Here it is! The last review of 2018 and I’m happy that it features a local Kansas City area roaster that just started roasting coffee a few months ago! Happy New Year!
Purchasing info: Hammerhand has only been roasting for a few months and, currently, there are no order links on the Hammerhand website. The site does say to contact alex@hammerhand.coffee directly for more info, so it’s possible they may be able to arrange purchase and shipping with you via email or over the phone. I know they are selling bags of Hammerhand Coffee in the cafe, so give it a try!
HAMMERHAND COFFEE CO. LIGHT OF EÄRENDIL ESPRESSO
Hammerhand Coffee Co. apparently has a thing for the Lord of the Rings! Named after the 9th King of Rohan, Helm Hammerhand, Hammerhand Coffee Co. also named their espresso blend after the phial of Galadrial, containing the light of the star of Eärendil, given by the elf gave to Frodo Baggins… “Farewell, Frodo Baggins, I give you the light of Eärendil, our most beloved star. May it be a light to you in dark places when all other lights go out.”
Hammerhand Coffee Co. is located in the center of Liberty, Missouri, which is about 16 miles north-northeast of Kansas City. I’m embarassed to reveal that, despite Hammerhand being open since around Oct. 2016, I’ve never made it up there. I never, ever, go north of Kansas City unless it’s to visit family in Iowa, and even that route takes me quite far past Liberty. Kansas City sprawls like crazy, so Hammerhand is about 35 minutes from KC Coffee Geek World Domination Headquarters and, well, I mean, I guess I could give more excuses. LOL Add the distance to the fact that I usually have a lot of coffee at HQ to drink and review and I just rarely make it out to actually visit my local shops. Maybe I’ll be better about that in 2019!
Hammerhand is owned by Alex Merrell and a couple silent partners and they had a rough go of things, at first. The building they were to put their location in collapsed about 2 weeks before they moved in and it pushed their opening back almost 6 months. But, Hammerhand Coffee Co. seems to be alive and well in their location, which looks great by the pictures I’ve seen. Hammerhand started out as a multiroaster company with a rotating selection of beans from local and distant roasters, but in September 2018 Alex and crew started roasting their own beans and they sent me 4 bags to try out and share with you, dear readers.
The coffee I’m starting with is Light of Eärendil, an espresso blend that is 50% Ugandan and 50% Brazilian coffee. One of them is washed and one is natural, and I’m not sure which component is which, but I suspect the Brazilian component is the natural as I’m not getting a big natural vibe out of this coffee and African naturals tend to be a lot fruitier than Brazilians. I could be totally backward, though, too. Hammerhand gives us tasting notes of, “Milk chocolate, cherry, lime, apple” and says this coffee is, “full bodied, smooth, great in milk.” I tried my espresso naked as I drink very little milk, but based on the flavors I was getting out of this espresso, I can’t imagine it not doing very well in milkies.
I was pulling nice shots at a slightly higher than 1:2 ratio in around 27-30 seconds. I’ve been using 19-19.2g of coffee in and getting 42-45g of espresso in the cup in 27-30 seconds and I was liking the flavors I was getting. This is a pretty light roast, so I think the longer shot time helps the extraction. I usually prefer 1:1.5 pulls that land between ristretto and normale ratios, but flavors don’t lie!
For equipment for this coffee I was using my trusty Gaggia Classic that I have blind-tuned to about 9 bars of pressure. I use an aftermarket bottomless portafilter with a 20g precision basket from Decent Espresso and a 58.5mm matched precision tamper, also from Decent. Their tamper is calibrated to a 25 lbs tamp pressure. The other slight mods I’ve made to my Gaggia are an aftermarket brass shower screen holder instead of the stock aluminum one, and an IMS shower screen that gives better water dispersion over the puck than the stock Gaggia one (supposedly). Finally, I am using an Orphan Espresso Pharos 2.0 grinder, and it is quite a workout with a lighter roast like this one, but the good news is I can get my exercise in and a nice cup of espresso at the same time! LOL
As far as process goes, the Pharos has a very fluffy and clump-free grind, but I still give the grounds a whip with a “WDT” tool and then I groom/distribute with a generic version of an OCD-style distribution tool (Amazon, $15). Then it’s tamp and go.
On my tighter pulls (19 in, 38-42 out in 27-ish seconds) I got lots of raisin, more lemony acidity and plenty of cocoa powder notes. My best shot was 19.1g in, 45g out in 27 seconds and this one had lots of bittersweet chocolate, almonds that read almost as amaretto, lime acidity and a really nice sour cherry note that really gave this particular cup a chocolate-covered cherry vibe. All my shots had nice crema and a syrupy body. For most of my test shots I skimmed the crema off before stirring and drinking. That’s something I picked up from a recent James Hoffman video and once I started I really have been enjoying the sweeter, fruitier espresso flavors without the bitterness found in the crema. I did make a few shots just stirring the whole shot and leaving the crema intact and they were also tasty, but the fruits were more muted this way.
Overall this was an interesting coffee to play around with and experiment with. For a company that has only been roasting for a few months, I think the Light of Eärendil is a big success and I’m excited to share the other three coffees they sent with you soon!