Brazil Jacu Bird Coffee

I'd really like to know who first thought of the idea of using the coffee beans that animals ingested and then pooped out. The guy (I am pretty sure it must have been a guy) is either an idiot or a genius. Actually, likely the latter given what these coffees go for. You may be familiar with kopi luwak (easily googleable, if that is a word), the product of an Indonesian rodent with a taste for coffee cherries. This stuff goes for >$100 per pound in places. The theory is that the animal only eats the ripest coffee cherry, thereby "sorting" the best from the worst. In reality, however, the rodent eats low-grade robusta beans similar to what you get in a can of Folgers, so hang onto your wallet.

Last year a different product began to emerge, this time from Brazil. The coffee consumer is the Jacu bird, a cute creature that lives on coffee farms in Brazil:

In principle, this avian aficionado eats high quality arabica beans from the same farms that already produce great coffee. It is still pricey, ~$17 per pound, but it is being offered by some purveyors who I trust for quality, so I decided to try a pound out.

This being a Brazilian coffee, I decided to take it into second crack a bit:

It looks and roasts like any other dry processed coffee. And the cup? Let me tell you - this coffee got more rave reviews than any other coffee I bring into work, and this is without telling them what it was. My wife, also slipped a cup without telling her, also waxed philosophic about it. Of course, then I did the "you drank poopy coffee" dance around the kitchen in true infantile fashion....

It is a sweet, sweet cup with intense maple syrup tastes. Smooth and delicious, and no trace of the, er, unusual processing. I am looking forward to some espresso extractions with it as well.

Kona Kowali Estate, Second Roast

I have been sick for the past week and a half or so, hence the lack of updates. I don't much care for coffee when I am fighting a cold, so I generally either don't drink it at all, or otherwise I roast something nondescript since I can't taste it anyway.

Besides being ill, work has been more awful than usual lately, so I decided to roast up something special this week to make me feel better. I had a half pound of this Kona coffee left over, so I gave it a whirl. If you remember, I talked about this one before. At that time, I wasn't thrilled with it at a lighter roast. This time around I took it darker, to a Full City roast. Poking around, it seems like general consensus for island coffee is that it works better at this roast level, or perhaps even a tad into second crack.

Here is the profile:


What a difference more roast makes for this bean! There is an intense maltiness that I love; if you enjoy chocolate malts made with high quality ice cream and real malted milk powder, you will have a good idea of what is going on in the cup. It is incredibly rich and complex; a very satisfying cup. Of course, it is still way overpriced for what you get, but I am glad that I at least found a better roast to accentuate this coffee's character.

Yemen Mokha Ismaili

This week we have something perfect for cooler fall weather. This is one of the best Yemeni coffees I have tried, and is unfortunately the last of it in my stash. This stuff is a bit of a pain to roast. The seeds are really tiny - easily 2X smaller than most coffees. The heat transfer to the beans is different, and there are no audible cues like you have for most coffees. It really is roasting "by the seat of your pants", with highly variable results. I'd like to be able to tell you the specifics of the roast level here, but honestly I have no clue. All I know that it is darn good coffee. Here is the profile:



This is a deep, syrupy coffee with incredible spice-bazaar aromas. I can't put my finger on specific tastes, though you can look through the review below to get some idea. It is a very complex coffee that is hard to pick out individual notes. Just relax and enjoy a fairly unusual and seriously rich cup o' joe.

Panama Esmerelda Gesha, 2007 Vintage

I decided to go upscale for my Halloween roasting session. In 2008, I purchased two kinds of Panama Esmerelda; the Lot #5, previously discussed, and the more expensive Lot#10. I was originally planning to roast Lot#10, but I decided to try my chops on the last of my Esmerelda stash from 2007 first. This stuff is ferociously expensive, so I wanted to make sure I didn't dork it up.

The roast was more or less what I have been using lately:



I was shooting for a City+ roast (roughly half way between first and second crack), but this came out considerably lighter than I was expecting. Grinding the beans I was somewhat taken aback on how light it was. As an aside, it is hard to tell much of anything from whole bean color after roasting, you really need to look at the color of the ground stuff.

It is a testament to the quality of the beans that even at this light a roast, there was no sourness. There is the usual Gesha panoply of aromas - over the top floral characteristics - and typical juicy notes to the coffee. However, I missed the caramel notes that fit everything together. Another minute of heat would have been perfect in retrospect. Looking back through my notes of Gesha roasting over the years, I see that they tend to take a bit more roast than other coffees to hit the right flavor balance. Surely nothing near second crack, but a bit of time spent after first. This was certainly an enjoyable cup, but nothing to write home about. Given the price point, it is unfortunate. At least I am prepared for roasting Lot #10.