• Beans: Big Trouble (blend)
  • Roaster: Counter Culture Coffee (Durham, NC/Emeryville, CA)
  • Origins: 75% Valle Inca, Peru / 25% Segovia, Nicaragua
  • Roast level: Medium/dark (8/10)
  • Roast date: 12/23/2025
  • Purchase date: 1/1/2026 at Atwater’s in Catonsville, MD
  • First cup: 1/11 or 1/12/2026; last cup:
  • Tasting notes: Caramel/nutty/”round”
• V60 with Ode grinder:
  • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
  • Ode: 3
  • Water at 99°C
  • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with size 1 cone, 60g bloom water and 60g pulses – finishes around 03:00

CC is a large roaster with nationwide distribution (they also brew a house blend for Atwater’s, and I’ll be trying that out in the next day or so). With this particular blend, they try to keep the taste consistent, which means the specific beans used will vary depending on what is available at certain times of year. I get the feeling that this is fairly common practice, but I suspect that larger roasters have kind of an advantage here, because they can source larger volumes of beans and do more experimentation to try to tweak the taste profile. I do like that they label the bags with the specific ratio of each type of bean used. “Roast level” is fairly subjective, but I’d call this more of a medium roast than medium/dark. As of this writing, I’m still using my initial brew settings, and I do think that the stated tasting notes are pretty accurate. It is nutty with low acidity and medium body — a pretty good cup of coffee if that’s what you’re after.