When Astoria Cafe's Dennis Lee sent me some beans from their Ohio roaster Cafe Brioso, I couldn't wait to check it out. Dennis and his girlfriend Liz hail from Columbus and moved to Queens, New York in 2009. Their dream is to open their own coffee shop in the neighborhood.
Elixr Coffee
After the beans arrived, I decided to contact Evan Inatome, owner of one of Philadelphia's best coffee houses, Elixr. He was all about cupping the beans and we arranged a tasting.
Cafe Brioso sent me a bag of their Colombia La Primavera Microlot and Evan thought it would be interesting to blind taste them against other roasters' offerings from the same country. The lineup contained,
Toby's Estate's Santa Ines (cup A)
Heart's El Desarrollo (cup B)
Square Mile's La Buitrera Huila (cup C)
Cafe Brioso's La Primavera (cup D)
Four coffee professionals joined me in the cupping. Evan presented the coffees in cups labeled A-D so that we could check them out blind.
So what was the consensus? Interestingly, our opinions were unanimous. The coffee in the first three cups were very sound. The lighter roast brought out interesting fruit and floral notes that wasn't as pronounced in Cafe Brioso's full city roast. But cupping them side by side brought out nuanced differences and Heart's El Desarrollo was the winner. Between the three, the La Buitrera Huila was just a hair past it's peak, perhaps because it was roasted a few weeks earlier and then shipped from the UK. With that said, Evan felt that any of them would make for excellent pour overs.
What about Cafe Brioso's offering? Although quite good and well crafted, the group felt it was a bit too assertive, perhaps because it seemed to be a darker roast than the other selections. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing and one of the group offered that it would probably be a really nice selection to use with milk based drinks such as cappuccinos.
The next day I tried the Brioso using my Aeropress with and without milk. I liked the strong, earthy tones and think the added lactose rounded out the flavors. It should make a nice house selection when Astoria eventually opens its doors.
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