• 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 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.

• Beans: Tanzania Peaberry (single origin)
  • Roaster: Rafiki Exchange (Mount Dora, FL)
  • Origin: Arusha, Tanzania
  • Roast level: Medium
  • Roast date: Unknown
  • Purchase date: Unknown (received as gift)
  • First cup: 1/2/2026; last cup: 1/11/2026
  • Tasting notes: Dates, cinnamon, molasses
• V60 with Ode grinder:
  • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
  • Ode: 2
  • Water at 99°C
  • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with size 1 cone, 60g bloom water and 60g pulses – finishes around 03:00

This is the first single-origin Tanzanian Peaberry that I’ve brewed. I’ve previously only had it as part of a blend (specifically, Zeke’s Snow Day Blend). I couldn’t find much info about this particular roast, either online or on the bag: just origin, roast level, and tasting notes. I’m not sure if it’s roasted on-site at the exchange in Mount Dora, or elsewhere, and there’s no roast date (or even a “best by” date) on the bag. None of that particularly matters, though, because the coffee is really good. It has a very pleasant balance of body and sweetness with low acidity. Like a lot of African coffee, it seems to work best with a fine grind. I tried settings 4 and 3 on the Ode before settling on 2.

1/11: The last several cups of this were fine, but didn’t seem quite as good as the first half of the bag. I’m not sure why exactly, but this is definitely not the first bag where I’ve noticed this. I wonder how much of it is actual changes to the beans (outgassing/etc, which might benefit from slightly tweaking the recipe) or just my own taste buds, as I’ve noticed that I tend to get “tired” of drinking the same coffee after 10 cups or so. I suspect it’s a combination of both.

• Beans: Decaf Huila (single origin)
  • Roaster: Sophomore Coffee (Baltimore, MD)
  • Origin: Huila, Colombia
  • Roast level: Medium
  • Roast date: 11/20/2025 (bag #1); 12/11/2025 (bag #2)
  • Purchase date: Late November 2025 (bag #1); late December 2025 (bag #2) at Atwater’s Café (Catonsville, MD)
    First cup: Early December 2025 (bag #1); 1/1/26 or 1/2/26 (bag #2)
    Last cup: Late December 2025 (bag #1)
  • Process: Ethyl Acetate (EA) decaf
  • Tasting notes: Dates, cinnamon, molasses
• V60 with Ode grinder:
  • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
  • Ode: 6
  • Water at 95°C
  • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with size 1 cone, 60g bloom water and 60g pulses – finishes 04:00-04:15
• Switch with Ode grinder:
  • 20g coffee / 300g water at 95°C
  • Ode: 9
  • Close drain / pour to 60g and agitate / pour to 300g and agitate again / steep until 02:30 / open drain; finishes around 04:30

I didn’t have any full cups of bag #1, but I have had 1 cup (and counting) of bag #2. This has one of the slowest draw-down times of any coffee I’ve brewed in the V60 with my single-cup recipe. It takes over 2 minutes, even with a rather coarse grind. Flavor-wise, it is fine, but there’s something slightly “off” about it that I don’t like. I suppose it could be getting over-extracted while it sits there forever draining. I am wondering if this would work best with the French press, so I may try that the next time I brew it.

1/4: The Switch recipe above seemed to produce a better cup (based on the 2 or 3 sips I had of it). I used the same grind I use for French press, and it seemed to speed up the brew (the draw-down took 2 minutes for the entire volume of water, vs however much is left in the cone after finishing the pour-over). It seemed like a smoother-tasting cup without the “off” flavor that I noticed with the V60. I still may try the French press the next time I brew 2 cups’ worth, but the Switch seems like a winner for single cups.

• Beans: Holiday Roast MMXXV
  • Roaster: Zeke’s Coffee (Baltimore, MD)
  • Origin: Mexico, Honduras
  • Roast level: Says medium (4/8) but beans look dark roasted
  • Roast date: 12/15/2025
  • Purchase date: 12/20/2025 from Green Valley Marketplace in Elkridge, MD
    First cup: 12/30/2025; Last cup:
  • Process: n/a (blend)
  • Tasting notes: Chocolate, almond, lemon
• V60 with Ode grinder:
  • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
  • Ode: 6
  • Water at 95°C
  • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with size 1 cone, 60g bloom water and 60g pulses – finishes 02:30-02:40
• AeroPress with JX grinder:
  • 17g coffee / 250g water (1:14.7)
  • JX: 16
  • Water at 95°C
  • Travel AeroPress Recipe with 50g/45s bloom; steep until 02:45

This one is a little confusing. The web site shows two versions of this blend: “Naughty” with roast level 4/8, and “Nice” with roast level 3/8. The bag I bought is labeled “Nice”, but shows roast level 4/8. The beans themselves are dark roasted and oily. I’m almost wondering if the bag is mislabeled (it was the last bag on the shelf at the grocery store, not that that really means anything). It brews like a dark roast (coarse grind, fast draw-down, lots of fine bubbles) and tastes like a dark roast (perfectly fine; could maybe stand a tiny bit more tweaking).

1/5: AeroPress (see above) was the best cup I’ve had so far. It was quite tasty at JX grind 16, which tells me it might be good with a finer pour-over grind as well. It didn’t have that burnt/ashy flavor that turns me off to a lot of dark roasts. I brought enough to the office to make 6 cups, and I’m wondering if I should just make this my “office coffee” for a while (if I do, I’d need to freeze some of it).

• Beans: Entre Rios (12 ounces)
  • Roaster: Huckleberry Roasters (Denver, CO)
  • Origin: Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua
  • Roast level: Light to medium
  • Roast date: 12/2/2025
  • Purchase date: 12/9/2025 at Huckleberry Roasters (Laramer St location) in Denver, CO
    First cup: 12/21/2025; Last cup: 12/30/2025
  • Process: washed; Producer: Alberto Ramos, Finca Entre Rios
  • Tasting notes: Pear, macadamia, cocoa, black cherry
• Switch with Ode grinder:
  • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
  • Ode: 4
  • Water at 100°C
  • Close drain / pour 60g and agitate / bloom until 0:45 / top up to 300g and swirl / steep until 02:30 / open drain
• French press (2 cups):
  • 40g coffee / 600g water (1:15)
  • Ode: 9
  • Water at 100°C
  • Preheat French press / add coffee / pour 120g and stir / bloom until 0:45 / top up to 600g and stir / steep until around 05:00 / press and pour

I initially tried this with V60 pourover and grind settings ranging from 2 to 3, but it was a little subpar. Immersion worked out better, and the Switch and French press (details above) both produced similar cups. I may try brewing a cup with the AeroPress at some point as well.

12/30: After settling on grind 4 and immersion using the Switch, I brewed all of my subsequent cups like that and they were all pretty good. I’d call it medium body and medium acidity (I often find stated tasting notes to be a bit of a stretch, but I think I did notice some pear). I never got around to trying it in the AeroPress.

• Beans: Gundikhan Natural (12 ounces)
  • Roaster: Huckleberry Roasters (Denver, CO)
  • Origin: Karnataka State, India
  • Roast level: Light
  • Roast date: 11/25/2025
  • Purchase date: 12/9/2025 at Huckleberry Roasters (Laramie St location) in Denver, CO
    First cup: 12/13/2025; Last cup: 12/21/2025
  • Process: natural; Producer: Saif Ulla, Gundikhan Estate
  • Tasting notes: Chocolate-dipped strawberry/pastry/mulled wine
• V60 with Ode grinder:
  • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
  • Ode: 3
  • Water at 100°C
  • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with size 2 cone, 60g bloom water and 60g pulses – finishes 02:50-03:00
• AeroPress with JX grinder:
  • 17g coffee / 250g water (1:14.7)
  • JX: 16
  • Water at 99°C
  • Travel AeroPress Recipe

This is the first of 2 bags that I bought from Huckleberry Roasters in Denver. It’s also the first time I’ve tried coffee from India. This was pretty good at grind setting 4, and maybe a tiny bit better at 3. It is fairly acidic, but has enough body to balance out the acidity. I suspect I could go a little bit finer still with the grind, but I may just keep it at 3 unless I start getting cups that aren’t quite as good. It had been going on a couple of months since I last had a light roast, so this is hitting the spot.

12/18 and 12/19: I brewed two AeroPress cups per above, and they were quite good. While the V60 cups have been very acid/fruit forward, the AP cups seemed better balanced, with the acidity toned down a bit and a little more body/roastiness. It kind of makes me wonder if there’s a way I can vary my pour-over technique somehow to produce similar results. I may read up on this when I have a few minutes.

12/21: The acidity seems to vary proportionally to the fine-ness of the grind. I brewed several cups at 2+2 and 2+1 last week, and they seemed even fruitier than 3. I brewed my last couple at 3+1, and they were well balanced. I have a feeling I could have stuck with my initial setting of 4 all along. All in all, though, I definitely enjoyed this.

• Beans: Brazil Peaberry (1 pound)
  • Roaster: Amity Coffee Roasters (Greenwood, DE)
  • Origin: Brazil
  • Roast level: Medium
  • Roast date: 10/15/2025
  • Purchase date: 10/24/2025 at T. S. Smith Orchard Point Market in Bridgeville, DE
    Freeze date: around 10/25/2025; Thaw dates: 11/21 (4oz), 11/26/2025 (remaining 12oz)
    First cup: 11/24/2025; Last cup: 12/06/2025
  • Process: honey
  • Tasting notes: Milk chocolate/molasses/smooth finish
• V60 with Ode grinder:
  • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
  • Ode: 4+2
  • Water at 95°C
  • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with size 1 cone, 60g bloom water and 60g pulses – finishes 03:00-03:10

As we often do, we stopped at T.S. Smith on the way home from the beach, and these bags were pretty fresh, so I couldn’t resist buying one. Since I already had a bunch of coffee, I put all of this in the freezer and brewed my first cup exactly a month after I bought the bag. The first cup at grind 4 and 99°C water tasted a little over-extracted, so I backed off to 4+2 and 95°C, and have brewed 2 or 3 good cups at those settings. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the bag goes, and compare it with my notes for Amity Brazil Daterra, another medium roast that I had some trouble dialing in last summer.

12/6: This is probably my favorite of the 4-or-so Amity coffees I’ve tried over the past couple of years, although it may not be a fair comparison, as my first bag was in 2023 when I was still new to brewing, and I brewed most of my second bag with the AeroPress at the beach with inexact settings. 95C/grind 4+2 produced very consistent, good cups.

• Beans: Mexique/Mexico (single origin) 250g bag
  • Roaster: Cafés Didier Boulet Torréfacteur (Arques, France)
  • Origin: Mexico
  • Roast level: Looks like medium
  • Roast date: unknown
  • Purchase date: unknown
    First cup: 10/29/2025; Last cup: 12/11/2025
  • Tasting notes: Fragrant/floral (per cafe-boulet.com)
• AeroPress with JX grinder:
  • 17g coffee / 250g water (1:14.7)
  • JX: 16
  • Water at 99°C
  • Travel AeroPress Recipe

A friend had some exchange students from France who brought several bags of these, and he gave me one. 250g is only around 9 ounces, but I’ve been keeping them at the office and only brewing about a cup per week, so it’s taking a while to go through them. I’m planning to take them to Denver with me in a couple weeks, and will likely use them up then.

I’m not sure how fresh these are or how they were stored before I got them, but the cups I’ve been getting with the AeroPress have been decent, if not stellar. I think “floral” is a reasonable description. There’s not much in the way of roastiness or acidity, and the cups haven’t been weak or bitter. Nothing really distinguishing, but it’s pleasant and drinkable enough, and has been working fine for my afternoon cups at the office.

12/10: I brewed my last 6 or 7 cups in my hotel room in Denver, with mixed results- some of the cups were really good (I dare say better than how they had been turning out at the office) but some were bitter. I heated the water with the drip coffee machine in the hotel room, so it was likely not as hot as the water from the electric kettle I use at the office. After 2 bitter cups, I backed the grind off from 16 to 20, which was a little bit lacking. I then split the difference at 18, and that was good, so I’m going to keep that setting for my final cup tomorrow morning. Ironically, it seems like the better cups were the ones I brewed with tap water vs bottled water.

• Beans: Sumatra (single origin)
  • Roaster: Rise Up Coffee Roasters (Easton, MD)
  • Origin: Gayo Mountain, Sumatra, Indonesia
  • Roast level: Medium+ (4/5)
  • Roast date: 10/3/2025
  • Purchase date: 10/21/2025 from Rise Up in Easton
    Freeze date: around 10/25/2025; Thaw date: 11/12 or 11/13/2025
    First cup: 11/14/2025; Last cup: 11/23/2025
  • Elevation: 1500 MASL; Certifications: Organic
  • Tasting notes: Rich, malty, earthy, with low acidity
• V60 with Ode grinder:
  • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
  • Ode: 5
  • Water at 99°C
  • Single Cup V60 Pourover with size 2 V60 and 60g pulses (finishes 02:40-02:50)

First, a confession: I put these in the freezer at the same time as a bag of Amity Brazil Peaberry. The 12oz Rise Up bag all fit in a single large mason jar, but the 16oz Amity bag took up a large jar plus part of a smaller jar. At the time, I was sure I’d be able to tell them apart, so I didn’t label the large mason jars. You can probably see where this is going. I’m pretty sure I pulled the Sumatra jar out of the freezer, but not absolutely 100% sure, and I likely won’t know until I brew the beans in the small jar. 😀 I started these at grind setting 5, and I really liked the first two cups, so I guess that’s all that really matters.

11/21: I just took the smaller jar of Brazil Peaberry beans out of the freezer, and they are not the same beans as these. So, I’m now 99% sure that these are the Rise Up Sumatra beans. I’d probably rank this up there with Pura Vida as one of my favorite coffees from Rise Up. It has been consistent from cup to cup, every cup has been good, and I have not made any changes to my initial brew settings.

• Beans: Rwanda (single origin, pre-ground)
  • Roaster: Bugeye Coffee Roasters (Solomons, MD)
  • Origin: Rwanda (Ruli Mountain)
  • Roast level: Full City (Medium/Dark)
  • Roast date: 10/1/2025 (batch 254)
  • Purchase date: 10/23/2025 from Bugeye stall at Sunfest, Ocean City, MD
    First cup: Around 11/1/2025; Last cup: 11/14/2025
  • Tasting notes: Black cherry, dark chocolate, red currant
• V60 (1 cup):
  • 20g to 21g coffee / 300g water (1:14-1:15)
  • Water at 95°C
  • Single Cup V60 Pourover with 60g bloom and 60g pulses – Finishes around 02:50
• AeroPress:
  • Around 17g coffee / 250g water
  • Water heated in Keurig
  • Travel AeroPress Recipe

This is the first time I have ever tried coffee from Rwanda, either single origin, or as part of a blend, so I was curious to see how it tasted. For some reason, this is only sold pre-ground, which doesn’t make sense to me, as it seems like people who buy single-origin coffees are going to be more likely to want to grind the beans themselves. Case in point: had I realized it was pre-ground at the time I bought it, I likely would have taken a pass. However, the grind seems pretty consistent, and worked well for both pour-over and AeroPress, so I have no regrets. It looks like a middle-of-the-road grind: not too fine, not too coarse. As of this writing, I’ve brewed it a couple of times with the V60 at home, and a couple of times with the AeroPress on a recent trip. The mouthfeel is smooth and buttery, and the taste is roasty and full-bodied — pretty much how I like dark roasts to taste. I think the V60 cups were slightly superior, but it would be interesting to try AeroPress under more controlled circumstances. Not sure if I’ll get around to that, though.