Epic Bean Coffee Mexican High Grown

Today’s coffee comes to us from Epic Bean Coffee in Maryland. I found Epic through Instagram. If you’ve read KCcoffeegeek for any length of time you should know I’m completely addicted to metal enamel mugs and Epic has one of the best. Ever. Thick enamel? Check. Unicorns? Yep. Mosaic motif on the bottom? Sure, why not? So, they didn’t escape my eye and I bought a mug, some coffee and received samples of a couple others in the process!

Epic Mexican High Grown

Epic can tell their origin story better than anyone, so in their own words:

We both served in the United States Marine Corps, where we learned outstanding work ethic, and the ability to tolerate terrible coffee. After a few deployments of drinking some of the worst coffee on Earth, we realized that we should create a company dedicated to curating great coffee.

The coffee I’m reviewing today is Epic’s Mexican High Grown. I don’t have a ton of geek info on this one, but it is a washed coffee, roasted “light-medium” and with tasting notes of “dark chocolate, spice.” This coffee appears to have been grown in the Chiapas region of Mexico and, like a lot of Mexican coffee, it’s organic. [ref]http://www.epicbean.com/products/mexican-high-grown-e-p[/ref] Coffee in Chiapas grows in the 1200-1800masl range and because the region is found in the same mountain range as the Huehuetenango region of Guatemala, Mexican coffee from Chiapas can share some similar attributes. [ref]http://www.cafeimports.com/origin_mexico[/ref] You can buy this coffee for a very reasonable $12/12oz bag directly from Epic.

I have always found Mexican coffee to be very straightforward, very simple and easy drinking and this one from Epic is definitely consistent with that. It has a nice roast level that does give it a wonderfully chocolatey flavor profile (this one would rock as cold brew… now I regret splitting my bag up with friends!!!!). It has some warm spiciness, almost black pepper quality in the second half of the sip. The finish on this coffee is just a touch dry but it’s a super easy coffee to drink and this could easily be a daily morning ritual.

I used my notNeutral Gino pourover and AeroPress for this coffee and, again, the AeroPress won out. It’s funny because Mexican coffees never excite me when I see them included in samples or on a shelf at a roaster, but I pretty much always like them, so I don’t know what my problem is! LOL If you’re looking for a super complex coffee that will have you pondering every sip and layer, no, this one isn’t for you, but Epic has produced a wonderful, tasty, beautifully simple and delicious daily drinker with this one and I am impressed!