February

Some things that have been rattling around in February.

Zimbabwe Salimba AA. Maybe it’s called ‘Salimba estate.’  The thing is, what is ‘Salimba estate’? It turns out that it is really coffee from a certain region in the east of Zimbabwe. Obtaining information about where the beans come from is proving to be somewhat difficult. The beans seem to come from a lot of growers in the region who sell to some collective that mills the beans and puts them in bags with what is considered an attractive name. Especially given that this is Zimbabwe, it’s especially urgent to find out who owns the land, who’s worked it, etc. The latest BBC story on Zimbabwe is here. How is the coffee, you ask? Excellent! It’s really a very good balanced cup, with big flavor. I don’t have a Lot # or anything like that; Coffee Bean Corral would have that. If anyone reading this knows anything about Zimbabwe coffee, please write in.

Puerto Rico Yauco Selecto. Really who doesn’t like coffee from the Caribbean? What would that mean about said person? Maybe just that they had something lousy and decided to write it off forever. Anyway, the deal with this coffee is that it has a remarkable peanut-butter-like aroma and there’s something peanut buttery on the palate also. I’ve never experienced a flavor like that in coffee, although dry peanut aroma does pop up in some Brasilian coffees and sort of drift through the crema of an espresso. This is different though, this is a dense, chocolatey thing. There are some baggy hints which is a drag but they’re not really all that noticeable. That goes away altogether in a blend with this smokin Oaxaca decaf that I’ve been hoarding. The Oaxaca is from Sweet Maria’s. The PR, like the Zimbabwe mentioned above, is from Coffee Bean Corral.