Rounding out our tour of southern Florida, courtesy of the ultra-generous coffee ambassador, Andrew Giambarba, I’ll be taking another look at an Ethiopian coffee this morning, this time from Miami’s Eternity Coffee Roasters. Check out the links!
Eternity Coffee Roasters website
Purchase this coffee directly for $19/12oz
Nowbreing.coffee – Andy Giambarba’s website
Photo essay of Eternity Coffee Roasters’ shop
ETERNITY COFFEE ROASTERS ETHIOPIA YIRGACHEFFE KONGA
We’re getting toward the end of the insane box of coffee Andy from Miami sent and this time we’re back in Miami at Eternity Coffee Roasters. I couldn’t find a ton about Eternity Coffee Roasters in my research, but they have been around since at least 2011 and they occupy a dual-use roastery and tasting room/cafe dominated by their San Franciscan roaster that takes center stage in the shop. Like Panther Coffee, who is credited with starting the Miami specialty coffee scene, Eternity seemed to gain press for their pourovers, in-house roasting and non-Cuban coffee culture. I wonder if any of these specialty cafe’s are offering a specialty version of the cafecito, which is espresso or strong coffee with a bunch of whipped up sugar in it? I occasionally make these using really good espresso shots and they are insanely good. Patent pending. LOL
In any case, Andy selected Eternity’s Yirgacheffe Konga from Ethiopia for me. The bag doesn’t clearly say whether this is a natural or a washed coffee. It says, “sun dried on raised beds” and the aromas and flavors are consistent with a natural, so that’s what I’m assuming. This coffee comes from the Konga zone where Yirgacheffe, the apocryphal birthplace of coffee, is found. Flavor notes from Eternity say, “mixed stone fruits, blackberry, dried strawberry, kiwi and mango. Delightfully full-bodied, rich and smooth with low acidity.” So, a bit of a mix of traditional third wave tasting notes and some more second wave-y marketing-speak there. The bag also calls this a “medium” roast.
I used my standard 1:16 ratio of 28g of coffee to 450g of water in a notNeutral Gino pourover with Kalita 185 filters for my cups of this coffee. This coffee was roasted a little darker than a lot of the Ethiopian naturals I’ve had of late. It was easy to grind in my hand grinder and it was less dense in the pourover, floating more than sinking straight to the bottom of the filter. This sped up the brewing a little more, but it still fell within my normal parameters. I didn’t get tons of aroma from this coffee… sweet, fruity, but nothing super specific. In the cup I found a medium-bodied coffee that was very clean and, like a lot of the Yirgacheffe naturals from this year, almost more of a washed profile than a natural one. Like yesterday’s natural from Ethiopia, this one is really clean and has very little ferment that comes with most natural coffees. I actually like the ferment notes, myself. A little bit of ferment comes out in the finish and aftertaste, but for the most part, this is a pretty clean cup.
I found some stone fruit (peachy and apricot) flavors in this cup, which is always a nice find, and a hint of lemon acidity. There was almost more of a malic vibe (think of apples) to the acidity in this cup and sweetness certainly predominated the flavor profile. There was enough acidity to offer some balance, but this was a more mellow, round, sweet, bottom heavy coffee than some of the bright lime bombs that Yirgacheffe has to offer. This is a nice, sweet, easy-drinking and inviting coffee to drink and a great choice for someone looking for a sweet natural Ethiopian that isn’t too funky and not overly fruity. Nice!