Kuma Coffee Colombia Esperanza

I had my first taste of Kuma Coffee from my MyCoffeePub.com subscription at the end of 2016 and I’m happy to see they are February’s selection, this time with their freshest Colombian! Without further ado…

Kuma Coffee

Purchase this coffee directly for $18/12oz

MyCoffeePub.com


MYCOFFEEPUB FEBRUARY 2018: KUMA COFFEE COLOMBIA ESPERANZA

MyCoffeePub.com is the easiest type of coffee subscription in a large ocean of subscription options. Every month you receive one bag of coffee and it’s a total surprise until it lands on your doorstep. I love it and I am always full of anticipation between the 15th and 20th of every month! MyCoffeePub has great taste in selecting their monthly coffee and they offer a nice mix of bigger named roasters as well as smaller operations. Kuma Coffee is pretty legendary in the specialty coffee world and it’s a mainstay of the Seattle coffee community. Kuma was founded by Mark Barany around 2007, but he bought his first production roaster in 2009 and that’s when the operation went into full swing. Kuma was named after a shelter dog that Mark adopted around that time. Mark’s love for coffee started in 1995 when he and his family moved to Kenya for a few years. Returning to the USA in 1998, Mark worked as a barista in Seattle before starting to roast. Kuma was founded on principles of good sourcing, transparency and client relationships, which is a pretty good mix!

This morning’s coffee is Kuma’s newest Colombian offering, Esperanza. This is a mix of Colombia and Castillo varieties grown around 1750masl by Mary Luz Cedeño Serrato, whose farm is located in the Huila department of Colombia. Kuma found this year’s Colombian coffees to be “explosive” on the cupping table and thought Mary’s was a real standout. Kuma gives us tasting notes of, “chocolatey and panela sweetness and is interlaced with cherry juice and little bursts of wintergreen.” Just in case you’re like me, panela is unrefined whole cane sugar sold in a solid form that is common throughout Mexico, Central and South America. I don’t know that I’ve ever had it, although I’ve seen it a million times in stores.

I used my standard 1:16 pourover setup of 28g of coffee to 450g of Third Wave Water in a notNeutral Gino dripper. I used the same Aergrind grinder setting I had for the very dense Ethiopian beans I last ground and this was a little fast for this one, coming in at 2:40 for the extraction (not including a long bloom). Nonetheless, I ended up with a nice cup, so I rolled with it! This coffee has a medium-light body and a slightly dry finish, giving it a bit of a tea-like mouthfeel, for me, although not as much as some Ethiopian coffees can. I get a nice, light, honey-like sweetness in the front end of the sip. Around mid-sip I get a subtle, but clear, wash of cherry over my palate. As the cup cools further, cherry cordial is not outside the realm of possibility as more chocolate notes creep in. I’m quite certain I’m getting influenced by suggestion regarding the wintergreen flavor note (although from time to time I do get mint of various types coming through in coffee, so I’ve tasted it before), but in the finish and aftertaste I do feel like I get hints of wintergreen as well as a minty “feel” on my palate between sips. The brain is highly suggestible to flavors (“I don’t taste anything.” “Man, I get tons of lilacs that are in organic potting soil and were grown on a west-facing, third floor apartment terrace in Nice.” “Oh, yeah, there it is!”) so I’m always a little cautious, even with having a pretty decent palate! That being said, I think I’m getting a bit of wintergreen, more in the feeling on my palate than the actual flavor, although I think I get little shots of that toward the finish of this coffee, too. The longer I go between sips, the more minty feeling I get on my palate, sort of the mouth’s version of splashing on a cooling, minty aftershave! LOL

This is an unusual and enjoyable Colombian coffee, for me. I really love the bright, fruity cups from Colombia and this one is darker, with it’s cherry and chocolate notes. That minty sensation is simultaneously weird and super enjoyable for me. I love unusual coffees, especially when that “unusualness” tastes good, and this coffee has it in spades. This is another thing I love about MyCoffeePub… they don’t shy away from the occasional adventurous selection for subscribers and I would throw this Esperanza from Kuma into that group. Yum!