Since announcing our latest guest coffee roasters, Sightglass Coffee of San Francisco we haven't brought you much coffee news. Over the next couple of weeks expect a few blog postings discussing our offerings and brew methods at the Studio. But for this week, we'll stick to the subject of Sightglass Coffee. Every 4 months we rotate our guest coffee roaster to a new one of the many great roasters across the country. Within that 4 month period we like to bring in a few different coffees from each roaster. So, not only do you get a chance to try each roaster, but you also get the opportunity to taste a variety of coffees sourced from farms all across the world. We hope that this gives you the chance to:
1. Learn more about coffee - it's production, taste, origin, and more
2. Get an idea of the roast style you love (more on this in an upcoming posting)
3. Learn the flavor profile of coffees from a number of different origins and get an idea of what countries, or even farms you prefer.
We couldn't be happier with having Sightglass participate in our guest coffee roaster program. We have enjoyed their coffee as a V60 Pour Over, Chemex, and Cold Brew and they were all delicious. I won't give away any names, but we actually had not one, but two customers call to reserve their bag of Altico the day it arrived fresh at the Studio. We're thrilled that we can be bringing our customers such a great tasting coffee.
After a month of enjoying the Sightglass Columbian El Altico coffee it's already time to rotate our offering. Don't worry, we won't be leaving Sightglass, starting today we will be bringing you a new offering from this great roaster. We'll be moving from Columbia to Ecuador for this coffee. Ecuadorian coffee is known for having a medium body and sharp acidity. The particular variety of this coffee grows at 1600-2000 masl and is called Coffee Arabica Typica. According to information provided by our friends at Stumptown, Typica was one of the first varietal species found in Ethiopia and the "cup quality is generally excellent demonstrating outstanding sweetness, cleanilness, and body." On my first tasting of the Ecuador, La Loja from Sightglass I would have to agree. Sightglass describes the flavor of La Loja as dark honey and root beer cola, which I found to be a peculiar description for the flavor of a coffee, but I can see what they are getting at. The finishing notes of the coffee have a wonderful sweet tanginess to it that is definitely reminiscent of a root beer.
Monthly, Sightglass sends us updates on their coffee, changes to their lineup, and general information about their offerings (another reason they make a great partner for us at RSC). Here is what they have to say about La Loja, "La Loja represents the combined efforts of producers who work with the PROCAFEQ farmer's association in Ecuador's Loja province. PROCAFEQ producers tend to small parcels of land and wash their coffee in their own on-site beneficios. This style and quality of production seems to be a rarity in the Loja province. This coffee includes washed lots from a handful of PROCAFEQ producers, some who individually contributed less than one bag of coffee. La Loja is solely comprised of the Typica variety, whose character makes a strong showing in a cup that is both refined and structured. Vanilla, caramel, and brown sugar aromatics are layered alongside soft, sweet flavors of dark honey and root beer cola."
As always, we will be preparing this coffee by hand in the Studio and will have 12 oz bags available for sale. We're looking forward to sharing this new coffee with you and getting your thoughts on it!