Let’s start Monday off with correcting an old mistake… Switchback sent me two boxes of coffee about a month and a half ago and the review for this one just never got posted! Let’s get right to it…
SWITCHBACK COFFEE ROASTERS CONGO SOPACDI CO-OP
Occasionally I type up a review early (shocking, I know!) and save it in WordPress and then promptly forget all about posting it and this is one of those reviews! Unfortunately, that means this coffee is no longer available from Switchback, but it also serves to add to their reputation here for readers (which is excellent), so it’s worth posting all the same. Switchback Coffee Roasters are a cafe and roasting company based in Boulder, Colorado. The cafe looks awesome from the photos I’ve seen. Sam Neely, wholesale manager for Switchback, placed 5th place in the Coffee Championships qualifying round in February and will be moving on to the nationals in Seattle later this month. So, this is a company that takes its coffee seriously and, of course, we like that! (from here forward, I’m posting my review that I typed and saved well over a month ago, so please keep that in mind…)
Getting to this coffee, this is a washed mix of Bourbon and Bourbon-derivatives grown around Lake Kivu in Congo’s east, bordering Rwanda. Growing altitude is around 1460-2000masl.The SOPCADI co-op is made of about 5600 farmers from a variety of ethnic groups all working toward a better future in their country. According to Switchback, this was the first coffee to achieve the top quality grade from Congo since 1967, a sign that all this hard work is beginning to pay off. Switchback gives us tasting notes of, “cranberry and orange, deep sweetness like molasses, and a medium, round body.” I’m using my standard pourover setup of a 1:16 ratio of 28g of coffee to 450g of Third Wave Water in a notNeutral Gino dripper with Kalita 185 filter. Grinder is an Aergrind by Knock.
Taking my first couple sips, this is a bright, interesting coffee right out of the gate. It has a medium to medium-light body, for me, and there’s a lot of freshly squeezed orange juice and cranberry right up front. First flavor that hits my palate is that fresh orange juice. It’s bright and sweet and refreshing. Right behind that comes a more tart acidity that also has a bit of “tightening” feel on my palate, which I read as a little astringency and is a hallmark of cranberries. Cranberries can be frightneingly tart, which this is nowhere near, but cranberry is definitely a component of the acidity in this cup. At Thanksgiving I always make cranberries with orange peel and juice mixed in and this reminds me a lot of that dish. For all the high notes in this coffee, there is a nice caramel sweetness, too, that offers plenty of low end and balance. This coffee finishes sweet and with a lot of the fruits on my palate between sips. I know I don’t have a lot to say about this coffee, but it’s good! Sometimes a coffee is pretty straightforward in its presentation and there’s not a ton to say about various nuances and I don’t mind that one bit! I’m really struck by just how “fresh” and vibrant this coffee tastes. It’s delicious!