Summer is winding down, but there’s still plenty of warm weather left to be able to enjoy some cold brew! Folly Coffee Roasters sent me their Cold Brew Bean to try out, so let’s drink!
Purchase this coffee directly for $18.50/12oz with free shipping
FOLLY COFFEE ROASTERS COLD BREW BEAN
Folly Coffee Roasters is a partnership between two gents named Rob and Ken. Rob fell in love with specialty coffee and eventually ran into Ken at his local farmer’s market, who was selling his own roasted coffee. Rob and Ken struck up a friendship and eventually a business partnership and Folly Coffee Roasters was born. They named the business after “Hill’s Folly,” the iconic Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis and even worked the shape of the bridge into their logo. On this bag of Cold Brew Bean, it’s the logo’s teeth, which show the shape of the bridge both right side up and upside down.
This morning I’m taking a taste of Folly Coffee Roasters’ Cold Brew Bean, and that’s the extent of the info I could find on Folly’s website about the coffee! Edit 9/30/18): Folly puts additional info about the current versions of their coffees under the “current origins” tab on their site. This coffee is a Fair Trade Organic from Asociación Bosque y Agua. It’s a washed coffee from the Cajamarca region and this lot is a blend of Bourbon, Typica and Caturraa varieties grown around 1700masl.
This is a 12oz bag of coffee that also, nicely, comes with a cold brew bag so that pretty much anyone can make it without having to procure extra stuff to do it. There is some extra info on this coffee to be found on Folly’s blog (the Flog). In early June 2018, Rob and Ken attended Coffeefest Denver to attend some classes and compete in America’s Best Cold Brew Competition. They’d never competed in a coffee competition and so nerves were high. After passing the first round, they moved on to round 2 and were getting close to running out of cold brew, which would be an obvious problem if they moved on to round 3! They had their cold brew beans and spring water from Minnesota, but didn’t think to bring brewing equipment. Coffee people tend to be pretty nice people, though, and after scrounging together a 5 gallon brewing setup and a place to work in, Ken and Rob managed to get another batch going because, lo and behold, they had moved on to the final round! They ended up placing 3rd overall and winning the Peoples’ Choice 1st place!
Other than knowing this is an award-winning coffee, I don’t know if it’s a blend, single origin, where the beans are from, or any other details. I will say right off the bat that I am firmly in the warm coffee camp, however I can make and enjoy a cold brew with the best of them! I know there are as many ways to make cold brew coffee as there are people doing it, but I stick with my trusty 1:16 ratio when I do it. I know some people go as high as 1:4 or 1:5! I use a Coffee Panda (goes by 100 other names and from 100 other sellers on Amazon), which is a glass cylinder with a handle/top that integrates to a long, narrow basket that sits in the middle of the glass container and doubles as a serving unit when brewing is done. This size is perfect for about 81g of coffee and 1.3 liters of water to hit my ratio, so it works for me. I always worry that the long, narrow filter basket is going to be a problem, not allowing full extraction, but it doesn’t actually seem to be. Given that the allure of cold brew for most people is “low acid” and “smooth” coffee, I set aside the Third Wave Water I ALWAYS use to brew everything and went with local Kansas City tap water. Third Wave Water tends to brighten coffees up with its chemistry, so that’s why I opted for tap water.
The result? A cup of pretty good cold coffee! LOL Mine has medium-heavy to heavy body and there is a good amount of chocolate notes going on as well as some nice malic acidity (acids DO actually extract in cold brew). Malic acidity is the type of acidity you’d get from apples and it can run the gamut from fairly sharp Granny Smiths to pretty mellow and sweet tasting. This cold brew definitely comes out with the latter… red apples, Honeycrisp. It gives a nice crisp, cool, refreshing note to this sweet cold brew. Cold brew needs balance and some acidity to play against the sweetness, or it’s dull and boring, which is why so many people experiment with putting adjuncts such as hops, citrus extracts, etc into cold brew. If I keep this coffee in my mouth and get some agitation and puff air back into my sinuses (“retronasal” tasting), it gets more and more apple-y to me and it’s very enjoyable. The cold brew finishes a little on the sweet side and there is apple in the immediate aftertaste followed by a more chocolatey note if I put more time between sips. This is a great starting place for a nice cold brew that is “low acid” and “smooth” and sweet, but also has enough acidity and fruitiness to keep things interesting. It has all the elements I think most cold brew fans are looking for without being boring and stodgy.
But will it espresso?
Just to experiment and be fun with this coffee, I ripped some shots on my espresso machine, too. Please note I do use Third Wave Water in my espresso machine, too. This brought out a lot of brightness from this coffee… lots of lemon and lime citrus notes and that hint of bitterness that comes with lime. Some nice cherry notes in the cup, too, and a very raisin-forward aftertaste. A totally different coffee depending on how it’s brewed, which is really quite true of any coffee when you’re comparing it as espresso to another brewing form!