Foxtail Decaf Colombia

  • Beans: Decaf Colombia from Foxtail Coffee Co. (Winter Park, FL)
    • Roast level: Medium/Dark (4/5)
    • Roast date: 10/11/2024
    • Purchase date: 10/21/2024 at Foxtail Coffee in Mount Dora, FL
    • Process: Washed
  • V60:
    • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
    • Ode: 5
    • Water at 90°C
    • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with 40g bloom water – finishes 03:15-03:30
  • AeroPress:
    • 14.8g coffee / 210g water (1:14.2)
    • JX: 20 (2 rotations)
    • Water at 90°C
    • Prismo with metal + 1 paper filter (rinsed with insta-hot tap water)
    • Pour all water at once / Stir back to front 7x / Steep until 02:45 / Stir 7x again / Press slowly

This is a rather coarse grind setting for this particular recipe, but the beans draw down very slowly, which seems to balance things out. Fairly smooth cup with little to no bitterness. Very roasty/smoky tasting, which I guess is to be expected given that it’s a darker roast.

3/19: These beans aged well, as the last few cups were really smooth and tasty. I used up the last of the beans with the above AeroPress recipe, deliberately making it on the strong side, and it was a really excellent cup. Who needs caffeine, anyways? 😆

Rise Up Organic Decaf Coffee

  • Beans: “Organic Decaf Coffee” from Rise Up Coffee Roasters (Easton, MD)
    • Roast level: Medium (3/5)
    • Origin: Ethiopia (Yirgacheffe)
    • Roast date: 9/24/2024
    • Purchase date: 10/9/2024 at Green Valley Marketplace (Elkridge, MD)
  • V60:
    • 19 to 19.2g coffee / 300g water (1/15.6 to 1/15.8)
    • Ode: 4
    • Water at 95°C
    • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with 40g bloom water

This was my first time brewing decaf coffee with the V60. I brewed it using the same settings I would start with for any other medium roast, and it turned out well-balanced and bright. Most of the decaf I’ve had over the years has been akin to brown, vaguely coffee-flavored water, so I was pleasantly surprised. I bought this mainly for my better half, but I may occasionally sneak a cup for myself if I find myself wanting coffee later in the evening. We’ll probably freeze some of the beans to try to keep them fresh for longer, as I doubt we’ll go through them as fast as I go through a typical 12-to-16 ounce bag. I’m sure I’ll buy these again.

11/21: I froze what we had left of these on around 10/19-10/20, and took them out at the beginning of this week. They seem to have survived the freezer just fine, as the above settings produced another good cup (from what I could tell from the sip or two I took of it). That said, I think if we buy 12 ounces of decaf beans at a time, we should have no problem going through them fast enough to avoid having to freeze them. It’s good to know that we can, though.