Six Towers, A Story Told In Coffee…
| Every coffee has it’s own personality, it’s own profile, the way it tastes in the cup and the way it reacts to your taste buds. Every year we are introduced to hundreds of delicious coffees, and we are tasked with which few to bring in and how to roast them. To this end we pursue great tasting coffees that are still affordable and approachable. It could be the most delicious coffee on earth, but if it’s so expensive that no one is willing to purchase it, it grows old sitting in a burlap bag or has to be sold at a loss. So over the course of the year we bring in a handful of what we call “single origin” coffees. Many of these hail from farms and cooperatives we have worked with for years. We do our best to keep some standards around as most coffee drinkers like the consistency in their daily cup. However, we change an origin sometimes because a farm doesn’t produce enough for us to get our hands on or they’ve had a rough year and aren’t able to supply a high caliber coffee. In this instance the coop/farmer typically sells the coffee off to the commodity market, and we are left looking for a replacement, and sometimes we are able to find one from a similar region, and sometimes we find one from somewhere altogether new that has a similar profile. One such replacement occurred last year when our Jimma, Ethiopian coffee ran out… we found its replacement from Congo. And while the coffee is without doubt a little different, it does fit a very similar style and personality. And that is what we are going for. It makes a nice full cup with a soft acidity, even when roasted a little lighter to highlight its unique flavors. Each and every single origin coffee we bring in is good enough to stand on its own. That is a baseline for us and always will be. Not every single origin is for every customer, obviously. Some we roast lighter, bringing out lighter tones and stronger acidity, while others we push further into the roast, bringing out their natural sweetness, a fuller body, and softer acidity. It’s a personal creation and one we don’t take lightly. It’s the process that lies at the center of our business, creating the profile and character of our coffees. We try to roast on multiple levels with different coffees, pursuing differences that will be of interest to a wide spectrum of coffee drinkers. But we take it one step further when approaching BLENDS. Blends are fun to make because it is like assembling a stage of characters. In many cases we approach this musically.AM. It’s like classic jazz, Cannonball Adderly’s Bossa Nova. We want a solid bass undertone to hold the rhythm. But then we add more instrumentation. This coffee for that musical piece, and another for high notes, but not too much. Just enough to balance. This is classic jazz, not acid toned Miles Davis.Most of our blends carry a musical component with regards to what we are thinking about as we develop and tweak them. So even when the components change year to year as the coffee crops evolve, the personality remains in tact. But there is another approach we take for some blends. While some are musical, others are cinematic. Six Towers for us has this quality. Think something akin to Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. In this coffee we build a story through the richness of each components characteristics. It’s not an individual tv episode, it’s a multi-series movie. This coffee is one of our best for the widest array of brewing methods. It works just as well for a pour-over as it does espresso. It perfect in a French press and an Aerorpress. 6 Towers is not a lightweight coffee, but it also isn’t over-cooked. It offers a completely satisfying cup every time, no matter the time of day or how you brew it. If you haven’t tried this coffee, put it on your list to try. You won’t be disappointed. |
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Enjoy the evolution of the story as it unfolds over the course of the week or two while you are working through a bag. In the early life of a coffee after roasting the coffee evolves. By the second week it is starting to settle, but even then its richness is just as fulfilling and remains stable for a long time. Enjoy every cup from even before the first sip. The smell as you open the bag. The light wafts of smell that drift through the kitchen while you brew it. That first sip standing out on the porch in the sunshine. The last drop lingering in the cup, often making you want just a little more. Just as the story of coffee is far more complex than we dwell on day to day, the nuance that goes into feeding the soils of an organic farm, the patience it takes in harvesting only the ripe fruit as farmers move up & down the steep slopes during harvest, there is nuance in the way in which coffee is roasted and blended. For us, the origin story of each coffee is the starting point of our relationship with it, and from there we get to put our own personal spin on what happens in roasting and blending. We are so appreciative to get to share that work with you, hoping at the very least you simply enjoy every single cup. |
