As promised yesterday, me make coffee words much the good YES!
Let us begin with the bad news. As always, the limited offerings are called such because the coffees they use are not infinite. In the course of my insatiable need to experiment, I find delicious and wonderful single origin coffees that I think are worthy of sharing (and many more than that aren’t). But these are always small lots, either in what the roaster could purchase or the total production of the farm in the first place, so they eventually run out. And this has happened.
The victims of limited production this time is the Guatemala Retiro de Quisaya and, possibly, the Guatemala Mundo Nuvo. After the currently listed inventory finishes, both of the Guatemalas will be rotating out, hopefully returning by next August. There may be a bit more Mundo Nuvo to be had but the holiday roasting schedule is looking prohibitive for them up at Caffe Vita, so definitely no more before Xmas. I’m pleased that my “enough to make it to mid-December” prediction was spot on.
Now on to the good news, the hunt has yielded something I feel worthy of sharing. Continuing my way south, I have continued my latitudinal tour of the East African Rift Valley in Rwanda and I’m pretty happy with what I found there. My hypothesis of the north to south greasy/savory to chocolate spectrum continues to be look good. Straight and cold, the medium roast Rwanda Abakundakawa has a bit of a dry palate, not brut champagne but more like a neat martini, and nearly baking chocolate character and a light hint of fruit. There was some strong disagreement about whether it was blueberry, currant, or (as I shook my head at Test Subject Broken Tongue) jujubes. For the vodka addition, a molasses character emerged that made me wonder if I’d somehow poured in Meyers rum instead of straight vodka. With the three part hot water dilution, it just felt like have a nice mug of cocoa, which was damn nice in the ice box of my office.
So, hooray for another delicious African BBotE and I’ve made the pre-order for the first run available. I am, once again, hunting for my personal favorite, a Central American light roast. I have some prospects, so more news on that later as it develops.
Lastly, the production queue is filling up with some crazy people ordering entire cases or Jugs of Madness. Since there is some production time involved, domestic orders of BBotE placed after the 15th start looking a bit iffy for getting to people in time for Christmas. For international orders, please get them in no later than the 13th. And yes, if/when the production queue fills completely to the point that I don’t think your order will get out in time, I will make an announcement.
Once more unto the breach, dear friends! Let us confront The Decembering and not mourn the fallen but celebrate them as they are crushed beneath the wheels of so many shopping carts.