Tag: Medium Roast

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Holiday Blend Coffees – Dark, Medium, and Swiss Water Process Decaf

It’s that time again! We’re releasing our highly anticipated “Holiday Blend” coffees into the wild yet again. Now is your chance to grab our most popular coffees! Need a gift? Need coffee for yourself? Here at the “Roastery”, we don’t have the opportunity to talk too much about our Holiday Blend coffees before one of our prosumers take over and let everyone know how much they love them and why. It’s always fun to have such passionate support and these coffees ALWAYS instill that passion.

Well, enough chat… let’s get down to the nitty-gritty:

Holiday Blend:
Papua New Guinea – Light/Medium/Dark Blend
Our Papua New Guinea is such a popular coffee throughout the year. Around 6 years ago, Cristy came up with a great idea: “Since Papua New Guinea is so popular, we should do a special coffee for the Holidays that has a light, a medium, and a dark profile blended together. It’d be a great Holiday Brew!” Well, Cristy was right… and it’s been overwhelmingly popular from year to year!

Our Blog and Website both describe the Papua New Guinea bean as follows:

Sweet and medium-bodied, Papua New Guinea coffee is prized for its richness and crisp, clean finish. Subtle, yet distinct chocolaty tones make this light roast organic coffee a favorite among our customers. The Papua New Guinea coffee bean is versatile and makes a distinguished cup of morning coffee, as well as a smooth after dinner coffee served with dessert.

Holiday Blend Midnight
Brazil Dark Special Roast
Just a year after we first introduced our “Holiday Blend”, we decided to add another yummy coffee to our Holiday Lineup. We’d received a lot of feedback from customer requesting something a little darker for their Holiday Coffee. We cupped, tested, drank coffee, didn’t sleep at night, drank more coffee… Finally, after weeks of too much coffee and no sleep (only slightly joking…), we developed a special Brazil Dark Roast profile specifically for our Holiday Blend Midnight.

Our Blog and Website both describe the Brazil bean as follows:

Our Brazil is perhaps one of our most complex coffees. Its well defined caramel tones coupled with a finishing hint of spice give it a unique and addictive flavor. Rounding out the undertones of the coffee are nutty hints. Brazilian weather conditions are very unique and produce excellent Arabica naturals.

Holiday Blend SWP Decaf
Honduras Dark Roast SWP Decaf
Now two years after the birth of our Holiday Blend, we came to one big conclusion: Decaf drinkers were feeling left out! Of course we had two regular Holiday coffees, and it seemed natural we needed a decaf to add to the lineup. The original Holiday decaf was a Sumatra Dark Roast. A couple years later we introduced our new Honduras Dark Roast Decaf and instantly knew we had found the perfect fit for our Holiday lineup.

Our Blog and Website both describe the Honduras bean as follows:

Although Honduras is relatively new to high-end Arabica coffee, its soil, climate, and altitude are all perfect for coffee growing. Dark roast organic coffee from Honduras offers the perfect blend of rich molasses tones with slight hints of caramel and spice. This sustainable organic coffee has a pleasant brightness and a medium to heavy body to compliment the sweeter molasses and caramel tones.

So, there you have it. 3 great coffees for 2 fun-filled, eventful months!

I hope you enjoy them all!

Dan
“Coffee Guru”
CICR

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September’s Coffee of the Month – Colombian Reserve

This month, for the month of September only, we decided to pull out all the stops and feature a coffee that we haven’t featured in a couple years. — our Colombian Reserve! Our Colombian Reserve has many flavor characteristics and contains a subtle, fruit-like sweetness with a peanut-y tone in the finish. The coffee itself contains a perfectly balanced, medium body and we roast it to a milk chocolate color at a medium roast level.

Region Information:
Our Colombian Reserve comes from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountains (Snowy Mountain Range of Saint Martha) which is an isolated mountain range separated from the Andes that runs through Colombia’s Northern region, along the coast. At it’s highest point, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountains reach 5,700 meters above sea level. These mountains are the highest coastal mountain range in the world.

People:
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountains are home to the remnants of the native American Tairona Culture. The Arhuacos, one of four groups of the remnants left from the native American Tairona Culture, grow our Colombia Reserve coffee. As a people, their main economic activity is subsistence agriculture. Most of the Arhuacos people haven’t even had a chance to enjoy their coffee as it is grown specifically to be an export to bring money into their economy. In spite of an ever changing environment and many new projects in the area by the Colombian government, the Arhuacos resist modernizing and live life the way they have for many years.

Thanks for reading!

Dan Ericson
“Coffee Guru”
CICR

 

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August’s Coffee of the Month – Beach Brew

coffee of the month

August 2012 Coffee of the Month – – Sumatra Medium

Beach Brew is back! This time, we’re showcasing our Sumatra Medium Roast as our coffee of the month. This medium roast brings a richness of flavor unlike any other coffee. Sumatra coffees (as a general rule) tend to have a heavy, buttery body. Sumatra is easy to find, although high quality Sumatra coffees are harder to come by. Even so, many regard Sumatra coffee in general as a great dessert coffee due its natural richness.

Here’s the low down on this Coffee of the Month
Most people only get to drink dark roasted Sumatra coffee. While Dark Sumatra coffee is awesome — particularly our Organic dark roast Sumatra coffee — many would love the slightly lighter roast of a Sumatra Medium even more.

So which roast would be better as a monthly coffee?

The common thought is: Darker = Richer, and that has a truth to it. However, Lighter = Richer is also a true statement.

Let me explain:

Here’s the best way to describe it. Roasting coffee to a darker degree does two things:

  1. Natural “Coffee Flavor” is baked out of the coffee more than lighter style roasts.
  2. “Roast Flavor” or “toasty” flavor is increased due to the length of time in the roaster.

coffee of the monthMany people really like one more than the other… or enjoy a balance of one to the other. I personally drift more towards lighter roasts because I just really enjoy tasting the flavor of the coffee bean. Many others like the darkness introduced in the roasting process and really enjoy having that added flavor characteristic. I always say “That’s what makes coffee so great! It appeals to everyones taste buds in some way.”

I find the Sumatra Medium Roast to be perfect for lighter roasted coffee drinkers like me… as well as people that enjoy the depth of darker roasts. The natural Sumatran richness coupled with a good, medium roasting level provides all the flavor necessary to thoroughly enjoy this wonderful dessert coffee – even if you can’t relegate it strictly to dessert!

So there you have it, Sumatra coffee — either dark roast or medium roast — make for great monthly coffees.

Update: Are you reading this after August 2012? You can still get this coffee fresh! Just click one of the links below!

Click here for our Sumatra Medium Roast

Click here for our Sumatra Dark Roast

Dan Ericson
“Coffee Guru”
CICR

 

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July’s Coffee of the Month – Guatemala Medium Roast

It’s back! Our acclaimed Guatemala Coffee Medium Roast is featured this month for all to enjoy! We do, of course, carry it year-round but many wait to enjoy it for those special months that we offer it as our Coffee of the Month!

Sweet and tangy citrus accents set this Guatemala coffee bean apart from the others. With distinct and distinguished flavor and aroma, this medium roast pleases the coffee lover with its complexity and colorful aromatic qualities.

Of course, most of our customers already know there is much more to our Guatemala coffee than the great flavor. Our Guatemala Medium Roast is a wonderful Agros coffee. It’s my personal favorite, actually. From the village of Trapichitos in Guatemala, comes this wonderfully rich, full flavored, original Guatemala coffee bean.

Agros’ website gives us a little more insight:

Trapichitos
“Place of the Sugar Mills”
Nebaj, Quiché, Guatemala
Size: 635 acres
Population: 61 families
Founded: 2000

Also known as La Trinidad (the Trinity), Trapichitos is an Ixil community that has persevered through great challenges. Squeezed together for many years on just 25 acres of land, the original 85 families organized themselves to purchase land 25 minutes from their homes. After five frustrating years and many fruitless attempts to acquire land, the community approached Agros for assistance in April 2000. Agros had never worked with previously organized groups in the Ixil, thereby, presenting a new opportunity. With Agros’ support, local leaders finally had the financial backing to approach the landowner. The 635-acre tract of Trapichitos was purchased in November 2000

Read More: http://www.agros.org/ag/our-villages/guatemala/trapichitos/

I hope you enjoy what is my personal favorite of our coffee beans!

Dan Ericson
“Coffee Guru”
CICR

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April’s Coffee of the Month 2010 – Guatemala Medium Roast and Ethiopia Reserve

Last month we brought back a yearly favorite, our blend of Papua New Guinea and Sumatra. We call it “PapuaMatra.”  For April’s coffee of the month, we’re bringing you another coffee blend that received quite a warm welcome last year.

“Introducing the Coffee of the Month: Guatetopia!”

April’s coffee of the month, our Guatetopian coffee, is a fun melding of our Guatemalan coffee with our Ethiopian coffee. Our Ethiopian brings a distinct blueberry-like fruitiness to the combo while the Guatemalan rounds the flavor with a steady base and a slight citrus tone. It’s an amazing, “odd couple” combination that leaves us all wishing it were around all throughout the year not just for the coffee of the month.

What exactly is in our coffee of the month: Guatetopia?

Our Guatemalan Coffee

This Guatemalan coffee is a medium roast coffee.  Our wonderful Trapichitos Guatemalan coffee bean has more than a great flavor to it. It’s the first coffee CICR has carried that has a direct connection to our relationship with Agros. Check out this link to read about Agros’ work in Trapichitos. The country of Guatemala is bordered by Mexico to the north, Belize to the northeast, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast. It is known for having some of the best coffees in the world with its high elevation being among the hardest beans available (dense coffee is GOOD coffee).

For more about our Guatemalan coffee’s taste profile, check our our coffee description on our blog at this link: http://cicrblog.com/coffee/coffee/guatemala/.

Our Ethiopian Coffee

Our Ethiopian coffee is one of our two current reserve coffees. The reserves are harder coffees for us to come by for one reason or another. This Ethiopian coffee is one of the most expensive coffees. We offer them because they add a flavor nuance to our coffee offering list that our other coffees miss. The Ethiopian coffee is among my favorite coffee choices as it has an extremely distinct blueberry tone that really gives this coffee a uniqueness all to itself. As I type this description from home, I’m sipping a french pressed cup of Ethiopian coffee and I have to add… it’s hard to concentrate on what I’m typing!

For more info on our Ethiopian coffee, check out our description on our website: https://camanoislandcoffee.com/buy-coffee-online/ethiopian-coffee-roasters.html

 

This is perhaps my personal favorite coffee of the month as it has both of my favorite French Press coffee beans and I’m a big French Presser! It makes awesome drip as well so I’m pretty much covered whether I’m at the roaster or at home. This coffee is a deal at the standard price too! If you like it, make sure you get your fill of it this month and enjoy the deal because next month, the mix is only available if you buy both the Guatemala Medium Roast coffee and also purchase the Ethiopia Reserve coffee at its full reserve price!

Enjoy!

Dan Ericson
“Coffee Guru”
CICR

 

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March’s Coffee of the Month – Papua New Guinea Medium Roast and Sumatra Medium Roast

Our fun blend of Sumatra Medium Roast and Papua New Guinea Medium Roast has been a yearly favorite by many. Just typing this, I can think of a dozen customers that get excited every time we bring this special blend back. At the Roaster, we’ve lovingly dubbed this coffee as “PapuaMatra”.

Usually we are a straight “Varietal Roaster”, meaning that we sell coffees that are only from a single country of origin (with the exception of our Varietal Supremo espresso). One of the reasons I enjoy our “Coffee of the Month” is for the shear joy of exploring great coffee pairings. As usual, we only try to make very easily replicated blends so our customers can enjoy this at home.

The profile of this coffee is an interesting, yet perfect blend of flavors and nuances that make this coffee as unique as it is interesting. Both Papua New Guinea and Sumatra are Indonesian countries and enjoy similar weather systems. This lends towards the compatibility of the two beans. The Sumatra coffee brings a full, rich, nutty base with a subtle dried fruit tone into the mix with a rich chocolate overtone found in our ever-popular Papua New Guinea. The result is this heavenly blend!

On a fun side note, the artwork on this Month’s coffee label is a new painting HOT off the press by a local artist out here, John Ebner. He’s actually a pretty well known artist and his work is amazing. This is the 4th label made from his artwork that we’ve done. I encourage you to check out his other paintings. His website is www.johnebner.com.

For those who’ve been waiting, it’s finally back! For those that haven’t tried this yet, you’re in for a treat! I know you’ll enjoy our “PapuaMatra” coffee immensely!

Dan – CICR

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February’s Coffee of the Month – Brazil coffee

brazil coffee

Last month’s coffee of the month (Guatemala Light/Medium) was a big hit with many of our customers. For some it’s a great coffee to drink once in a while for a treat and for others (like myself) it’s the coffee they usually turn to when they think of coffee in general.

brazil coffeeThis month’s coffee is another one of my personal favorites. Our Brazil coffee is the fastest growing in popularity of our coffees. We introduced it a couple years ago and ever since it’s been on a steady incline towards the #1 coffee at CICR (the only coffee it has left to take over is our ever-so-popular Papua New Guinea coffee). This medium roast coffee is perhaps our most complex bean offering a bright caramel overtone with a soft, nutty base. Its awesome flavor is rounded off with a hint of spice creating an extremely enjoyable brew.

Coupled with the Aeropress (below in Cristy’s gift selection), this makes a superb cup of coffee (of course it’s awesome no matter how you brew it). Cristy and I both enjoyed many Aeropress-ed americano’s and lattes with the Brazil Medium Roast bean.

Regardless of how you brew it, enjoy one of the finest organic beans to come out of Brazil for the month of February!

Dan – CICR

 

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January’s Coffee of the Month – Medium Roast Guatemala and Light Roast

The Holiday Blend coffees are gone until November 2010….
Are you upset you won’t be able to get them? Don’t worry about it! This month is the chance for something different, yet unique and delicious. We’re bringing you a very special blend of Guatemala coffee for January that is sure to keep you wanting more.

Our “Coffee of the Month” is a wonderful Agros coffee. It’s my personal favorite actually. From the village of Trapichitos in Guatemala, comes this wonderfully rich, full flavored, original Guatemala coffee bean. We carry Guatemala all year but for the Month of January, we’re blending the light and medium roasts of this exquisite bean. The result is a mellow, yet medium/full bodied coffee with a slight citrus highlight.

Agros’ website gives us a little more insight:

Trapichitos
“Place of the Sugar Mills”
Nebaj, Quiché, Guatemala
Size: 635 acres
Population: 61 families
Founded: 2000

Also known as La Trinidad (the Trinity), Trapichitos is an Ixil community that has persevered through great challenges. Squeezed together for many years on just 25 acres of land, the original 85 families organized themselves to purchase land 25 minutes from their homes. After five frustrating years and many fruitless attempts to acquire land, the community approached Agros for assistance in April 2000. Agros had never worked with previously organized groups in the Ixil, thereby, presenting a new opportunity. With Agros’ support, local leaders finally had the financial backing to approach the landowner. The 635-acre tract of Trapichitos was purchased in November 2000

Read More: http://www.agros.org/ag/our-villages/guatemala/trapichitos/

I hope you enjoy what is my personal favorite of our coffee beans!

Dan – CICR

 

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Coffee of the Month – August

Papua New Guinea coffee

Papua New Guinea – Medium Roast

In case you haven’t been around long enough, or haven’t figured it out from reading posts and our website, Papua New Guinea coffee is a very popular coffee. We sell more Papua New Guinea coffee than any other. There is good reason for that! Many of our coffees have characteristics are that require one’s taste to enjoy it. I, for example, really enjoy the flavor of our Guatemala coffee. It has some vivid lemon notes giving it a very nice citrus tone. Some people would rather enjoy a different tone in their brew.

Papua New Guinea coffee

Our Papua New Guinea coffee has a very subtle — yet flavor completing — chocolaty tone. Many can’t place it as “chocolate” from a candy bar or mocha, yet the characteristics of the coffee coincide with those found in chocolate. It has a semi-sweet tone that starts to taste more and more like chocolate as the coffee cools off. For that reason, this coffee makes a GREAT summer brew. Just brew it up (double strength if it’s hot and being poured over ice) and chill it. It’s the perfect bean for the season!

Our Papua New Guinea coffee has a medium to full body and is considered by many to be among the finest and best coffee in the world. Most Papua New Guinea coffee comes from trees that were uprooted in Jamaica (Blue Mountain) and replanted in Papua New Guinea.

Here’s some information on Papua New Guinea:

According to the Department of State’s website (click the link if you’d like to read all the in depth details on PNG), PNG is roughly the size of the state of California and has around 6.3 million people. It has three official languages (English, Tok Pisin, and Motu) as well as close to 860 other languages which plays a huge part in the overall fragmentation of the country and it’s people. Another topic of note is that PNG only has 49.3% literacy.

PNG is known as a country ripped in pieces by civil war, lawlessness and poverty. Yet in the last few years, thanks to many factors including sustainable coffee purchasing, Papua New Guinea has started down the road to recovering it’s economy and government corruption. It’s a long road ahead, but we have helped immensely and can continue to help just through responsible purchasing.

Hope your summer is going well and you’re staying warm. Here on Camano Island we’re having a nice heat wave. It’s a bit tough in places without air conditioning but it’s sure nice to live in a beautiful area with definite seasons!

Happy coffee drinking!

Dan – CICR

 

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Coffee of the Month – July

Honduras Coffee and Brazil Coffee

Brazil has long been a popular morning coffee with its crisp caramel tones and its hints of nut and spice. Couple those characteristics with the rich Honduran coffee Molasses tones and you have quite the experience in a cup. This coffee has combinations of medium and dark roasts and brings a wonderful aromatic quality to the table as well as enjoyable flavor in each cup!

Our sister company, Espresso Americano is doing well in Honduras. We have over 150 espresso locations around Central America and they are all centered around our Tegucigalpa, Honduras headquarters. These honduras coffee shops give us a way to make a real connection with the people down there. We can use this to our advantage to help improve coffee growing, which in turn, helps the farmers grow a better product and make more in return.

Agros International currently has 3 villages in Honduras: Nuevo Amanecer, Brisas del Volcán, and Achotales. These villages, founded in 2004, 2006, and 2008 respectively, show Agros’ commitment to the areas it works in. In Nuevo Amanecer, Agros has moved into leadership development programs and adult literacy programs (among others). Agros works to further strengthen its existing partnership there. We’re proud that our honduras coffee is ethical coffee

Check out Wikipedia’s Honduras Page for more information.

Brazil has long been known for the best coffees around. While being the largest coffee exporter in the world, it is still a long ways off from being an ethical coffee growing country. Coffee, which is not a native plant of Brazil, has been responsible for much of Brazil’s deforestation. Yet in that devastation, many farmers are starting to turn to responsible growing. That’s why shade grown coffee is so important in coffee in brazil. We’re proud to have been supporting those farmers in producing ethical coffee for many years now.

Due to the depletion of the Rainforest in Brazil, many species of birds and other animals have become extinct or are facing extinction. “Bird Friendly” coffees have shown up with certifications by major US organizations. CICR is committed to only offering shade-grown coffees. These coffees sustain the delicate ecosystem that provides homes and food for many species of birds and animals. Another reason why shade grown coffee is so important.

For more information on Brazil, visit Wikipedia’s Brazil page.

This is a new blend for us and we hope you love it. It’s complex but has a distinctive sweetness from the blend of caramel and molasses tones. Indulge Yourself!

Dan – CICR

Want to try some free coffee? Click below!