• Beans: Guatemala (Asociación Chajulense, Quiché)
  • Roaster: Rise Up Coffee Roasters (Easton, MD)
  • Origin: Guatemala
  • Roast level: Medium (3/5)
  • Roast date: 7/22/2025
  • Purchase date: 7/18/2025 from Green Valley Marketplace in Elkridge
    Freeze date: n/a; Thaw date: n/a
    First cup: around 8/20/2025; Last cup: TBD
  • Elevation: 1100 to 1800 MASL; Certifications: Fair trade, organic
  • Tasting notes: Low-toned, with pungent earthy and cedary notes supporting tart citrus and fruit. Rich acidity; milky but lively mouthfeel. Sweet-toned and deep in the finish.
• Previous bags: July-August 2024, April 2024
• Switch with Ode grinder (immersion method):
  • 20g coffee / 300g water
  • Ode: 3
  • Water at 95°C
  • Close drain / pour 50-60g bloom and agitate / at 0:45, pour to 300g / swirl / steep until 02:00-02:10 / stir once or twice in both directions and open drain / should finish around 02:50-03:00

My struggles with brewing these beans are well-documented in my two prior posts. I think a lot of it has had to do with not knowing what to expect from the beans on one hand, as well as my still-evolving palate for coffee. I don’t recall reading the above tasting notes prior to today (they are listed on the web site, but not the bag) and they were rather eye-opening. I think I was interpreting “rich acidity” and “tart citrus” as “unpleasant bitterness”, but I now suspect that’s how the beans are supposed to taste. It certainly explains why I constantly thought the cups were either bitter or weak. I would compensate for perceived bitterness by dropping the water temperature or making the grind coarser, both of which made it taste weak and under-extracted.

For this bag, I have brewed all of my cups with the Switch, using an immersion method. I initially went down the same rabbit hole as before, trying to eliminate “bitterness”, first dropping the temperature to 90, and then 85. Then I tried increasing the grind setting from 3 to 4 (coarser). All of these were watery and lifeless. Eventually, I realized that the problem was more likely with me than the coffee. It’s not so much “bitter” as it is tart, kind of akin to an India Pale Ale. Those were decidedly an acquired taste for me, and so it has gone with this coffee.

I still think that immersion works better than pour-over for this coffee. At grind 3, the water drains through way too fast. Knowing what I know now, though, I wonder if a pour-over would turn out well if I used a really fine grind, like 2 or under. Not sure if I’ll try that with this bag or not. It’s also worth noting that these are the only single-origin beans from Guatemala that I’ve ever brewed. I’m curious if others will behave similarly.

• Beans: Bolivia (Cooperativia Agropecuaria)
  • Roaster: Brewing Good Coffee Company (Savage, MD)
  • Origin: Bolivia (Caranavi, La Paz)
  • Roast level: Light
  • Roast date: 7/15/2025
  • Purchase date: 8/3/2025 from BGCC in Savage Mill
    Freeze date: n/a; Thaw date: n/a
    First cup: 8/11/2025; Last cup: 8/27/2025 (AeroPress)
  • Process: washed; Elevation: 1200 to 1850 MASL; Varietals: Catuai, Caturra, Typica; Certifications: Fair trade, organic
  • Tasting notes: Raisin cookie, apple, grape, toffee
• Switch with Ode grinder (1 cup):
  • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
  • Ode: 2+2 to 3
  • Water at 100°C
  • Single Cup V60 Pourover with 50-60g bloom and 60g pulses – keep drain closed until end of bloom – Finishes around 03:00
• Switch with Ode grinder (immersion method):
  • 21 to 22g coffee / 300g water
  • Ode: 2
  • Water at 100°C
  • Close drain / pour 50-60g bloom and agitate / at 0:45, pour to 300g / swirl / steep until 02:00-02:10 / swirl again and open drain / should finish around 03:00-03:10
• AeroPress with JX grinder (best cup so far):
  • 18g beans, weighed out at home
  • JX: 16
  • Water at 100°C (BonaVita electric gooseneck kettle)
  • Travel AeroPress Recipe (no scale)

I don’t run across Bolivian coffee beans all that often. As a matter of fact, I’ve only ever had them as part of a blend that I had last fall/winter. This is the first time I’ve ever brewed single-origin Bolivian beans. My first cup, at grind setting 3, was pretty good, with a nice balance of body and acidity. Grind 2+2 was similar, but the draw-down took several seconds longer, and I felt the caffeine a lot more. Both cups were better than the pour-over I got at the shop (same beans), so I must be doing something right. 😀 I might go back to setting 3 for the next few cups.

8/19: After getting inconsistent results with pour-over for a few days, I switched to an immersion-style brew per above. Grind 3 was a little bit lacking, but grind 2 seems to produce a pretty good, well-balanced cup. I’m curious what would happen if I steeped it, say, a minute or so longer.

8/20: Steeping an extra 30 seconds in the Switch produced no marked improvement in flavor, but did seem to extract more caffeine, so I think 2 minutes is probably the better bet. Later in the day, I tried AeroPress (per above) and it produced a really nice cup — probably the best I’ve brewed so far. Seems that immersion might be the ticket with this particular roast.

• Beans: Ethiopia Sidamo Durato Bombe
  • Roaster: Gracefully Coffee Roasters (Baltimore, MD)
  • Origin: Bombe Kebele Village, Sidamo, Ethiopia
  • Roast level: Light
  • Roast date: 7/10/2025
  • Purchase date: 7/22/2025 from Gracefully curbside café
    Freeze date: n/a; Thaw date: n/a
    First cup: 7/29/2025; Last cup: 8/10/2025
  • Milling process: natural; Drying process: raised beds; Elevation: 2050 to 2150 MASL; Varietal: Ethiopian Heirloom;
  • Tasting notes: Blueberry, Strawberry, Watermelon
• Switch with Ode grinder (1 cup):
  • 22g coffee / 300g water (1:13.6)
  • Ode: 2
  • Water at 100°C
  • Single Cup V60 Pourover with 50-60g bloom and 60g pulses – keep drain closed until end of bloom – Finishes around 03:30

One of the cool things about buying beans from Gracefully is that the guy who sells them to you is the same guy who roasts them. While I was there, I asked if he had any brewing tips for these. The gist of what he told me was: brew them at around 1:13, bloom for 45 seconds, and shoot for a 3.5 to 4 minute total brew time. Based on that, I started these out at grind setting 2, which finishes right around 3:30. 1:13 is stronger than I’ve brewed anything in recent memory (dark roasts excluded) but I have to say that my first few cups have been pretty darned good. I’m working on perfecting my “swirling” technique to try to get as flat a bed of grounds as possible, which I think helps to produce more even and consistent extraction. The Switch helps with this, as it keeps the water in the cone during the bloom, which makes for more effective swirling. I’ve also been using slightly more bloom water lately (closer to 3x weight of the grounds, which is what I was doing a while back before cutting that down to 2x).

I really like this the way it is, but if I were to adjust anything, I may try grinding a little finer still. I’m curious if another 15-20 seconds of draw-down time will make any difference in the taste. I’ll also confess that 1:13 is a tad stronger than I’m used to nowadays, so I might just see what it’s like at 1:14 to 1:15. I wonder if a lower ratio would bring out a little more fruitiness.

8/10: With the exception of the last cup, I brewed all of these exactly the same way, and it was remarkably consistent from cup to cup. With the Hario Switch, lately I’ve been using slightly more bloom water and really agitating the heck out of the grounds (trying not to splash too much up the side of the cone). That seems to get a more “active” bloom going and also settle the bed down. My 300g cups have all finished right around 03:30. For the very last cup, I had about 9g of extra beans, so I brewed a 420g cup using 5 pulses and pouring a little more water per pulse. It took a full minute longer to drain down, and the resulting cup seemed slightly thin-bodied for some reason. It also seemed to have more of a caffeine hit (I drank the same amount, 300g, as all of my other cups). I’ve noticed the less-body-more-caffeine phenomenon before, and I wonder if it has something to do with the longer draw-down time. I will have to make a mental note for the next time I get a cup like that. If I buy these beans again and have occasion to brew a larger quantity, I may try a simple 2-step pour instead of using multiple pulses, in hopes of limiting the draw-down to between 03:30 and 04:00. Another option would be to use a standard V60 instead of the switch. Overall, though, I really enjoyed this roast.

• Beans: Jamberry (blend)
  • Roaster: Gracefully Coffee Roasters (Baltimore, MD)
  • Origins: Colombia, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Costa Rica
  • Roast level: Light to Medium
  • Roast date: 7/10/2025
  • Purchase date: 7/22/2025 from Gracefully curbside café
    Freeze date: n/a; Thaw date: n/a
    First cup: 7/22/2025; Last pour-over cup: 8/3/2025
  • Process: Natural process
  • Tasting notes: Mixed berry jam, honeyed apricot and chocolate covered almonds
• Switch with Ode grinder (1 cup):
  • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
  • Ode: 3+2 to 4
  • Water at 100°C
  • Single Cup V60 Pourover with 50g bloom and 60g pulses – Finishes around 02:45
• AeroPress with Prismo and JX grinder:
  • 17-ish grams coffee / 250-ish grams water (1:14 to 1:15)
  • JX: 16
  • Boiling water
  • Metal + single paper filter
  • Pour enough to wet beans; agitate; bloom until 0:45; pour to 0.25″ or so of top of cylinder; stir back and forth 7-8x; steep until 2:45 to 3:00; repeat stir; press slowly

I was in the mood for a fruit-forward coffee, and this definitely lives up to that billing. It’s the first full bag I’ve opened since I bought the Hario Switch, and as such, has served as something of a “guinea pig” as I test out a few different brewing methods.

• For cup #1, I kept the drain closed for the bloom phase, and open for the pour-over phase. This was a good cup with a nice mouthfeel — probably my favorite of the first 3, actually.
• For cup #2, I kept the drain closed for the bloom and for the initial top-up to 120g, then opened it for the rest of the pour. I wasn’t crazy about how the bed ended up — there was a thicker ridge of grounds left at the high water mark, which the ending swirl didn’t take care of. Maybe I should swirl it right before I open the drain. Whatever the case, the cup tasted fairly similar to cup #1, so there’s probably not much point in brewing it this way going forward.
• For cup #3, I tried a full-immersion brew. After the bloom, I kept the drain closed and poured all the way to 300g without stopping. Then, I swirled, steeped until 02:30, and opened the drain. It took around 30 seconds to drain down, finishing at 03:00. The cup was fine, but tasted a little bit over-extracted. I would probably want to use a coarser grind if I was going to brew it like this regularly. My real goal here was to see how it tasted, and to see if the size 3 Switch could accommodate a full 300g immersion brew. The answer is yes, with plenty of room to spare.

Based on these results, I’ll probably end up using method #1 for subsequent cups. I likely will also try brewing a cup or two in the regular V60, to see how it compares to the Switch cups.

7/27: This afternoon, grind setting 3 with method #1 produced a better cup than the coarser settings I had been using initially. There was more of a roasty flavor to balance out the fruity acidity. The fruit flavors came through a little more prominently as the cup started to cool. The draw-down took a few seconds longer, as well.

7/31: Tried standard size 2 V60 this afternoon with grind setting 3. Draw-down finished around 02:40. The cup was very under-extracted. The immersion-style bloom phase I’ve been doing with the Switch definitely makes a difference. Based on everything I’ve tried to date, it seems like the grind coarseness needs to vary directly with the immersion time (e.g. no immersion == finer grind, longer immersion == coarser grind). Not really a huge revelation there.

8/2: Grind 3+2, 23g coffee, 300g water (1:13) — Another accidental brew this morning. I forgot to close the switch drain during the bloom, so instead, I closed it for the rest of the pour. Rather than pouring all at once, I used my usual pulse technique, finishing the pour at 02:10. Lastly, instead of steeping it afterwards (per cup #3 notes above), I swirled and immediately opened the drain after pouring all the water. I definitely wasn’t fully awake this morning, but the cup turned out pretty good. It did not seem over-extracted like cup #3. It was very strong — I had intended to use more water for a ratio closer to 1:15, but forgot (the beans are almost gone, which often means brewing a couple of larger cups to avoid ending up with leftovers). I may brew the final cup the same way, maybe with 10-20 more grams of water.

AeroPress notes (8/4): I brought enough beans to the office to make 2 cups. The first was on Wednesday 7/30, and the second likely will be Wednesday 8/6. Nowadays, I mostly use the AeroPress when I’m away from home, either at the office or traveling. As I typically lack access to a scale and (sometimes) a kettle, I eyeball the variables I can’t control precisely, like bean/water ratio, water temperature, etc. In spite of that, I’ve found that the AeroPress produces good cups fairly consistently with a wide variety of beans. I’ve been using essentially the same brew method for over a year now (shown above), and should probably create a page for it at this point. The funny thing is, after all of the tinkering around I did with the AP over the first year or so that I owned it, the technique I use now is very similar to that shown in the “how to use” instructions on the AeroPress web site. The biggest differences are (1) Prismo cap to stop initial drip-thru; (2) 45-second bloom for light to medium roasted beans; (3) longer steep time; and (4) second stir immediately before pressing.