Month: February 2025

PJ’s Maple Street Blend

lpaulriddle
  • Beans: Maple Street Blend
    • Roaster: PJ’s Coffee (New Orleans, LA)
    • Roast level: Medium (3/5)
    • Origin: Brazil/Honduras
    • Roast date: unknown
  • V60:

PJ’s apparently started out in NOLA in the late ’70s, but has evolved into a large chain (not on the scale of Starbucks, but they have multiple locations in several states). I’m not sure where or when the beans were roasted. The bag had a lot of husks and bean fragments in it — I don’t know if it was a handling issue during transit, or a Q.C. issue during bagging. It didn’t seem to affect the taste of the coffee until I got down to the end of the bag. My second-to-last cup was a little bitter. For the last cup, I spent several minutes picking out the whole beans, and composted about 3.5 grams of husks and fragments.

The beans worked well with a fine grind, but I really felt the caffeine, more than most other beans I’ve brewed to date. Not sure why that is. I brewed most of my cups at 1:16 or thereabouts. Taste-wise, it didn’t knock my socks off, but was perfectly drinkable. The web site describes it as “nutty/floral”, which I mostly agree with. No fruitiness or acidity at all, and no burnt/roasty taste, either. I have a sneaking suspicion that the beans were a little past their prime, but have no way to back that up. It’d be interesting to get my hands on a bag that I know was freshly roasted, just to compare, but with chain coffee, that’s easier said than done.

Orinoco Old Man Winter

lpaulriddle
  • Beans: Old Man Winter
    • Roaster: Orinoco Coffee and Tea (Jessup, MD)
    • Roast level: Light
    • Purchase date: 12/24/2024 at Martha’s Café in Arbutus, MD
  • V60:

I bought a bag of this on a whim, not realizing that it was flavored. I got the best cups at grind setting 3 after initially starting at 5. This was OK black, but the maple/butter/cinnamon flavoring didn’t really work for me. It would probably be better with sweetener and/or creamer, but that’s not how I roll (except on very rare occasions). Oh, well, live and learn.

Good Time Earth Coffee

lpaulriddle

Getting caught up on a few coffees I have brewed (or am brewing) over the past few weeks or months. This one is somewhat unique. It’s made by Good Time Health, based in Finksburg, MD. The description from the web site is: “Organic Medium Roast Ground Arabica Beans from Mexico, are paired with the Fruiting Body Mushroom Extracts of: Lions Mane, Reishi, and Cordyceps! Giving you a rich and naturally smooooth black coffee.”

So, coffee with mushrooms. It’s pre-ground (I suspect that they add the mushroom extracts after grinding) and looks to be a medium to coarse grind. My wife bought the bag in mid-December, so it’s probably a little past its prime by now, but my usual AeroPress recipe is still producing reasonably good cups. The mushroom extract adds a definite earthy flavor to the coffee.

  • AeroPress with Prismo, metal filter, and 1 paper filter
  • 1 heaping scoop of grounds (I use the scoop that comes with the AeroPress)
  • 250g of water at 95°C (or just pour to about 1/4″ from the top of the AeroPress cylinder)
  • Stir 6-7x / steep until around 02:45 / stir 6-7x again / press slowly

The one thing I’m noticing recently is that it takes a good bit of effort to press this — I suspect this may work well without the paper filter, so I am going to try it that way next time.