Stooker Reko Yirgacheffe Ethiopia

The Stooker Reko beans were offered to me by a very friendly fellow snoffeecob that promised me I'd be in for a treat if I gave them a try. The (full kilo) bag had been open for a while but the beans seemed to keep hold of their freshness quite well.

I had to look them up. These beans are from the Kurume variety which are really tiny, heavy beans in comparison to other coffee beans I've seen in the past. I was actually quite surprised that my guess of the grind size was spot on for a technically perfect Flair espresso shot. As expected, the beans produced little crema due to them being a little older and if I'm really honest, the coffee we got from the V60 tasted a lot better.

What was most interesting about these beans was the big difference between the arrival and the finish of the taste. The arrival, both in the espresso and V60 is floral, tangy and lime-like hinting on the edge of sour. The taste is fleshy and indeed quite peach-like, as described on the label. The finish fills the other end of the spectrum, being much more coffee-like, deeper and darker. It seems as if the different layers of this coffee are distinguishable better in the after-taste than in the tangy sip itself.

This is the kind of bean I'd like to try again fresh from the roast, and will probably skip straight to the V60 to smooth out the inherant sourness.