Just in time for Christmas, I have Airship’s Holiday Blend, which I’ve spent some time ripping as espresso and really enjoying as pourover, too. Drink up and read on!
Purchase Holiday Blend directly for $13/8.8oz (250g)
AIRSHIP COFFEE ROASTERS HOLIDAY BLEND
Airship Coffee Roasters is one of my favorite roasters out of NW Arkansas, and when you look at the list of who’s down in that region, that says a lot! Airship is involved on the growing and farming side of things, having been founded by agronomist Mark Bray, as well as importing and roasting awesome coffees to the peak of their flavors. I have yet to have a bad coffee roasted by Airship either under their own label or their Mama Carmen’s brand. I’m excited to see that Airship built out a brick and mortar location in Bentonville this summer, too, so now I really REALLY have to make my way to Arkansas for a coffee pilgrimage, something I’ve been saying I’d do for years now!
My friends at Airship surprised me last week with a bag of their Holiday Blend, which they describe as, “your favorite sweatrer. Your favorite dessert that only comes around once a year. Sweet, complex, and just straight up cozy.” This year’s blend is 60% washed Guatemala Huehuetenango and 40% natural Burundi Nkonge. The fragrance from the beans and grounds is sweet with lots of berry notes, and knowing what the Airship crew can do with Guatemalan coffees had me pretty excited for this coffee! Just based on the components, I expected a lot of sweetness, some berry and some citrus, caramel… all the good stuff, so let’s see how it is! Airship gives us tasting notes of, “Cranberry sauce, fruit cake, plum” for this coffee.
I made my cups using what is becoming my standard pourover setup (for now) of a 1:16 ratio of 22g of coffee to 352g of Third Wave Water. The brewing vessel is a Trinity Origin and I’m using a Melodrip to control the water and keep agitation to a minimum. Grinder is a Knock Aergrind. As far as process, I do a 44-ish gram pour from the kettle to wet and bloom the grounds, then I use the glass rod that comes with the Melodrip not so much to stir, but to probe the coffee bed and look for dry spots. After about 30-40 seconds of this, I pour probably another 40-50 grams from the kettle to get everything under water, then I pour through the Melodrip for the rest of the brew.
The aroma from this coffee is nice and sweet and fruity. I’m getting a little citrus, marzipan (something almondy and nutty) and a hard-to-describe-but-very-delicious fruit component I can’t quite identify. Taking a sip, I’m greeted by a medium-heavy bodied coffee with orange and cranberry right up front. At Thanksgiving I used to make a fresh cranberry sauce that had a lot of orange juice and zest in it and this reminds me a lot of that. It’s sweet, but also has that tartness you expect from cranberry, with the perfect complementary flavor of orange and citrus to go along with it. As the cup cools a caramel undertone comes out more, bookending these fruity notes at the front and back of the sip. This coffee finishes sweet on my palate and that citrus and cranberry note carries a long way into the aftertaste until I’m ready for another sip. This coffee really gets great at a pretty cool temperature, for me, so let this one cool down and don’t be afraid of a lukewarm cup because that’s when it really opens up and shines! This is a GREAT blend and a super enjoyable cup.