My new pals at Goshen Coffee Company outside of (and on the Illinois side of) St. Louis sent me some awesome coffees from their Secret Stash a while back and they’ve all been really good so far! Today I’m looking at Goshen’s Toribio Vasquez, a rarity in that it is a washed coffee whereas most of the Secret Stash locations are naturals.
Like everything Goshen roasts, this coffee is organic and this one comes from the farm of Jose Toribio Vasquez. The Vasquez farm is located in Marcala, in the La Paz state of Honduras. The altitude for this lot is 1560masl and it’s a fully washed coffee comprised of Bourbon, Catuai, Pache and Pacas varietals. The farm is just three acres and Jose and his family have been growing coffee there since 1996.[ref]http://www.royalcoffee.com/Profiles/HONDURAS%20ORGANIC%20TORIBIO%20VASQUEZ%20GRAINPRO[/ref] You can purchase this coffee directly from Goshen in 80z bags for $12.
Goshen offers the tasting notes of, “chocolate, lime, fig” for this coffee. I had some trouble describing it in my own notes, but I loved it, so my writer’s block on this coffee is not reflective of how much I enjoyed drinking it! Honduran coffees have been all the rage this year and I haven’t had too much exposure to the region yet, but I am going to start keeping my eyes peeled for more!
I used my usual 1:15 Gino pourover method for this coffee using unbleached Kalita 185 filters. The first thing I noted about this coffee is that it has an intensity and depth of flavor that sets it apart. This coffee feels like it bores down into the taste buds and palate, rather than lightly washing over it! I guess that translates to a heavy-side-of-medium body, although the aftertaste doesn’t stick around for long. The flavors are sweet but the finish is a little dry. It’s hard to describe but this coffee seems to hit all parts of my palate and it is just really deep, for lack of a better term. I think people would refer to this as “bold” or “rich” if they didn’t know better, but I refuse to describe coffees as such! “Deep” is soooo much better, right? Right? 🙂
As far as acidity, I didn’t get as much lime as the bag promised. For me, it was more malic, reminding me of apple juice and also hitting my palate in a way that causes me to refer to this as a “juicy” coffee. Malic acidity and juiciness tend to travel together, for me, and when I say “juicy” I mean my cheeks get involved and there is a sense of salivation that occurs with the sip and it just wants me to drink more and more (and more and more).
This is a sweet coffee and that malic acidity gives that sweetness some wings. It leaned more toward caramel than chocolate for me, but either way, it’s a winner. This is a super delicious coffee, it’s deviously easy to drink and it’s inviting and accessible. If other Hondurans have been similar to this one this year, I understand why people have been going nuts for them. Another killer coffee from Goshen! Wow!