It’s dark and stormy this morning in Kansas City and I can’t think of a better way to prepare for the day than with a cup of coffee from Two Rivers in Arvada, Colorado. This is the final of four coffees in this series, check it out!
Purchase this coffee for $17.50/12oz
Other reviews in this series: Ethiopia Walichu Wachu | Costa Rica Perla Negra | Zambia Isanya & Kateshi
TWO RIVERS GUATEMALA LAS NUBES
In 2010, Novo Coffee turned over its struggling Arvada, Colorado location (northwest of Denver) to Eric Yochim, whose experience was in fine dining. After making this leap into coffee, Eric made a go of it and in 2015, Two Rivers doubled their capacity for serving customers and added a glass partition so they can see the roastery in action, too. The food menu looks great and the only negative press I was able to find on Two Rivers was from Denverites wishing they were located closer to town!
I’ve been really impressed with Two Rivers’ coffees so far and this is the fourth and final coffee that Eric sent me. This morning’s coffee is Las Nubes, a Guatemalan selection from the San Pedro Yepocapa region. It consists of multiple varieties and my bag had some large beans as well as some tiny peaberries in it. Growing altitude is around 1600masl. This coffee is produced by Don Evaristo Charuc and is a washed microlot separated out from the rest of the farmers who work through La Cooperativa San Pedrana Agricola Integral, a growers’ co-op. Don Evaristo has been in coffee as long as he can remember and this lot is a tribute to his skill in growing and processing coffee. Two Rivers gives us tasting notes of, “Sweet red apple, red grapes, milk chocolate, snickerdoodle.” I’m using my standard pourover method of a 1:16 ratio of 22g of coffee to 352g of Third Wave Water in a Trinity Origin brewer. This one ran a little long at 3:30 plus a 30 second bloom, but the coffee was great, so no complaints here!
This is a medium-bodied coffee that definitely pays to let cool down some. At immediately brewed temps it was a bit thin and there wasn’t much going on, but the coffee drinker is rewarded with some patience in letting it cool down and open up. I’m immediately hit with the sweetness and flavor of apple cider right up front. It’s a “cool” flavor for me, and has a crispness to it while still being sweet and delicious. This is red apples or sweet varieties like honeycrisp, not so much the more tart flavors I’d associate with green apple that can frequently be found in coffee. In the mid-sip I’m getting grape and a touch of wine-like character as there is a little bit of tartness coming into the flavor profile. There’s a hint of lemon acidity to the trailing end of the cup, maybe more green apple than proper lemon, although it reads as a bit lemony to me. The finish is sweet and there’s a short aftertaste of apples with a little cinnamon and warming spices between sips. This is a very easy drinker that I found myself practically chugging because I wanted to taste more, and faster! A beautiful cup that really straddles the line between the super sweet caramel forward Guats that I love so much and the acidic and bright ones (that I also love) that I get on occasion. If you’ve ever wondered what apple tastes like in the context of coffee, this one will calibrate your palate quite nicely!