• 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.

• Beans: Ethiopia (Tega & Tula Specialty Coffee Estate)
  • Roaster: Brewing Good Coffee Company (Savage, MD)
  • Origin: Ethiopia (Kaffa Zone, Limmu, Oromia)
  • Roast level: Light
  • Roast date: 1/22/2025
  • Purchase date: 2/9/2025 at BGCC in Savage Mill
  • Process: Washed; Varietal: Ethiopian heirloom; Elevation: 1500-2000 MASL
  • Tasting notes: Cocoa, spice, citrus notes with medium body and moderate acidity
• V60:
  • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
  • Ode: 1+2
  • Water at 100°C
  • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with 36-40g bloom water – finishes 02:50-03:00

I’m finally getting around to checking out some of the smaller roasters around home. Savage Mill is only around 10 minutes away by car, and I occasionally bike right past it on my Sunday morning rides. Going forward, I’m going to try to put a few of these places into my rotation and return every few months or so. This place was busy on Sunday morning, and parking was a little hard to come by. The coffee here is definitely “top shelf” (and priced accordingly), but sometimes you get what you pay for. This was a complex light roast with a good bit of acidity and a lot of interesting flavors. This kind of coffee is almost like wine- not so much a “daily drinker”, but rather something to be savored. That being said, I got slightly better extraction when I brewed larger cups of it (450g vs 300g). I never strayed far from 1:15, but I’m wondering if maybe I should have tried brewing a couple of smaller cups at 1:16 to 1:18, just to see if it turned out differently. Something to keep in mind for next time.

• Beans: “El Mirador”
  • Roaster: Tree House Coffee Company (Boston, MA)
  • Origin: Colombia (Tolima)
  • Roast level: Light
  • Roast date: 12/9/2024
  • Purchase date: 12/12/2024 at Tree House Brewing (Copley Place, Boston MA)
  • Process: Honey; Varietal: Gesha; Elevation: 1750-1830 MASL
  • Tasting notes: Persimmon, honey, and orange blossom
• V60:
  • 19.1g coffee / 300g water (1:15.7)
  • Ode: 2
  • Water at 99°C
  • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with 36-40g bloom water – finishes 03:10-03:20

This is the most expensive 12oz bag of coffee I have bought to date. I think it was more expensive than any 16oz bag I’ve bought, as well. It likes a fine grind, and has a long draw-down time. Taste-wise, it has a good bit of fruity acidity and a rather complex mouthfeel, with some flavors I can’t really quite identify. This is definitely a coffee connoisseur’s coffee, and while I’m not sure if the cups I’m brewing are the best they can be, I am enjoying them, and I am fairly certain that I couldn’t have brewed them as well a year ago. In other words, I’ve progressed to the point where buying top-shelf coffee isn’t a waste of money. Which isn’t saying much, but it’s something. 😀

• Beans:
  • Organic Papua New Guinea Light from Leaves ‘n Beans Coffee (Peoria Heights, IL)
  • Roast level: Light
  • Purchase date: 10/25/2024 at LnB Morton, IL
• V60:
  • 19g to 19.5g coffee / 300g water
  • Ode: 2+1
  • Water at 99°C
  • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with 40g bloom water – finishes 02:45-03:00

These seem to work well with a rather fine grind. I started at setting 4, and worked my way to 2+1 over 3 or 4 cups. Seems to be pretty good at this setting. The bag advertises low acidity, which I’ve found to be accurate. My favorite cup so far was today’s, with 19.6g or so of beans. It was very rich and full-bodied, but a little bit more of a caffeine hit than I would prefer. 19.2g to 19.4g seems like a reasonable compromise.

11/19: I’ve been brewing most of my cups with 19.2g, which (with a couple of exceptions) has been producing what I would consider perfect cups of light roast coffee. I’ll be tempted to buy more of this the next time I’m in Morton, but the desire to try different roasts will likely win out. However, this does raise an interesting point. I should probably come up with some kind of rating system so that I can start to identify which origins/roast levels/processes/etc tend to produce coffee that I like the best. That will help drive my decision process when I’m trying to figure out what to buy when I go somewhere new. Will have to think on this for a bit.

• Beans: “Texas Pecan” from Lola Savannah Coffee (Houston, TX)
  • Roast level: Light
  • Origin: unknown (Arabica)
  • Roast date: unknown
  • Purchase date: received as gift on 10/12/2024
• V60:
  • 19 to 19.2g coffee / 300g water (1/15.6 to 1/15.8)
  • Ode: 3+1
  • Water at 99°C
  • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with 40g bloom water

I received these as a gift from family who live in Texas. Started out at grind setting 4, but have been nudging it finer with good results. Currently at 3+1. I have also been using less bloom water recently. As long as I get all of the beans wet, and the water stays in the cone long enough to swirl a few times, I’ve been getting good results using a little over 2x the coffee weight. It also worked well with my last bag of beans.

I’m not normally a flavored coffee drinker, but I do like these quite a lot. The aroma is fantastic if you like pecans/pralines, and the taste is very smooth with no hints of acidity or bitterness. Also, when the bag is gone, I’ll have an excuse to learn how to tear down and clean the Ode, as I kinda don’t want my next several bags of beans to taste like pecans. 😀

• Beans: “Hippie Blend” from Zeke’s Coffee (Baltimore, MD)
  • Roast level: Light (2/8)
  • Origin: Sumatra, Peru, Papua New Guinea
  • Roast date: 9/23/2024
  • Purchase date: 9/27/2024 at Green Valley Marketplace in Elkridge, MD
• V60:
  • 19 to 19.2g coffee / 300g water (1/15.6 to 1/15.8)
  • Ode: 3+2
  • Water at 99°C
  • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with 50g bloom water

I started off brewing 21g with 300g at grind setting 4, but I like these beans much better at 1:15 to 1:16. I’ve brewed 4 or 5 cups at this strength, and they have all been pleasant: not too strong, not too weak, not too bitter, not too acidic.

I bought my first bag of these around the beginning of 2024, and according to my notes, I struggled to get the grind size dialed in. I eventually ended up grinding rather coarsely, which is interesting, because this time around, the cups are turning out nicely with a much finer grind. It appears that I was brewing at the same ratio with the same water temperature, so the main differences seem to be: Ode grinder vs 1Zpresso JX, and plastic size 2 V60 vs ceramic size 1 V60.

• Beans: “Peruvian” from Lost Dog Coffee (Shepherdstown, WV)
  • Roast level: Medium/Medium Light
  • Origin: Peru (Chanchamayo)
  • Grade: Screen 18/19
  • Tasting notes from bag: Huge body, intense aroma, caramel & smoky wood burnt sugar
  • Purchase date: 9/14/2024
• V60:
  • 21g coffee / 300g water
  • Ode: 5 1+2
  • Water at 99°C
  • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover

I hadn’t been to Lost Dog since May of last year, when I was just getting started with this new hobby. This place has a great selection of coffee beans, all sold by the pound, and my only complaint is that they don’t put the roast dates on the bags. Since they’re a small batch operation, though, I’m just kind of giving them the benefit of the doubt that the bags they have for sale in their store are pretty fresh. Unlike last time, I only bought 1 bag, as nowadays, I only like to buy what I know I can brew and drink in a month or less (plus, it’s highly likely that I’ll end up going back within the next several weeks).

The beans looked lightly roasted (as advertised) so I brewed them exactly the same as I brewed my last bag, which was also a light roast. The first two cups have been pretty good. Not sure if I’ll try tweaking anything going forward, but I don’t necessarily need to. Will add notes here as I use up more of the bag.

9/25: After several weak/watery/acid-y cups, I have figured out that these beans like a very fine grind. I kept nudging it finer and finer, until I finally got what I consider to be an excellent cup this afternoon, at grind setting 1+2 (or 1.67) on the Ode, which is just two clicks past the finest setting. I used 21.5 grams of beans or so, poured maybe 50g water to bloom (vs 60), and made sure to slosh it over all of the grounds. I finished pouring right around 2:00, and it took until 3:15-3:20 to fully draw down, which is a lot slower than I’m used to, but apparently the ticket for getting good extraction. No hint of bitterness at all, unlike some other beans where I’ve struggled to find the sweet spot between weak/sour and bitter/over-extracted as I’ve adjusted the grind.

9/29: I had 15.5 grams of beans left at home. I bumped the Ode to setting 1+1 (just 1 click past finest setting) and brewed with 248g water (1:16) and ceramic size 1 V60, preheated with insta-hot water. I used about 40g bloom water and otherwise followed the recipe linked above. The draw-down finished at 2:45, which is 30 seconds faster than my larger cups in the size 2. This produced an excellent cup. It was very well balanced and lacked the acidic aftertaste that my stronger cups have had. I have 21-22g of beans left at the office, and once they’re gone, I guess it’ll be time for another trip to Shepherdstown.

• Beans: “Pura Vida” from Rise Up Coffee Roasters (Easton, MD)
  • Roast level: Light
  • Origin: Costa Rica (Finca Las Gravilias)
  • Tasting notes from web site: Complex and very well balanced; bright with hints of honey and orange citrus. Light roast, sweet cup
  • Roast date: 8/13/2024
  • Purchase date: ~9/3/2024, 9/10/2024 at Green Valley Marketplace in Elkridge, MD
• V60:
  • 21g coffee / 300g water
  • Ode: 5; JX: 18
  • Water at 99°C
  • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover

I have a new grinder this month. I’ve been happy with my 1Zpresso JX hand grinder, but got tired of hand-grinding beans twice a day. I also wanted something that could grind enough beans for more than one cup. For now, I’ve taken the JX to the office, so I can grind beans there instead of pre-grinding at home. I’ll also continue to use the JX as my travel grinder. My new home grinder is a Fellow Ode Gen 2. I initially had my sights set on a Baratza Virtuoso, but I had a 25% off coupon from Fellow which brought the Ode 2’s price down enough for me to pull the trigger. (Sometimes it pays to take surveys. 😀)

The Pura Vida have been my favorite of the beans I’ve bought (at least locally) this summer. They have also been the freshest Rise Up beans available at the local grocery store for the past few weeks, so I’ve bought 2 12oz bags from the same batch this month. I’ve brewed a few cups with the JX at setting 18 (same as July) and a bunch in the Ode at setting 5, most of them with the size 1 ceramic V60, and this morning’s with the plastic size 2 V60. The JX cups have been fine, but the Ode cups have been better. The grinder has been the only variable, so I’m curious if the difference has to do with grind size, grind consistency, presence or lack of “fines” in the coffee bed, or all/none of the above. As I’ve noted before (more than once), with identical grinds, the size 1 V60 consistently drains faster than the size 2, and today was no exception. With the Ode at setting 5, my brews in the size 1 are always finished by 02:30, but today’s brew in the size 2 finished at 02:35-02:40. Not a huge difference, but it seemed like this morning’s cup was a tiny bit better extracted than some of my previous cups. Just something to keep in mind when I’m trying to dial things in, as one size might work better than the other, depending on the beans and various other brewing parameters.

• Beans: “Colombia Sierra Nevada” from Zeke’s Coffee (Baltimore, MD)
  • Roast level: Light to medium (3/8)
  • Origin: Colombia (Sierra Nevada)
  • Roast date: 7/29/24
  • Purchase date: 7/29 or 7/30/24 at Green Valley Marketplace in Elkridge, MD
• V60:
  • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
  • JX: 20 (60 clicks)
  • Water at 97°C
  • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with size 1 dripper
• AeroPress:
  • 18g coffee / 250g water
  • JX: 20 (60 clicks)
  • Water at 95°C
  • Prismo with metal + paper filter
  • Pour all 250g; stir front to back 6-7x; steep until 2:45; stir again; press slowly

I bought my first bag last September, so it’s been a little while. It took a few cups to get there, but I see that I’ve settled on similar brewing parameters to last year’s bag. The last few cups have been pretty good, if not spectacularly good. I’ve been on a kick of brewing strong cups lately — most of my recent pourovers have been 22g to 300g, or about 1:13.6. I’m trying to back off that a little bit, as I think it may be negatively affecting the flavor of the cups. I brewed this morning at 20:300 (1:15), and preferred it to some of my earlier, stronger cups. If this works out, I’ll also go through coffee less quickly. 😀

8/18: I’m definitely having a bad run with V60 coffee. Not sure if something is off with my technique, or if it’s just the beans I happen to be buying. With these, everything I have been brewing has been bitter, weak, or just OK but generally unremarkable. Grind setting 20 and 95-97C water seem to produce the cups that are the least bad. The AeroPress cup I brewed today (see above) was leaps and bounds better than anything I’ve gotten from the V60. It had a nice flavor with a hint of sweetness that was totally lacking with the V60 cups. The immersion method seems to do a better job of extracting the beans. I suspect that the issue with the V60 is that the beans aren’t staying wet long enough to fully extract. I might get better results by brewing a larger volume of coffee (maybe 500-600g), or possibly using a filter that is more dense and drains more slowly (maybe Abaca?). I could also grind the beans finer, but that seems to make the coffee taste bitter. As I’ve written before, I’m curious to try a Kalita Wave dripper at some point. It has a different design which (on paper) sounds like it will result in longer immersion time with washed beans like these. Lots of potential things to try, but for now, it seems like AeroPress is the way to go with the rest of these beans.