River Coffee Roasters — Costa Rica Carlos Montero Honey Process
An exploration of flavours I hadn’t expected…
Have you ever lit a candle, then dripped a little of the wax on your skin? Perhaps an accident, perhaps intentionally to see what it feels like. You’ll have felt the sting and the heat, then relief as the heat subsides and the wax solidifies. That’s a little what this coffee is like. Notes of apple and white grape give an almost tannic acidity (though not quite strong black tea level of tannin), while the ‘biscoff’ spice note lingers mostly on the nose as you lift the cup to your lips.
For the unfamiliar, Biscoff is a branded speculaas (spelling varies regionally) biscuit. These are caramelised, and spiced with various ‘festive’ spices (cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom, white pepper, subject to recipe variations).
Pleasant, though I felt myself craving a piece of chocolate, or better yet, the luxurious velvet of a Fiat Cremino to really round off the experience. While I feel I may be more of a medium to dark roast fan, I am looking forward to trying this coffee again as a Chemex or Aeropress brew.
The finish seemed to stay with me a while, and perhaps that is what led me to want more. This would be a perfect coffee to have with a morning pastry.
So it turns out an Aeropress brew for the Costa Rica is pretty impressive. The fruitiness is still there, but not quite as dominant. There is a fuller flavour, the spice of the biscoff came through more, as well as that richness you’d want from a cup of coffee.
I tried a variant lungo using an approximation of Scott Rao’s high extraction espresso.
1:2 on my Aergrind. 15g in 43g out (roughly)
Out of nowhere, I got the off menu (at the time listed online but not on the bag itself) tasting note of white chocolate enrobed cranberry. An initial hit of sweetness and then that red berry note with that familiar cranberry astringent acidity, though neither acidity nor astringency lingered long enough to be unpleasant, just a note in passing, a part of the melody as you dance into the rest of the morning.
