Cupping Notes
Our friends at Anthem Coffee Imports have done it again!
This wonderful coffee from Nicaragua has been a great surprise for us. Originally brought into our lineup as an espresso component, it has broken through into its own as a single-origin coffee.
Espresso is a business full of much nuance. One component—while great in its own right—can break up the cohesive end product. That was the case with this Nicaraguan for us. It’s absolutely delicious as a single origin, but it didn’t fit in our espresso as originally intended.
Let me explain: Imagine a 6’ 10” NBA player lacing up skates and trying to play in the NHL. Athletes from both sports are remarkable in their own way, but most wouldn’t find much success crossing over. Simply put, the awesome grapefruit acidity coming forward so clearly in this Nicaraguan was disrupting the smooth flow of our Timberline espresso.
As a stand-alone coffee, Nicaragua Octavio Peralta is bursting with rich cocoa flavor, grapefruit tartness and sweet caramel candy flavor. Needless to say, it’s found its rightful rank in our arsenal of coffees.
This coffee is one of our new favorites for a couple reasons. Firstly, it competes very well with our Guatemala Tomas Perdido at being a mellow, low-acidity coffee. Secondly, it also provides quite a bit of complexity that the Guatemalan competitor lacks. That grapefruit note is especially desirable for its uniqueness. It is special because (even in a light-medium roast) it allows a note associated with acidity (grapefruit), without actually creating an overly acidic cup of coffee. The best of both worlds.
