Thursday, August 28, 2014

Coffee Review: Counter Culture Idido

If I go to the store to buy coffee, I read the labels of each coffee to see if there is something interesting that makes me want to try the coffee. In this case, I could be judging a coffee by its label. Of course what I am looking for is something I don't normally have, or something interesting about the coffee, of a particular roast or origin. Today's coffee caught my eye because of the name - Idido.

When I first saw the name, I thought it said "Idido, which would be a marriage. Of course my eyes focused, and I saw something else, "Lot No. 1" This intrigued me, so I bought it. 

Counter Culture is known for doing interesting things with coffee. In this case, this coffee is from a cooperative in Idido, Ethiopia. Specifically it's one farmer's lot of coffee in this bag. In the cooperative each farmer has about 1.5 hectares of land, in which they grow their coffee. Idido Cooperative has around 1,000 members, and Counter Culture has been working with them for years. 

According to Counter Culture this coffee has notes of melon, orange blossom and citrus. This is typical of a Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee. When I opened the bag, I smelled a strong Caramel aroma. Not sure if that was intended, but I liked it. When I ground the coffee, I smelled more of the citrus.

This is a sweet coffee. The citrus notes are sweeter than I thought they would be. The Caramel aroma I originally smelled, is taken over by a sugary aroma that is quite nice. This is an ease into your morning coffee. Think of it like the snooze button on the alarm clock. You take a sip, you know it's coffee, it gently awakens you, then you hit the button for 10 more minutes. That's this coffee. On our Cher Scale of Strength, it's a 6. This is that gentle punch Cher you used to give Sonny on their TV show in the 1970s.

Companies like Counter Culture and Stone Creek and playing more with their coffees. Both are taking specific lots of coffee, and either creating something great, or experimenting and seeing what we enjoy. I applaud both of them.

Try this coffee, it's a good one.

www.counterculturecoffee.com

Charlie


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