The Cherry Project

#12/100 coffee note.

One of the very important reason of working in coffee is, I’m not gonna spend that much of money on coffee bean (I’m sorry), well I’m talking about those fancy (rare and expensive) coffee beans, you get what I mean. But it’s always lovely to receive coffee gifts like this!

Coffee 12/100 featuring Panama Ninety Plus Gesha Estate(!) roasted by Dublin based Imbibe Coffee Roaster, Perci Gesha(!) varietal processed in Heat controlled fermentation(?). Rated with 96 points(!), it belongs to the very top (and expensive) of the world coffee scene. I chose to brew it with CAFEC_japan’s TH-3 filter paper which helps to highlight the balance & flavour in coffee. (Somehow I guess most of the coffee are not roasted/calibrated for Sibarist filter paper, or maybe I’m not calibrated to it’s brewing style and screwed up my previous brews).

It reminds me the feeling of drinking fresh cacao juice at Ning’s cacao farm. It’s so juicy and not too over-fermented kind of cacao nibs flavour, with a wonderful fruity background of pomegranate and green apple. It’s so sweet! Like super sweet with very soft mouthfeel. When it slightly cool down, I tasted more fruity notes like asian pear, Kyoho grape and dried fruits.. golden raisin and dried fig. Medium body with medium high sweetness and a syrupy mouthfeel….lingering with some high quality SO dark chocolate. It’s so intense, so clean, so complex and structure. I know it sounds crazy (maybe little bit overrated too) and hubby said it reminds him of running in the cacao farm while he was a kid.

I’m still not sold on this but definitely worth to be mentioned in my coffee bible. Anyone wanna get me more 90+?

#9/100 coffee note.

Loves and hates about this coffee. I’m so blessed to taste this coffee alongside with range of distinguish competition grade coffee selections sharing these beautiful coffee on cupping protocols. The dry aroma of this coffee was…complex...too complex to my liking, I thought. But the lychee…florals…tropical fruits notes which were so big that wouldn’t allow me to ignore its appearance.

Coffee 9/100 featuring Colombia Cerro Azul roasted by no stranger again Malaysia based The HUB, a Natural processed Gesha from Granja La Esperanza farm. Compliment from high altitude of 1700-2000masl and microclimate weather to this coffee, Cerro Azul has successful putting their name on world coffee map with dedication work they’ve put in the farm through the years. Sipping on this coffee was a joy. I was looking at the coffee taster wheel while cupping this coffee and it just hit the tropical fruit notes without any doubt: Lychee, star fruit, tamarind, passion fruit, and the sweetness reminds me of pineapple, mango, kiwi…then honey and florals that keep coming back in every sips.

Fun fact while cupping with my European friend in sharing our different cupping protocol. Usually I start pouring hot water around 94’C, breaking crust at 4mins and start tasting coffee at 8mins which is around 70’C, revisit second round at about 50’C and wait til it’s cool down at roughly 30’C…which is about 25min for a cupping session. In this way I can pick up aromatic flavours while it’s hot, understand its consistency through temperature changes and the key characters and even flavour notes. However, my friend Peter told me that usually he only start tasting coffee while it’s cool down. Unlike most asian people, it’s easier for western/ European people to has better taste sensitivity when it’s not as warm, based on genetic variation in taste perceptions. (I’m still trying to find more article on this, share with me if you know any!)

Oh and of course, lychee. It’s always a pain in the ass whenever I describe lychee in coffee. If you know what I’m saying.