WAKE UP AND COFFEE
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My friend Ibrahim used to run a small kiosk in the lobby of my office building in Atlanta. It is called Bilt Coffee (link below). When the pandemic shut the kiosk down, he started fulfilling ecommerce orders. I've since moved to Ohio, and now order 5 lbs from him every few weeks. He was born and raised in Ethiopia and imports the coffee directly from his family farm over there. My favorite is the Special Blend. It's got some incredible fruit and spice notes - reminds me of Christmas morning, but in a faraway, beautiful place.
IMO, the best thing about ordering from Bilt is supporting Ibrahim. He is one of the most positive, genuinely nice, upbeat people I've ever been around. He works tirelessly on his small business while attending university full time but always finds time to ask how I am doing and get updates on my life. One of those special people you don't want to lose track of.
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Ethiopian coffee is far and away my fave, especially natural process. Fruit bomb.
@mclaincausey I really wanna try some gesha but I haven't been willing to take the financial plunge yet, haha. Very, very intrigued though.
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I too tend to gravitate towards Ethiopian and sometimes Kenyan coffee. They've been doing it for over a millennium and have my favorite varietals (such as Geisha, even though the ones I've tried have been either Colombian or Panamanian). I appreciate the brightness in these coffees very much.
I have experienced exotic coffees only because of my friend. I would never spend the kind of money required to explore them on my own. This is not to say the price isn't fair, given the rarity and demand around these, as well as how process-intensive some of them are. It's probably worth doing a cupping if you make sure the roaster knows how to handle them (really want a world-class artisan who is tuned in to things to get the most out of these beans) and really pay close attention to the recipe, but so far I can't say I'd spend more than $40 a pound for any coffee, much less $150+. Fortunately (?) the exotics are typically available in smaller batches to make it easier to try a cup. At the end of the day, I've found the exotics I've tried to offer you something you have not experienced before (each of the the handful I've tried has been unique in a different way across flavor and mouthfeel), but that something so far has not justified the price for my personal budget. The most surprising one so far was a carbonic-macerated Sumatran grown and processed in Colombia, through an Aeropress. I generally don't like the Indonesian coffees I've tried, but that one was magnificent and showed that the varietal can be a lot more nuanced than it normally is when different processing is applied to it.
Anyway, if you want to try exotics, I would recommend Corvus. The Savage geishas are sold out but included this one, a natural anaerobic fermentation, as well as a carbonic maceration using nitrogen instead of natural CO2 from the cherries. They always have bunches of these in 150-200g tins (with very cool artwork). The sourcing is impeccable and the roasting is world-class. The last thing you want to do is drop a bunch of money on a tiny tin of beans that were wrecked by the roaster.
I love light and medium roasted, bright coffees, with wine or fruit flavors. When I'm making a non-exotic coffee (which is almost always), I do Kalita pour-overs over ice, since I like iced coffee but want to retain the bright notes.
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Nice! I will definitely give them a look. Re: flavor profiles, I'm the same — I almost exclusively drink hot coffee, though (at home, at least). But yep, usually Chemex, V60 or Kalita pourovers. Big fan of the way they preserve the brightness and offer varying degrees.
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Geisha, Anaerobics…? https://thebarn.de/ They are amazing.
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But not sure I’d pay $300/kg for it. ???
Holy cow, 300?
I’d rather go for another UHF
Apart from the taste, imagine dialing in the grind size at 0,30€ per lost gram 🥴
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If you were in the UK in the early 80’s and watching BBC2 around 6pm then you know.
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If you were in the UK in the early 80’s and watching BBC2 around 6pm then you know.
Plenty of kids (including me) in the playground blowing there fingers
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A badly dressed action man, on a cotton wool cloud…..but magic nonetheless.
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That's a good one @twin Thanks for resurrecting this thread!
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Some locally roasted Nicaraguan with a homemade cherry Biscotti
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That's a great mug, @Anesthetist ! And dang, I need me some of those denim coasters!
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That's a great mug, @Anesthetist ! And dang, I need me some of those denim coasters!
Thanks! A local potter made the mug for Blue Print coffee here in StL, I think they might have some left if you google them.
I know how you feel about the coaster, this is my precious! I used to carry it around everywhere until I almost lost it. Now it never leaves the house because I cant replace it.
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It’s always a good morning in some IHSW
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