Let’s cap this nice springtime week off with a new roaster from right here in Kansas City! I’d like to introduce you to No Coast Roast and their signature coffee from Colombia, Crown Town! Let’s dive right in!
Purchase this coffee directly for $15/12oz
NO COAST ROAST CROWN TOWN
One of the best things about Kansas City is you can’t throw a rock without hitting a new roaster or cafe these days, and what a “problem” to have! Without fail, when people contact me about where to get coffee in Kansas City, or they shoot me a message after visiting, the first comment is, “You weren’t kidding, there ARE a lot of roasters here!” If I had way more time on my hands I would do a better job keeping my KC Coffee Guide link updated, but that’s a full time job in and of itself, really!
The latest (that I know of, but, heck, who knows what else has popped up in the last month!) addition to our coffee community here in Kansas City is No Coast Coffee Roasters, who really go buy the moniker, “No Coast Roast.” Of course, No Coast is a call out to this lovely landlocked location we live in, completely free of the distractions and annoyances of sand, waves and the sound of water lapping against the shore. Pfff. Who needs it? No Coast Roast was founded by Max Bellmann, who is also currently No Coast’s roaster, accountant, marketing director, shipping expediter and, I can only guess, also sweeps the floors and tidies up! Max is a Kansas City native and like a lot of people, has fallen into the age old trap of turning one’s hobby and passion into a business. He started out roasting tiny batches in his garage and in 2016 branded the No Coast Coffee Roasters name. Since then, he has moved into a commercial space with a Loring roaster, which would allow him to crank out 10,000 pounds of coffee per month if he was so inclined (let’s get him there!). No Coast is currently online only, but Max is working toward wholesale accounts and getting into retail spaces, although (and I think, smartly), he doesn’t have any designs to run a cafe at this time. No Coast’s general vibe is to celebrate Kansas City and Midwest values (honesty, humility, quality) as well as the coffee origins Max selects, and make them accessible and delicious. Simple!
One thing I’d love to see No Coast grow into is having more information on the website. I’m starting with Crown Town, named in honor of Kansas City, and the information I can find says this is a medium roast from Colombia and to expect notes of “chocolate and stone fruit.” The info junkie in me likes to know the part of the country, the altitude, anything about the farmers, processing methods and etc, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone wants that level of info! I do like No Coast’s clean labels with the pop of “Royals blue” at the bottom of the bag. Simple, easy to read, classy but not too formal or spare.
I’m using my standard pourover setup of a 1:16 ratio of 22g of coffee to 352g of Third Wave Water in a Trinity Origin dripper with Kalita 185 filter. Grinder is a Knock Aergrind and I pour through a Melodrip to control my agitation in the coffee bed. Total brew time for this coffee was hitting around 2:45.
Taking a sip, this is medium bodied coffee with a velvety texture. I’m getting a caramel sweetness from the low end of this cup and as I’m writing this I just got a big shot of cinnamon and some other baking spices that came out of nowhere! There is a clean brightness to this cup that is not quite citrus, not quite apple, not quite pear, which is where I think the stone fruit descriptor Max used is coming from. There’s a little peachiness to this coffee, in a hard to describe way, but not necessarily peach flavor. The brightness coupled with that, though, does conjure up thoughts of dried apricots for me, though. There’s a slight tartness that I really enjoy as the acidity ramps up in each sip. Those baking spices are still in the second half of each sip, maybe not turned up to 11 like that initial shot I got, but pleasantly in the background and into the aftertaste. The balance between tartness, brightness and sweetness is really excellent in this coffee and the cup finishes sweet and then has a great, dairy-like presence on my palate until the next sip. This is an easy drinker but still plenty complex to give coffee geeks something to think about! I do get a slight hint of roast in the background and if I had any criticism of this coffee, that’d be it and it’s about as nitpicky as a comment can be, so if I were Max I’d ignore it! LOL Revisiting this coffee 5 weeks off roast as I finally get my notes typed into something readable, this coffee is still really good. It’s a like a warm blanket to wrap in until the sun is really up and taking the chill out of this spring morning! Stay tuned, dear readers, because I have two other bags of coffee from No Coast Roast to share with you, so we’ll see if Max can top what he has done with this Crown Town!