So far I’ve been super happy with my Kurasu x Good Coffee Japanese coffee subscription for this month. This month’s coffees come from Trunk Coffee in Nagoya, Japan. Nagoya is about 3 hours west of Tokyo by train and that’s the extent of what I know about that city! LOL
You can read more about the subscription in a previous article here.
You can read about last month’s coffees from Glitch Coffee here: Yirgacheffe Natural and Rwanda Coko.
Last month’s, which was the first month of the subscription, started off pretty good with the Yirgacheffe from Glitch. The Rwanda Coko was under-roasted to my palate, giving me lots of grassy notes and just an overall unpleasant experience.
When I opened my box from Kurasu this month, I was greeted by two 100g bags of coffee from Trunk Coffee. They featured a simple black “Trunk Coffee” logo on the front and when I flipped them over I was happy to see labels full of Japanese writing! I don’t know why something I can’t read makes me so happy, but it does!
I decided to try to the washed Yirgacheffe Hama first and it is a spectacular coffee! This coffee is a washed Ethiopian heirloom varietal grown in the 1800-2000masl range. Hama is a cooperative with 1500 members located in Kochere and it is part of the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union.[ref]http://www.yirgacheffeunion.com/Cooperative-Unions/hama-cooperatives.html[/ref] Hama is well-regarded and this is likely a Grade 1 coffee selection, meaning it has almost all defective coffee cherries and beans removed through multiple sorting processes.
I’ve brewed most of my bag in my Gino dripper with a 1:15 ratio and coming in around five minutes for my total brew time. That’s a minute more than I usually do, but it didn’t seem to harm my brewed coffee in any way at all! The first thing I noticed on this coffee is the aroma when brewing. Usually, I am underwhelmed by what I smell coming off the brew liquid in coffees when I am using a pourover device. Sometimes there are unpleasant aromas (which almost never make it into the actual coffee) and other times it’s just not really special in any way. This one from Trunk is, without a doubt, the best smelling coffee I have ever made. This is not to detract from any other good ones I’ve enjoyed the aroma on, but this is one of those coffees that I’d be happy just smelling and not even getting to taste!
The aroma is incredibly floral and sweet and it smells like a garden full of flowers. The included description card mentioned jasmine but I am not well-versed in flower aromas, so I can’t confirm that. To me, if a perfectly ripe peach and a really pleasant flower could be combined, this is what it would smell like! I could barely get my face out of the Gino to keep pouring water to brew, it was that good.
In the flavor itself I got a lot of those florals through the entire range from immediately after brewing all the way down to room temperature (how I drink all my coffees). There is a lot of sweetness in the cup with some stone fruit flavors. The body is light but there is a nice aftertaste that seemed both perfumed and spicy. Very complex coffee for something so light on the palate.
The acidity gives a little lift to this coffee and was a soft lemon-lime citrus note. This is really an amazing coffee, full of complexity and yet balanced and very drinkable. Last year I was in love with Ethiopian naturals and wasn’t so turned on with washed Ethiopians. I flipped my opinion completely this year and this is easily one of the best, if not the best, washed Ethiopian I’ve had this year in a pretty good crop of coffees.
I couldn’t be happier with this one from Trunk.