Cacophony Coffee Roasters is back in the lineup this morning, so let’s check out a fresh Brazilian from one of Kansas City’s newest roasters!
Cacophony Coffee Roasters on Instagram
Other reviews in this series: Experimental Espresso
CACOPHONY COFFEE ROASTERS BRAZIL SUBLIME FAZENDA COQUEIRO
Cacophony Coffee Roasters is one of Kansas City’s latest entries into the coffee roasting business, and the more the merrier! Cacophony was started by Thad Carson, mountain bike obsessive and roaster/owner/everything else at Cacophony right now. Cacophony got its official start in late 2018 and Thad sells coffee locally through Onestar Bicycles and Mansion Coffee, and I do believe Velo+ bicycle shop also sells bags of Cacophony here in town, too. Thad pops up around the city on weekends in a small camper and he is definitely out hustling his coffees!
I don’t have any information on this morning’s coffee, and Cacophony’s website is largely a placeholder for the time being. Like most microroasters, new coffees come and go fast, so your best bet is to contact Thad directly on Instagram and see what he has, ask about shipping, etc etc. What I can tell you about this morning’s coffee is that it is labeled “Brazil Sublime Fazenda Coquiero” and Google kept changing my search to “coqueiro.” Either way, I found a lot of possible matches, so I didn’t want to speculate on which farm may have produced this coffee. A little Instastalking showed me a partial photo of this bag of coffee and I can make out “Carmo de Minas” and “washed” on that bag, so we know this is a washed coffee from the Carmo de Minas region of Brazil. This microregion is part of the greater region of Sul de Minas and it’s the small area around the town of Carmo. Most of the terroir is sunlit there and Carmo coffees tend to do well in Cup of Excellence auctions, with a tendency toward quality over quantity and more complexity of flavor, both of which can be a struggle for Brazilian coffees.
I’m using my standard pourover setup for this coffee, which is a 1:16 ratio of 22g of coffee to 352g of Third Wave Water in a Trinity Origin dripper with a Kalita 155 filter. Grinder is a Knock Aergrind and I am using a Melodrip to control my pulse pouring. Including a 35 second bloom, this coffee was brewing with last drops coming through at about 3:05.
Taking a sip, this is a medium bodied with coffee with a lot of bright acidity, which is a surprise to me coming from Brazil. In a blind test I’d call this a Central American coffee, for sure, and wouldn’t even be surprised if you told me it was from Colombia. This coffee has a slightly thin mouthfeel, but makes up for it with a lot of flavor. I’m getting a honey sweetness on the bottom end of the cup while the middle and late sip is dominated by a nice acidity and brightness. There is certainly some lemon to be found here, and there’s something less citrusy and a bit more crisp in these acidity notes, too. Not quite apple, but close. There’s a bit of a tropical hint to this component of the cup, too, so I’m leaning toward phosphoric acid, which is often described as sort of citrusy and sort of tropical without the sourness that can sometimes come with citrus notes. This is pretty geeky, I understand! Whatever is going on, I like it. The lemon turns into a bit of a mango vibe with hints of pineapple tartness and it’s really complex, but also very juicy and inviting and REALLY has me struggling to keep my sips manageable without chugging them down. I’m getting a light nuttiness in some sips, too, nothing terribly specific, but a nutty note that works well to unify this coffee. This coffee really opens up a lot as it cools. It was milder and nuttier at the hotter post-extraction temps, but as this meanders toward room temp, it gets really complex, the acidity really comes out and it’s a totally different and more interesting cup. This coffee ends with a slightly sweet finish but also leaves just a hint of dryness on my palate.
I really dig this coffee. I’ll be curious to see if my tasting notes at all resemble what Thad was getting from this coffee. It’s fun to review something totally blind without any roaster’s notes, bag info, etc as the mind is extremely open to suggestion, especially when it comes to flavor associations, so as much as I like to have more info on websites and for writing reviews, keeping purely in the dark about what others tasted is always the best way to give the most honest impression of a coffee and is the reason I usually don’t do any research until my own notes are done and I’m writing the review itself. Anyway, this is a KILLER cup and the fact that it’s from Brazil is pretty crazy. Delicious, bright, not super balanced but in a good way… I thoroughly enjoyed this Brazilian coffee from Cacophony Coffee Roasters!