January is off to a great start with a brand new roaster from my favorite coffee subscription service, MyCoffeePub. Let’s check this fresh Colombian coffee out from Smokin’ Aces! Slurp…
Purchase this coffee directly for $15/12oz.
MYCOFFEEPUB JANUARY 2019: SMOKIN’ ACES COFFEE CO. CASA VIEJA
One of the highlights of every month is finding out what coffee the crew at MyCoffeePub.com picked for subscribers. Sometimes they revisit a familiar face, and other times it’s a roaster I’ve never heard of. Such is the case this month with Smokin’ Aces Coffee Co. What makes MyCoffeePub so great is that it’s a “set it and forget it” type of subscription. You receive a bag of the coffee they chose for the month and that’s it! No sites to manage, difficult choices or micromanagement on your part. And did I mention how great a monthly coffee surprise is? It really is!
January 2019’s MCP roaster is Smokin’ Aces Coffee Co. Smokin’ Aces is a microroastery in Lexington, Kentucky founded in early 2017. Louisville native, David Barnes, opened the company originally as Archetype Coffee Co. and quickly went through a name and branding overhaul that was unveiled in June 2017. The Smokin’ Aces logo is a throwback to the early 20th century and the company’s deep appreciation for the way things were done at that time. Smokin’ Aces is carried and sold by a lot of local Lexington-based partners as well as in Ohio and even Colorado.
For this month’s MyCoffeePub selection, they went with a Colombian coffee called Casa Vieja. This is a mix of Caturra and Castillo varieties grown by Amadeo Argoti on his small farm, Casa Vieja, in the Nariño department of Colombia. Amadeo’s farm sits around a very high 1990 meters above sea level. Casa Vieja is about 1 hectare of land packed with 4,000 coffee trees and Amadeo washes his coffee and dries them on raised beds. Smokin’ Aces gives us tasting notes of, “milk chocolate, caramel and Meyer lemon” for this coffee, although I found my own descriptors to be totally different in this case. Of course flavor is in the mouth of the beholder!
To brew this coffee I am using a Trinity Origin with Kalita 155 filters and a 1:16 ratio of 22g of coffee to 352g of Third Wave Water. My grinder is a Knock Aergrind and I also use a Melodrip to control my pours. After a 45g bloom I use a glass rod to probe the coffee bed and make sure all the grounds are wet, then I pulse pour through the Melodrip. The 155 is a small filter, so I basically pour to the top of the filter and let the water level drop to just above the brew bed before I do the next pulse. This coffee brewed fast at a 3:00 total, including the 45 second bloom, but it came out great…
Taking a sip, this is a really juicy coffee that hits all my taste buds all at once. “Juicy” coffees have this hard-to-describe “wet” mouthfeel (I know, all coffee is wet) that causes the tastebuds to open up and salivary glands to kick up production and it’s more of a feel than a flavor, for sure. This is a light-bodied coffee but that juiciness gives it a lot of presence on my palate. I like the balance in this cup. It’s sweet, but also light and fruity (and, sorry, I have to say it again… juicy) and it reminds me of the balance of apple juice, crisp, light, sweet and fruity. There’s a light honey sweetness to the base of the cup and I’m also getting some tropical vibes in the front of the sip… mango and a little pineapple. In addition to tropical fruits, I’m finding some malic acidity, which is closely associated with apples. Oddly for a washed coffee, I am getting some ferment notes and a little bit of a ferment vibe in the aftertaste of this coffee, but I don’t mind ferment flavors in the least, so that’s not a detractor for me, but it is unusual to find a little bit of funk in a washed Colombian coffee. It works great in this flavor profile, though, and I actually like it. This coffee finishes sweet with an apple juice-like sugary coating on my tongue that lingers for a decent amount of time between sips. As always, this coffee really woke up at a cooler temperature, so my standing recommendation of letting your coffee sit for a while and really cool off is very true for Casa Vieja, too.
This coffee is a great introduction to Smokin’ Aces and I hope an opportunity comes up to try some more of their coffee and share it with you. I’ll be giving this a try as espresso, too, so keep your eyes on my Instagram, as always, for updates and more content!