Fruddled Gruntbugglies

Category: Coffee

  • Zeke’s Colombia Huila (bag #2)

    Zeke’s Colombia Huila (bag #2)

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    • Beans: Colombia (Huila) – single origin
      • Roaster: Zeke’s Coffee (Baltimore, MD)
      • Origin: Colombia (Huila)
      • Roast level: Medium/Light (2/8)
      • Roast date: 4/1/2025
      • Purchase date: 4/7/2025 at Green Valley Marketplace in Elkridge, MD
        Freeze date: 4/8/2025 or 4/9/2025
        Thaw date: 6/2/2025
        First cup: 6/5/2025
        Last cup: 6/16/2025
      • Process: Washed; Varietals: Caturra, Castillo
      • Tasting notes: Orange, caramel, milk chocolate
    • V60:
      • 19g coffee / 300g water (1:15.8)
      • Ode: 4
      • Water at 100°C
      • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with size 2 cone, 40g bloom water and 50g pulses – finishes around 02:50
    • AeroPress with Prismo:
      • 17g coffee / around 250g water (roughly 1:15)
      • JX: 20 (2 rotations)
      • Metal + paper filter
      • Pour enough water to wet grounds / stir / bloom until 0:45
      • Fill cylinder to about 1/4″ from top / stir 6-7x front to back
      • Steep until 03:00 / stir again / press slowly
    • Previous bag: May 2024

    I bought and froze this bag in early April, so I would have some coffee in the house when we got home from our trips in April/May. I put all of the beans into a gallon freezer bag, got as much air out of it as I could, and put the bag in the basement freezer. It stayed there a little bit longer than planned, as I ended up buying a bunch of coffee in the meantime.

    My first two cups were somewhat roasty and low in acidity. I brewed cup #1 at grind setting 3, and it tasted a little bit over-extracted. Setting 4 was better balanced. 1:15 was on the strong side, so I will try 1:15.8-1:16 tomorrow. Interestingly, I see that last year, I was brewing these beans at 1:14. I can’t imagine why I would want it that strong, but it could be that I’m getting better extraction using 6 pours of 50g water (vs 5 pours of 60g water), which keeps water in the cone a little longer. I was also using a different grinder then (JX), so it’s hard to compare grind sizes. My tastes have probably evolved over the past year, as well.

    Final note: As of today, I am using a new scale. For the past year or so, I have had a cheap coffee scale from Greater Goods, which I liked just fine, until the tray started wobbling and giving inconsistent readings. You get what you pay for, I guess. After doing a bunch of research and comparison, I narrowed my choices down to the Timemore Basic Mini and the Mx. Cool Katze. I ended up going with the Katze. It was about twice the price of the Timemore (though still a good bit cheaper than Fellow Tally or Acaia Pearl) but the deciding factors for me were (1) it’s made in Taiwan vs China; and (2) it has a unique retracting control panel which protects the scale during storage. It seems solidly built, has some weight to it, and has a metal tray. Feature-wise, the only thing it has over the Greater Goods scale is an automatic timer for pour-over, which I have yet to try out. One of the Timemore’s selling points was a flow rate indicator, which the Katze lacks, but I’ve somehow managed to get by without one up to now, so it wasn’t a show stopper (and, surprisingly, the $190 Fellow doesn’t have one, either). The Taiwan-made Acaia would have been a strong competitor, but it had extra features I didn’t need (Bluetooth/app) which added $30 to the price tag. Overall, the Katze seemed like the best combination of price, features, and build quality. It has worked well for one cup of coffee thus far, hopefully with many more to come.

    6/6: As I had suspected I would, I liked this better at around 1:16, so I’ve updated the recipe to 19g/300g.

    6/11: I brewed some of this in the AeroPress at the office (see above), and it turned out pretty good, in spite of my not using a scale and not having the grind dialed in on the hand grinder.

    6/16: Finished the bag up today, and once I got it dialed in, it was very consistent from cup to cup. Except for today, I brewed a little over 38g of beans per day, and used the 1lb bag up in 11 days. This morning, I had a little over 42g left, so I made the cups a little larger so I could use all of the beans up.

  • Brewing Good Sumatra Arisarina

    Brewing Good Sumatra Arisarina

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    • Beans: Sumatra (Arisarina Cooperative) – single origin
      • Roaster: Brewing Good Coffee Company (Savage, MD)
      • Origin: Sumatra, Indonesia (Aceh Tengah)
      • Roast level: Medium
      • Roast date: 5/21/2025
      • Purchase date: 5/25/2025 at BGCC in Savage Mill
        First cup: 5/27/2025
        Last cup: 6/4/2025
      • Process: Wet hulled; Varietals: Catimor, Typica, Timtim; Elevation: 1400-1700 MASL
      • Tasting notes: Chocolate, dried cherries, above average body and low acidity
    • V60:
      • 19g coffee / 300g water (1:15.8)
      • Ode: 5
      • Water at 95°C
      • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with size 2 cone, 36-40g bloom water and 50g pulses – finishes around 02:50

    This was my second time buying coffee from Brewing Good. To avoid the hassle of parking at Savage Mill, I stopped by during my Sunday morning bike ride, which was very convenient. I suspect it won’t be the last time I do that.

    I started at 1:15 and grind setting 4. After exclusively drinking fruity light roasts for the past month, this was quite the departure. It is really bold and roasty, with no noticeable acidity at all. The bag mentions that the roast is “a little darker than medium”, but I didn’t notice any of the burnt flavor that often turns me off to dark roasts. It has more than enough body at 1:15, and good flavor, but it starts to get a little bit overpowering around halfway through the cup. I suspect 1:16 will tone it down a bit, so I’m going to try that tomorrow.

    6/1: I have brewed several cups with 19g/300g (1:15.8) and grind setting 5, and they have been pretty nicely balanced compared to my first few cups, which tasted a bit over-extracted. The draw-down is super, super fast — it’s mostly finished brewing at 2:40 to 2:45, even with the size 2 cone and a slower pour (5 pulses finishing at 2:10). The fast draw-down time, (relatively) coarse grind, and quick extraction are all very much in line with other Indonesian coffees I have brewed.

    6/4: Finished these up, and the grind settings I noted on 6/1 definitely produced the best cups. Recipe updated.

  • Kings Peak Light Roasts

    Kings Peak Light Roasts

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    • Roaster: Kings Peak Roasters (Salt Lake City, UT)
    • Purchase date (both bags): 5/4/2025 at Kings Peak (412 S 700 W, SLC)
    • Bag #1: Sundial Peak (blend)
      • Origin: Central and South America
      • Roast level: Light
      • Roast date: Unknown (likely late April 2025)
      • First cup: 5/9/2025
        Last cup: 5/23/2025
      • Tasting notes: Cocoa, milk chocolate, citrus, dried fruit
    • Bag #2: Ethiopia (single origin)
      • Region: Gedeo (Yirgacheffe)
      • Roast level: Light
      • Roast date: 4/25/2025
      • First cup: 5/11/2025
        Last cup: 5/26/2025
      • Tasting notes: Grape, berries, passion fruit, jasmine, & honey
      • Process: natural dry fermentation; Elevation: 1950-2200m; Varietals: Wolisho & Dega
    • V60:
      • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
      • Ode: 3
      • Water at 99-100°C
      • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with 36-40g bloom water and 6 50g pulses
        • #1 – with size 2 V60, finishes 03:00-03:10
        • #2 — with size 1 V60, finishes 02:55-03:05

    I decided to combine these two into a single post, as they’re both light roasts, and at least initially, I’m brewing both with the exact same method and parameters.

    I really like both of these. As of this writing, I’ve only brewed one cup of the single origin, but it had a very nice balance of acidity and sweetness. I’ve had a few more cups of the blend, and it’s got a bit more of a fruity twang to it (reminded me a bit of Clumsy Girl) and is overall very drinkable, if not as complex. That’s about what you’d expect from a coffee that is sold as a breakfast blend. I was a little bit surprised that the bag didn’t have a roast date on it, but it’s possible that the beans they blended together were roasted on different dates.

    I’ll be alternating between these two until I use them up, so it will be interesting to see how my opinion of them evolves over the next couple of weeks. For now, I think I slightly prefer the single origin Ethiopia beans, but that could change tomorrow!

    5/14: So far, no changes to water temperature or grind for either of these. I’ve taken to brewing both of them with 6 pulses of 50g water (vs 5 pulses of 60), which has produced longer draw-down times and better extraction with the Sundial Peak blend. The single origin beans didn’t really need any tweaking, but since they draw down slowly, I’m now brewing them in the size 1 V60 (which speeds up the draw-down) and compensating by adding the extra pulse. I haven’t noticed an appreciable difference in how the cups taste.

    5/23: I finished the Sundial Peak blend today. The last few cups were dominated by nutty/chocolate flavors, without much hint of fruit or acidity. Overall, I really enjoyed this. I’ve been thinking about keeping a list of out-of-town coffees that I’d like to revisit at some point (maybe a separate list for local coffees as well). It’s a bit challenging, because memories of how a specific coffee tastes tend to fade over time, and it can be hard to compare something I drank several months ago to something I’m drinking right now, unlike (say) keeping a list of favorite geocaches, where I can go back and relive each experience via my logs. But were I ever to start such a list, I’d definitely put this on it.

    5/26: The single-origin Ethiopia beans are now gone as well. Both of these were top-notch, but I do think this one has the slight edge — definitely my favorite coffee of the year so far. When can we go back to SLC?

  • Kross Costa Rica Finca Las Lajas

    Kross Costa Rica Finca Las Lajas

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    • Beans: Costa Rica (Finca Las Lajas)
      • Roaster: Kross Coffee Roasters (Chania [Crete], Greece)
      • Origin: Costa Rica (Alajuela – West Valley)
      • Roast level: Light
      • Roast date: TBD (early April 2025)
      • Purchase date: 4/15/2025 at Kross Coffee Roasters in Chania
        First cup: 4/28/2025
        Last cup: 5/8/2025
      • Process: Honey; Varietal: Caturra; Elevation: 1750 MASL
      • Tasting notes: Raisins, hazelnuts, citrus (moderate acidity)
    • V60:
      • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
      • Ode: 2
      • Water at 99°C
      • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with 36-40g bloom water – finishes 02:40-2:45 with size 2 V60, 2:30 with size 1 V60

    This was the only local coffee roaster I ran across during our 2-week Mediterranean cruise. There may have been others, but after buying this, I didn’t look any further, as I had limited suitcase space. Coffee beans are more expensive in Greece than the USA for sure, as I paid €18 (around $20-21), and the bag is only 250g, or roughly 9 ounces. That works out to about $26-27 for 12 ounces, which is around 30-40% more than I’d expect to pay for this grade of coffee in the US. I can’t complain, though, as everything is more expensive in our current geopolitical climate. The coffee itself is exactly as described on the box. Roast level isn’t mentioned, but the beans are obviously light roasted based on their color. Taste is nutty and fruity with an acidic finish. Quite nice overall.

    5/9: I finished these up yesterday. This was a little bit more on the fruity/acidic side than I tend to prefer, but I still enjoyed it. Next up is another pair of light roasts that I picked up in Salt Lake City.

  • Zeke’s Black & Orange Blend

    Zeke’s Black & Orange Blend

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    • Beans: Black & Orange Blend
      • Roaster: Zeke’s Coffee (Baltimore, MD)
      • Roast level: Dark (7/8)
      • Origin: Brazil, Colombia
      • Roast date: 03/24/2025
      • Purchase date: 03/29/2025 at Green Valley Marketplace (Elkridge, MD)
      • First cup brewed: 03/30/2025
      • Tasting notes: “Nutty notes of liquor and baker’s chocolate / medium acidity”
    • V60:
      • 21g coffee / 300g water (1:14.3)
      • Ode: 4
      • Water at 90°C
      • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with 60g pulses- finishes 02:40-02:45

    I’m finally all caught up with coffee notes. I’m actually still near the beginning of this bag. As I remember, I’m going to try to start noting the date I brewed my first and last cup of each bag along with roast and purchase dates. That will give me a better sense of freshness to correlate with my notes, and also an idea of how long it takes me to go through bags in general.

    It had been a couple of months since I last had a dark roast. I used to just assume that immersion (e.g. French/AeroPress) was always going to be better with dark roasts, but my usual V60 method has worked out fairly well for the last couple of bags I’ve brewed. This one is no exception. As I typically do, I went with cooler water and a slightly stronger ratio than I typically use for medium/light roasts. The first few cups have been smooth, roasty, and not overly bitter — pretty much how I like dark roasts to taste. I may end up having to freeze some of this if I can’t finish the (1lb) bag by middle of next week, so it will be interesting to see how that works out.

  • Gracefully Colombian Decaf

    Gracefully Colombian Decaf

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    • Beans: Colombian Mountain Water Process Decaf
      • Roaster: Gracefully Coffee Roasters (Baltimore, MD)
      • Roast level: Medium
      • Origin: Colombia
      • Roast date: 02/12/2025
      • Purchase date: 02/21/2025 at Gracefully Curbside Cafe (2601 N Rolling Rd Ste 104, Windsor Mill, MD)
      • Tasting notes: milk chocolate, caramel, citrus
    • V60:
      • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
      • Ode: 4 to 4+1
      • Water at 92-95°C
      • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover (60g pulses) – finishes around 03:30

    This is another pretty good decaf. It’s definitely on par with the offerings from Brewing Good and Rise Up, and I’ll likely cycle through these (depending on availability/freshness; Rise Up can be hit-or-miss around here) until another local competitor comes along. The grounds draw down fairly slowly, though not as slowly as the Brewing Good decaf. I brewed most of the single cups in a size 1 V60, and double cups in the size 2. We’ve taken a long time to go through this bag, and as of this writing, it’s over 6 weeks past roast date and starting to degrade a little bit. I brewed most of the early cups at grind 4 and water at 95°C, but more recently, I noticed some slight bitterness, so I backed off to 4+1/92.

  • Black Acres Seya Blend

    Black Acres Seya Blend

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    • Beans: Seya Blend
      • Roaster: Black Acres Roastery (Baltimore, MD)
      • Roast level: Medium
      • Origin: Pau Brasil + Organic Ethiopia Limu Grade 2
      • Roast date: around 3/10/2025
      • Purchase date: 03/13/2025 or 03/14/2025 at Lexington Market, Baltimore, MD
      • Process: variety
      • Tasting notes: Chocolate bar, sweet berries
    • V60:
      • 19g-20g coffee / 300g water (1:16-1:15)
      • Ode: 2+1
      • Water at 95°C
      • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover (60g pulses) – finishes around 03:00

    I’m a little behind with writing this up, as I finished the bag last week. I kept the bag around so that I could record the roast date, but can’t find it at the moment. When it turns up, I’ll update the post.

    These beans have a relatively slow draw-down time. I brewed almost all of the cups with a size 1 V60. A 300g cup is about the limit with this size. I mostly agree with the stated tasting notes- the cups had kind of a rich, milk chocolaty mouthfeel with a little bit of fruitiness to go with it. I thought it was pretty good. There was a bit of a drop-off in extraction towards the end of the (12oz) bag, with my last 2 or 3 cups tasting a little bit weak. I could probably compensate by grinding a little finer.

  • Gracefully Papua New Guinea

    Gracefully Papua New Guinea

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    • Beans: Papua New Guinea Nebilyer Valley A
      • Roaster: Gracefully Coffee Roasters (Baltimore, MD)
      • Roast level: Medium
      • Origin: Papua New Guinea
      • Roast date: 02/20/2025
      • Purchase date: 02/21/2025 at Gracefully Curbside Cafe (2601 N Rolling Rd Ste 104, Windsor Mill, MD)
      • Elevation: 1350; Varietals: Bourbon, Typica; Process: Washed; Drying Process: patio drying
      • Tasting notes: extra dark chocolate, toffee, red apple
    • V60:

    I first brewed these with pretty typical settings: grind 3, 95C water, 60g pulses. The first couple of cups were good, but then I started getting sour/under-extracted cups. The beans draw down pretty quickly, finishing up at 2:30-2:35, which I’ve often found isn’t enough time to get everything fully extracted. In the past, when I’ve had beans like this, I’ve ended up going to an immersion brew with the AeroPress. However, at the moment, my AeroPress is at my office at UMBC. Rather than breaking out the French press, I decided to try modifying my V60 technique. Usually, I pour 5 “pulses” of 60g water, and finish pouring at 02:00. For this experiment, I tried pouring 6 “pulses” of 50g, finishing at 02:20. This kept water in the cone until around 03:00, theoretically allowing for more extraction.

    Did this make a difference? The jury is still out — this morning’s cup, brewed using the 50g pulse technique and 95C water, was still a little weak/sour. This afternoon, I bumped the water temperature to 98C, and also brushed out the grinder chute (there were a bunch of old grounds in there), and the cup turned out really good. Maybe I just need to get better with brushing the chute out more regularly? Who knows. As long as I’m getting good cups, I’m happy. Whatever the case, it seems like I have a technique I can use to vary the draw-down time with the V60. If I end up using it more often, I’ll update the recipe page.

  • Gracefully Clumsy Girl

    Gracefully Clumsy Girl

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    • Beans: Clumsy Girl
      • Roaster: Gracefully Coffee Roasters (Baltimore, MD)
      • Roast level: Medium
      • Origin: Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, Costa RIca
      • Roast date: 02/06/2025
      • Purchase date: 02/21/2025 at Gracefully Curbside Cafe (2601 N Rolling Rd Ste 104, Windsor Mill, MD)
    • V60:

    This was my first time visiting this small local roaster. I first had their coffee at Evergrain Bread Co. in Chestertown, and enjoyed it. I think it was this one, but there’s a small chance it was Jamberry, one of their other popular roasts. They don’t classify this in terms of “light, medium, or dark roast”, but visually, the beans look like what I would call a medium roast. This is a really good everyday kind of coffee- not overly complex, but with a lot of interesting character. There is a noticeable fruity twang to go along with a decent amount of body. Grind setting 4 worked well, for the most part. Finer than that brought out a touch of bitterness. My cups were pretty consistent up until the end of the bag, for some reason. My third-to-last cup was a little bit subpar, with a little less body to balance out the acidity. I brewed the penultimate cup with more water (about 425g), still at 1:15, and it was really excellent- maybe the best of all of them, actually. The final cup, though (back to 300g/1:15), really fell flat. It had a weak, dishwatery kind of taste. I suspect that I messed something up. It had been about 48 hours since I last used the grinder, so maybe there were enough stale grounds in there to foul things up? I’m not sure, but it’s not going to stop me from buying this again at some point. I’ll probably alternate between Gracefully and Brewing Good in Savage for a while, at least until I’ve tried several roasts from each.

  • Brewing Good Decaf Ethiopia

    Brewing Good Decaf Ethiopia

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    • Beans: Decaf Ethiopia,Sidama
      • Roaster: Brewing Good Coffee Company (Savage, MD)
      • Origin: Ethiopia (Arroresa, Sidama)
      • Roast level: Medium
      • Roast date: 1/26/2025
      • Purchase date: 2/9/2025 at BGCC in Savage Mill
      • Process: Washed; Varietals: Heirloom; Grade: 2; Elevation: 1850-2200 MASL
      • Tasting notes: Gentle brightness, medium body and sweetness, notes of spiced plum, crisp apple, almond, vanilla, and caramel
    • V60:
      • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
      • Ode: 2+2
      • Water at 95°C
      • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with 36-40g bloom water – finishes 04:00-04:05

    This is very different from the Ethiopian light roast that I bought at BG at the same time. It is a smooth medium roast with no hint of acidity. Definitely not as complex as the light roast, but nice body and overall a very drinkable decaf. The beans have one of the slowest draw-down times of anything I’ve brewed with the V60, but none of the cups have tasted bitter or over-extracted. The recipe also works well doubled, but with the slow draw-down, I had to be careful not to overflow the size 2 V60. I’m sure I’ll eventually buy more of these.