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Sumatra Dark Roast – Bean Profile

Sumatra Dark Roast – Bean Profile

While we don’t condone the over-roasting of coffee as many other coffee companies approach their darker roasts, we’re in full support of a delicious, tasty dark roast. Especially when that roast brings in balance the darker tones of roasting with the nuances of the coffee bean we’re roasting.

Whenever we hear: “I want your darkest roast!” or “I like my coffee dark and rich,” there is only really one immediate conclusion – Sumatra Dark Roast.  Now if you like coffee darker than this, we’re not the coffee roaster for you. Because our coffee is extremely good for you, we feel it’s our duty to keep the carcinogen levels to an extreme low to provide you with healthy coffee.

One other benefit of the coffee we purchase from Sumatra is that, as a general rule, the Sumatra coffee we offer is our lowest in caffeine content – naturally. Many customers that previously couldn’t drink caffeinated coffee find that they are now able to enjoy a cup of fully caffeinated Sumatra (Dark or Medium Roast).

Sumatra Dark Cupping/Region Information:

Cupping Information:

  • Body: Full/Syrupy
  • Aroma: Dried Fruit, Nuts
  • Flavor: Dried fruit tones with a Heavy Nutty Base
  • Aftertaste: Lingering Deep Sweetness
  • Sweetness: Semi-Sweet – Dried Fruit

Region Information:

  • Country: Sumatra
  • Farm: Mandheling (Gayo Mountain Region)
  • Altitude: 1800 ft
  • Harvest: October-March
  • Soil: Volcanic Ash – High Nutrient
  • Production Method: Natural, Dry Process

Cupping Notes:

Certified organic Sumatra has a rich syrupy body with a dried fruit tone (apricot, cherry, and fig) and nutty base (pecan-esque).  Acidity is fairly mild and the finish leaves a semi-heavy coating in the mouth.

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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.

 

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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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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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An Ethical Coffee Meeting with Agros International

An Ethical Coffee Meeting with Agros International

This past Wednesday, Dan and I had the opportunity to visit Agros HQ in Seattle. It was a great time and they were very hospitable to us.  We were able to share some of the new things CICR has been working on.  Many new faces (for me at least) were there for the meeting.

Our customers all know of our close relationship with Agros as we talk about it all the time.  Just as it’s important for us to communicate to you the changes you create through being members of our Coffee Lover’s Club, it’s also important for us to spend time communicating our focus on ethical coffee with Agros as well.  For us, giving Agros a check from our Coffee Lover’s Club orders is only a sustainable act if we can also communicate with Agros and allow them to communicate back.  Knowing of Agros’ future goals is part of responsible giving and ethical coffee.  Allowing Agros to communicate their goals back is part of responsible receiving.  We’re so happy to have a wonderful relationship with Agros.

Dan brought his camera and took a few pictures in between making Frozen X-plosion’s and serving brewed coffee.

The table we sat at had a wonderfully colorful tablecloth.  Emily at Agros provided Dan and I very delicious sandwiches! Shannon grabbed Dan’s camera when he came out with the Frozen X-plosion’s for everyone and took a couple great pictures: Here are a few of the Agros workers enjoying Frozen X-plosion’s. The purpose of our visit was for me to share CICR’s vision for ethical coffee with Agros and “update” them on the things happening around CICR. All-in-all, we had a great time celebrating ethical coffee and sustainability.

Jeff – 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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Coffee of the Month – June

Coffee of the Month – June

Papua New Guinea Coffee and Sumatra Coffee is the perfect blend of two great coffees. The Papua New Guinea coffee brings subtle chocolate tones while the Sumatra coffee provides distinct dried fruit tones and ties the two together with a nutty base. This coffee is always a favorite of our customers each time we bring it out as coffee of the month. Papua New Guinea and Sumatra are both Indonesian countries that grow coffee as their main cash crop.

Sumatra is the largest island located entirely in Indonesia. The largest city in Sumatra is Medan with a population just under 3.5 million people. As a whole, Sumatra is not very densely populated with about 96 people per square kilometer. It is, however, the 5th most populate island in the world. The coffee Camano Island Coffee Roasters offers comes from the Gayo Mountains. For more information you can visit Wikipedia.

Papua New Guinea is part of the Australasia ecozone which includes Australia, New Zealand, eastern Indonesia, and several Pacific Island groups. Many of the surrounding islands contain entirely different species of birds and animals leading experts to believe the islands were never linked. Unfortunately, only 3% of Papua New Guinea is privately held. The rest is held under a 99 year State Lease or held by the state.

For more information you can visit Wikipedia. We have also featured Papua New Guinea back in April of 2009 and you can read some different information there.

This is a great coffee to wake up to as well as enjoy after dinner with dessert.

Enjoy!

Dan – CICR