I’ve been out of town for a handful of days and drinking road coffee, so it’s great to be back in World Domination Headquarters here in Kansas City and with a local KC roaster, too! Let’s check out another coffee from Cacophony Coffee Roasters. Slurp!
Cacophony Coffee Roasters website (under construction)
Other reviews in this series: Experimental Espresso | Brazil Sublime Fazenda Coqueiro
CACOPHONY COFFE ROASTERS EL SALVADOR NATURAL BOURBON VILLA MARIA
The connection between bicycles and coffee is just about as strong as between bikes and craft beer. Few brands capitalize on that connection more than Kansas City’s own Cacophony Coffee Roasters. Thad Carson started Cacophony Coffee Roasters in 2018 and has been selling directly as well as through some local bike shops. On weekends, you may see Thad somewhere in town in his little camper, doing a coffee pop-up, too! If I have the list correct, you can get Cacophony coffee at Onestar Bicycles, Mansion Coffee, Velo+, and most recently, Epic Bike and Sport and Ottawa Bike and Trail. Cacophony’s website is a work in progress, so the best way to reach Thad about what’s roasting and the possibility of shipping an order is via Instagram, which I’ve linked above.
This morning’s coffee is a natural Bourbon variety from Villa Maria in El Salvador. I was not able to find any additional information about this farm or lot using my best Google-Fu, so I’m sorry for you detail-oriented readers! Natural coffees are coffees that are picked and sorted, then dried as whole, intact cherries, usually on raised beds. As the coffee cherries dry out, like big raisins, they impart fruity notes, body and sweetness to the coffee seeds (what we roast and call “beans”) inside. These particular beans from Cacophony are big and have a beautiful red hue to them. This is a lightly roasted coffee.
I am 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 155 filter. My grinder is a Knock Aergrind and this coffee ran fast with a total brew time of 2:40 including a 30 second bloom. I pulse poured through a Melodrip.
In the cup, this is a really nice coffee. Unlike their African counterparts, Central American naturals tend to be a little more restrained, in my opinion, and this coffee fits that bill. It has a medium body with a creamy mouthfeel. There is a honey sweetness to the cup and lots of bright, sweet fruitiness that rolls in right after it. I’m getting more tropical notes than berries, which are more common in Ethiopian naturals. There is mango and a hint of pineapple in this coffee, as well as a healthy dose of fresh strawberries. This coffee finishes sweet and leaves a clean, fruity, fresh aftertaste that has a little lemon acidity to it on my palate. One criticism people who don’t care for naturals have is that they have fermentation notes that can taste a little “off” (or a lot off). There is a little bit of fermentiness to this cup, but not bad, and I actually like ferment notes in naturals, especially in Centrals, so bring it on, for me!
This is a nice cup. It’s balanced, sweet, easy-drinking. What more is there to ask from a coffee? This is an easy-drinking, refreshing coffee that would be welcome in hot weather, and I really dig it! I’ve been really impressed by all three of the coffees Thad sent me. I stretched posting these reviews WAY out, not purposefully, so I am sure he is on to new coffees, but that shouldn’t stop you from contacting him and seeing what’s fresh. He does good sourcing from trusted importers and his attention to the details in the roasting have been great for all of these coffees. I’m really excited to see where things go for Cacophony Coffee Roasters!