The next coffee that’s part of our green coffee bean challenge (see link at the end for more info) is a Sweet Maria’s Ethiopian Harar Organic Dry Process Biftu Genema. We roasted this coffee to a full city+ level, brewed immediately after roasting and then for 5 days afterward to see how the flavor profile would evolve.
First the aroma… It had this wonderful, full, … no outrageously FAT aroma with so much going on that it could barely elbow it’s way into my nostrils. Heavy wood, walnut.. this smell that you get from the dead leaves on the forest floor when they’re wet & old. .. And some leather with a bit of chocolate happening in the background. Also I’m really really hesitant to say a but, a slight bit of a clean dog breath if there is such a thing.
Or said more simply, credibly and acceptably stated .. the aroma was extremely complex with heavy wood notes.
The taste had this wonderful roundness with a deep, dark and heavy flavor profile. There was so much body in this coffee that it was like an army of flavor notes filling your mouth and rushing your taste buds. Woody notes with a background of chocolate. A thick and syrupy mouthfeel and a finish that was long and and seemingly took forever to fade away. Overall, a wonderful experience.
Other things, when brewing right after roasting we were surprised to find a very acceptable coffee. It’s like the roast skipped growing up and immediately morphed into a mature old man. However, after 24 hours things really settled down and became nice & frumpy. Soo nice. But then shortly into the aging the roast began to change and fade away to something not bad, but not terribly exceptional either. See our “You’ve Changed” post below which describes what happened. Believe me, this was terrible disappointing and a bit of a shock since the rate of decline was so quick, so sad.
And this is a USDA Certified Organic Coffee. No pesticides used and as natural as it gets. .. So in summary an exceptional coffee if you enjoy a very full body with negligible brightness. However, it’s one drawback seems to be a shelf-life issue. So if you want to taste it at it’s peak be prepared to roast more often as these coffee beans will fade into mediocrity pretty darn quickly.
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