seem like it is sitting on my palate with more presence than I’d expect from a coffee with lighter mouthfeel like this. The mouthfeel is also creamy and dairy-like, something else that’s counter to the light body! The description from Dagger Mountain is spot-on for this coffee.

I get a lot of nuttiness out of the cup… definitely almond, maybe even like an almond butter vibe coupled with that creamy mouthfeel. The acidity is complex and shimmering but well-balanced for this coffee. I am getting a tartness in the acidity that reminds me of pineapple. It’s sweet, slightly tart and acidic all at once, just like the fruit. Toward the finish the acidity takes on a more citrusy note for me, more of a sweet lemon brightness.

The finish is quite abrupt and this coffee has a very short aftertaste, for me. I tend to prefer coffees with a long aftertaste that continues to develop between sips, but if the only thing “bad” this coffee has going for it is a short aftertaste, then I’ll take it! This is an interesting cup. I don’t often find almond nuttiness to such a degree along with lemony citrus and pineapple/tropical notes, but it works great! This is a tasty coffee that is really a study in contradictions: light mouthfeel that is creamy and intense (barely makes sense!), tropicals and citrus notes with tons of nutty sweetness… it’s like a painting lots of opposite colors on a color wheel, yet it works great and this is a delicious, yet unusual, flavor profile from what I’m used to from Colombia. A great catch from Dagger Mountain and, as usual, expertly roasted.