Tag: Medium Roast

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PapuaMatra

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It’s back, by popular demand!  Our blend of Papua New Guinea Medium Roast and Sumatra Medium Roast is a favorite with many of our customers.  Our “PapuaMatra” is a yearly blend that brings such a huge demand, we need to purchase a lot of extra coffee beans!

06_June_PapuaMatra.jpgBean Notes: Both the Papua New Guinea coffee bean and the Sumatra coffee Bean enjoy a very loyal following.  Both are uniquely different yet come from a similar area.  Our Papua New Guinea (Jeff’s favorite coffee) has a subtle chocolaty tone that when coupled with the Sumatra’s dried fruit tones produce an unparalleled flavor.  The Sumatra coffee provides a deep, heavy body to compliment the bright tones of the Papua New Guinea coffee bean.

 

Sumatra Coffee - Medium Roast.jpeg

Country Notes: The Indonesian Islands consist of many fragmented provinces such as Papua, Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi and more.  If you didn’t notice, all of those countries are well known for growing exceptional beans!  The biggest thing that sets our Papua New Guinea and Sumatra coffees apart from those others is that we have sourced top grade, arabica, certified organic, fairly traded, and shade-grown coffees from our Papua New Guinea and Sumatra farmers.

Papua New Guinea Coffee: New Guinea Medium Roast.jpeg

Roast Notes: Keeping both of these coffees in a Medium Roast profile helps to accentuate the nuances of each bean.  We’ve tried darker roasts (resulting in the bright flavor notes being roasted out) and we’ve tried lighter roasts (which we ended up making the two coffees compete too much for flavor).  In the end the Medium Roast for each of these created this amazing aromatic, flavorful blend.

Related Links:

Papua New Guinea Medium Roast
Sumatra Medium Roast

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April’s Coffee of the Month – Guatopia!

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Guatemalan Coffee and Ethiopian Coffee = Guatopia

It’s Back!  Last Year we debuted our “Guatopia” for the April coffee of the month and it was a HIT with our prosumers!  So for April, exactly 1 year later, we’ve brought this fun blend back.  Get it while you can for April because when May hits, it disappears until next time!  You can add it to your Coffee Lover’s Club order or you can purchase it as a one time order for yourself or a friend. Click Here to go directly to our website and order some now!

Note: If you’re reading this post after April just order our Guatemalan medium roast coffee and our Ethiopian Reserve coffee. Then blend them together 50/50.

coffee of the month

Bean Notes:

The pleasant blueberry tones of our Ethiopian coffee begin this flavor experience as you take the first sip.  Once your mouth fills with the syrupy body of this blend, you’ll notice a subtle, well-balanced nuttiness and a slight hint of fruity sweetness.  Finally, you’ll enjoy the slight citrus note in the finish, which will leave you longing for more

Roast Notes:

This Guatemala coffee is slightly darker than our other medium roasts, and on our scale of roasting, it rates just below a dark roast.  This Ethiopia coffee, on the other hand, is more of a medium roast coffee or light roast coffee. The differences in the two roasts are what make this one of the best coffees in seattle.

Country Notes:

coffee of the month

Our wonderful Trapichitos Guatemalan coffee 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 most desirable coffees in the Americas with its high elevation coffees being among the hardest beans available (dense coffee is GOOD coffee).

See our Guatemala Medium Roast coffee on our Website: Click Here

coffee of the month

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. 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.

See our Ethiopia Reserve on our Website: Click Here

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March’s Coffee of the Month – Brazil Dark and Medium Blend

Cupping Notes:
Our Brazilian coffee bean is definitely one of our best selling coffees. Both the Medium roast coffee and Dark Roast coffee are very popular with our customers. Our Brazil coffee has a bright caramel tone that seems to carry through both the medium and dark roasts and maintain its richness.

I usually recommend this coffee to people that don’t want to add sugar to their cup, yet would like a natural sweetness. Of course, coupled with that sweetness is a delicate nutty tone that holds the bottom of the cup and provides the medium/heavy body in your mouth.

Roast Notes:?
When our Brazilian Cerrado is roasted to a darker level, the bean develops a beautiful, dark brown color similar to the look of dark chocolate.The roast, while being similar in length to our medium roast, roasts hotter which brings the bean to a higher temperature in the same amount of time. This provides a similar brightness in the flavor while brings out the smoky characteristics many dark roast coffee drinkers enjoy.

Region Notes from wikipedia.org:
March’s Brazilian blend comes from the Cerrado region of Brazil. Cerrado means “closed” or “inaccessible” and has earned its nickname from the closed canopy of forest. Cerrado has earned a unique reputation as being one of the few areas in the world where fire and the surrounding environment have found a way to co-exist. Fire is constantly purging the land and putting nutrients back in the soil while the rest of area continues to flourish.

Enjoy!
Dan Ericson
“Coffee Guru”
CICR

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February’s Coffee of the Month – Papua New Guinea Medium Roast

Our Papua New Guinea coffee (PNG) is one of our most popular coffees which is entirely understandable given its hints of cocoa. Our papua new guinea coffee has a medium to full body and is considered by many to be among the finest coffees in the world. Most of PNG’s arabica coffee comes from trees that were uprooted in Jamaica (Blue Mountain) and replanted in PNG.

Here’s some information on our Papua New Guinea coffee:
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 its economy and government corruption. It’s a long road ahead, but we have helped immensely and can continue to help just through responsible purchasing.

That’s it for this one. Thanks for reading!
Dan Ericson
“Coffee Guru”
CICR

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Ordering Your Organic Holiday Blend Coffees!

Here is a preview of our seasonal Holiday Blends, available only in November & December!

Holiday Blend –

Holiday Blend Midnight (Dark Roast) –

Holiday Blend Swiss Water Process Decaf –

Club Members: Because this is a seasonal coffee, we aren’t allowing you to add it to your club order from the website. It is available to add to your club, however! Just call or email our customer service department and we can take care of it for you!

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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