Expanding my horizons and consequentially my world map of coffees I recently had the utmost pleasure as well as the “meh” experience of drinking two new coffee beans that was not in my original “Coffees of the World” -series. Part one, part two and the final part.. for those that either don’t know what the hell I’m talking about or those of you who just want to have their memory refreshed.
Since I started that journey I have not been able to look back, nor would I want too. I can’t fathom drinking the piss-poor excuse we (Finnish people) usually have as coffee any more. I just can’t. It’s a bit odd though if you think about it since we (Finnish people again) annually according to studies drink the most coffee per capita. We’re beating Norway for the first place with our 12,0 kg per year versus their 9,9 kg. By comparison USA only drinks 4,2 kg (27th place) annually and in the UK they drink a measly 2,8 kg per year and thus place themselves 47th on the list. So yeah.. we consume the most coffee in the world, yet most of them—excluding myself on this one—drink the equivalent of your grandma’s armpit sweat. They drink the extract from that thing that you get stuck between your toes when you have worn your socks for too long. I just realised that there’s probably fetish-sites for both those things, but I’m too scared of searching on Google to find out.
Seriously, all the metaphors aside.. they drink..quite simply.. inferior coffee. Why? But I shouldn’t paint the devil on the wall too much now, there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon. By simply observing the increasing selection of coffees in the supermarket, it is noticeable that people are buying more “exotic” brands, not just the pre-ground *cough Juhla Mokka cough*. Obviously I say “exotic” because they are not that much more fancy but “Hey”, you gotta start somewhere I suppose.
Holy shit I sound the like the biggest douche ever. Or something like that, maybe.. Point being, by all means, feel free to drink whatever you like the most and I won’t judge you any more then you judge me. Fine if you really.. (really?) like pre-ground store bought coffee. Who am I to say you shouldn’t, simply because I couldn’t any more. But just don’t fool yourself into thinking it’s good coffee, it just isn’t. But it’s okay to like “less-than-good” coffee and it obviously doesn’t make you into a worse person for that. As long as you don’t try to make me drink it of course, in which case I’ll berate you for 30 minutes.
Anyway, enough about that now. I was going to to tell you about my pleasure and “meh”.
Jamaica
Today, I had a cup of Jamaican Blue Mountain [LK]. For those of you that have no clue what that is—I pity you—let me fill you in quickly with this copy-paste quote from it’s Wikipedia link;
“Over the last several decades, this coffee has developed a reputation that has made it one of the most expensive and sought-after coffees in the world”.
So there you go. The verdict; With low acidity and an okay smoothness to it, it’s by no means a bad coffee. A clear wooden sort of texture and taste to it. But also quite “meh”, as in not particularly awesome either means I also didn’t think this was a good coffee. Will have it again? Of course, I can’t base everything on just one cup, even though I’m doing that now. Besides I still have 80 more grams of it, and I do plan to get the most out it. If I change my mind and raise or lower it’s score, I will let you all know. But for now, the famous Jamaican Blue Mountain is just going to have to settle for a 3+.
Guatemala
The other one I have tried recently, that was originally a surprise for myself, is Genuine Antigua, Dark Roast [RV]. How does one surprise oneself? Simple. I just picked a random jar of beans and decided to go with that. Well, lucky me as it turned out that I had just discovered a new favourite, with plenty of aromas of chocolate and other stuff I can’t quite put my finger on yet, this is a definitive 5. I am also thinking about making this my “Roast my own beans” -bean. Well, at least my first bean as I am sure I will have more at some point. But I have been looking for the bean will get to take my roasting virginity, and I think this one is it. I seriously loved everything about this bean.
So yeah. I think that’s it for now. Next on my “to-drink” -list is Kopi Luwak, the famous poop-coffee. So stay tuned for that, whenever it may be.