Caffé Americano
It’s amazing how many coffees I have yet to try from different countries. I never would have dreamed how much variety there was in home roasting. The Costa Rica Finca La Ponderosa is easily one of my favorites. Even with the heat, this makes one fantastic caffé americano.
Brazil Daterra Farms - Sweet Blue, Full City+
What a great way to come back from the Robusta experiment. The Sweet Blue gives an amazingly clean and dry espresso shot as well as a pleasant bitter americano.
Shot prepared Cuban style, with sugar layered on top of tamped coffee
I’m always willing to give different styles of coffee preparation a go, this time around I pulled a shot Cuban style.
Green (unroasted) Panama Guyami India Robusta
There are two main species of coffee that we drink: Arabica, and Robusta. Arabica being the most common and tastier species. All of the coffees I’ve talked about have been Arabica (except for a blend or two that might have contained Robusta beans), until now.
After a long trial of coffee blends it feels good to get back into the simple and clean flavors of single origins. I started back with a coffee I’ve been curious to roast myself. Hawaii Kona coffee is known to be some of the best and pricey coffees available. But it is most often found blended since the price can be a problem.
Caffé macchiato
The very last of my blend experiment (not counting when I actually take on making my own blends), Sweet Maria’s Liquid Amber Blend. This blend is pretty much a one trick pony, but it does that trick well.
Espresso Shot Pulled from Sweet Maria's Moka Kadir Blend
So close to the end of our blend experiment. We have one more after I tell you all about Sweet Maria’s Moka Kadir Blend. I also figured it was about time I showed an updated pull from the La Pavoni. One of the best things about this coffee journal is I get to look back and see my improvements, as well as where I am lacking. Change is always the key.
I have been working fairly hard at perfecting milk steaming/frothing. It has been probably the most difficult thing I’ve gotten into since obsessing over coffee. Espresso was hard, but not nearly as frustrating as creating beautiful and tasty milk to go with my ever evolving coffee.
Sweet Maria's Espresso Workshop #11: Tono Alto, Full City Roast
Most of the blends I have tried tend to sit on the darker roast side, Sweet Maria’s Espresso Workshop #11: Tono Alto is meant for light roast, and by that I mean keep it to a City+ if you can take it. I pushed it too far into Full CIty, but I still got an interesting experience out of it.