The Cup

Hines Origins Organic Espresso Blend –
Origin: n/a
Producer: unknown
Farm: n/a
Varieties: n/a
Elevation: unknown
Harvest: unknown
Process: unknown
Roaster: Hines Origins Organic Coffee, Vancouver, BC
Roast Date: November 3, 2009

Catadors: Jeremy, Ilenia, Jenny, Kimmy, Rebecca, Stephanie
Liked It: Ilenia, Stephanie
Hated It:

Fragrance/Aroma/Break/Brightness/Flavor/Body/Aftertaste:
ginger, peppers, zesty, crushed, toasted, bittersweet chocolate, dried apricot, smoked, soft, deep, coffee candy, tangy, grass, dark chocolate milk, milk chocolate, light leaves, onions, dried herbs, lightly savory, nutty, sweet chocolate, slightly fruity, sour, mild, semi-bright, slight, flat, tart, medium bright, hearty, burnt, pretentious broth-water, sweet-sour, watery, bittersweet baking chocolate, black pepper spices, medium body, not substantial, medium, watery, ashy, dark chocolate nut, nutty.

Comments:
This coffee begins with soft, deep coffee candy fragrances and dark chocolate, milky aromas. Surprisingly, it’s mostly medium-bodied and mildly bright. The flavors range from nutty to bittersweet chocolates, and makes room for emergent peppery flavored spices as it cools, wrapping up with a tangy nuttiness, making this a generally exquisite cup.

A nice pairing of tart and dark, warm chocolate smells lead to nutty ashy tastes that seem to gain sweetness as it cools. A medium body makes this a very easy coffee to live with.

The creamy fragrance of crushed toasted sesame seeds draws you to this light-bodied coffee. The delicate aroma leads you to a light tarted cup, whose strong flavor of greens, particularly kale leaves ends complexly.

This medium bodied cup of coffee is for the nonchalant coffee drinker. This coffee has a savory and zesty fragrance of ginger and fresh garden pepper. The taste is hearty yet light, which is perfect for someone who doesn’t take pleasure in the heavy coffee taste but still needs the caffeine.

Jay’s Notes:
Normally at Spro Towson, our modus operandi is to freeze the coffees we receive for freshness. It’s a somewhat controversial practice that has been born out by years of testing. But one that we’ve discovered maintains a high level of flavor and quality. Some argue that the beans will be damaged by the freezing, however, the water content in roasted coffee is under five percent, meaning that the amount of water present in the bean is too small to do structural damage due to freezing.

This coffee arrived to Towson around the 11th of November and was promptly taken home for my trip to Nicaragua where we needed coffees for judges training. I took two five pound bags of this espresso blend on my one week trip to Managua where the coffee flew from BWI-IAH-MGA in my checked baggage, then flew back home the same route in checked baggage again.

During its’ stay in Nicaragua, the bag of coffee remained sealed and was left out on the table in my hotel room at room temperature. No special care was taken for the coffee other than not to open it.

Meanwhile, the rest of the coffee was frozen per our usual practice. This tasting is to see the difference that aircraft travel and room temperature storage might have on coffee versus our normal practice of freezing. In hindsight, what I should have done was taken a third bag of the coffee and placed it in room temperature storage to see what difference, if any, the pressurized aircraft cabin would have on the coffee. But I didn’t anticipate actually returning from Nicaragua with the coffee so…