I was in Dallas last month for a coffee-unrelated research conference, but a friend of mine, who was at the same conference, hooked me up with this bag of coffee from local roasters, Avoca Coffee Roasters. I’ve been digging this coffee as espresso ever since and I’m also going to take a look at it as a filter brew today. Slurp!
Purchase this coffee directly for $13.50/12oz or $32.40/32oz
AVOCA COFFEE ROASTERS COSTA RICA EL INDIO
When I landed in Dallas for this conference last month I found myself out in the less-cultured/more business area of town, as far as I could tell, and there wasn’t much for coffee in that part of the city. There was a Whole Foods down the street and I came this close to buying this same bag of coffee, but I held off, knowing I had so many in the queue to review at home. It was a very pleasant surprise, then, when my Dallas-based coffee and real life friend, Eric, hooked me up with a bag! Avoca Coffee Roasters started out in Fort Worth, TX around 2011 and have grown into two cafes and a good distribution network around the DFW area. This was my first coffee from them, but I hope not the last, because I really enjoyed it as both espresso and filter. I got an espresso vibe from this coffee just looking at it, so I’ve been pulling shots of it since I got back from Texas. This morning is the first time I’ve had it as a pourover, actually, so let’s check that out first…
Avoca’s El Indio is a mix of Caturra and Catuai grown around 1200-2000masl in Tarrazú, Costa Rica. Avoca gives us tasting notes of, “candied almond aroma, subtle milk chocolate and peach ring flavors with a syrupy body paired with sparkling acidity.” Visually, this coffee looked like a solidly medium roast and my eyes told me this was going to be a sweet and easy-drinking coffee. I am using my standard pourover setup of a 1:16 ratio of 28g of coffee to 450g of Third Wave Water in a notNeutral Gino dripper with Kalita 185 filter. Grinding duty comes from a Knock Aergrind.
This coffee has a nice aroma… it’s sweet and “thick” and has aromas of brown sugar and caramel. Taking my first sips, I’m pleased to find a heavy bodied mouthfeel that matches all that sweetness I was smelling. This coffee has nice density and weight on my palate along with a syrupy mouthfeel that is amazing! As much I was enjoying this coffee most mornings as espresso, now I’m wondering if I was missing the boat brewing it that way! This is definitely a coffee to let cool down quite a bit. At warmer temps it is a bit thinner in the mouth and less sweet. When it cools to ideal temperature, it’s like drinking coffee syrup, so it’s worth the wait!
Once this coffee cools into its sweet spot, it’s really nice to drink. It has a lot of caramel sweetness but gets some balance from a soft acidity that has hints of citrus as well as the crispness of malic acidity (think apples), too. I do get a little bit of a peach vibe from the acidity, too, although I don’t really find flavors of peach in this coffee. There’s a lot of milk chocolate in here for me as well as some pecan. The coffee finishes sweet, being just on this side of the border of cloying, almost like drinking coffee candy. There is some roastiness in the finish and aftertaste along with chocolate and dark caramel notes. With the thick body and syrupy mouthfeel, coupled with the light acidity, this is about the easiest drinking coffee I’ve ever had. Sure, there’s a tradeoff here for complexity, but it’s a trade I’m willing to make for a coffee like this, which is just super drinkable, totally enjoyable in every way and works well in a variety of brewing methods. I had no idea what to expect from Avoca, given that this is my first taste of their coffee, and I’m totally in love with this El Indio!
Interestingly, as espresso, I was pulling out some brighter flavors. I was using 18-20g doses with 27-30 second pulls coming in around 33-38g of espresso in the cup, so slightly tighter ratio than a 1:2. This coffee has a nice, thick crema and worked well as a Cuban cafecito, too, as you can imagine. As espresso, Avoca’s El Indio has a strong chocolate and caramel base, but I was pulling out a good amount of lemon candy and other citrus notes from it that I don’t really find in the pourover.
This is a fantastic coffee and I couldn’t be happier with it. It blew any expectations I had out of the water, completely!