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Beans: El Corozal, Colombia, Washed, Huila, Colombia.
Shop: Schot Koffie, Webshop, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Schot Koffie: Background information.
Schot Koffie (roaster of El Corozal) is one of the oldest coffee roasters in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. As you might expect from a roaster that has been around since 2011, they know how to roast with a consistent quality and manage to keep that up year after year. Schot Koffie roasts on a Giessen W6 and produces 3 kilo Filter roast batches and 5 kilo espresso roast batches.
The coffee that I am reviewing is the El Coroczal from Huila, Colombia. This washed coffee was grown at an altitude of 1700 meters above sea level. Huila is a well known region in Colombia, famous for it’s high quality coffee the farmers produce. This has everything to do with the perfect climate in this region. This coffee has undergone a washed process and is made out of the Colombia coffee variety.
Opening the package.
Schot Koffie has a simple packaging that comes with a information card attached to the front. The package has a ziplock and a degassing valve to keep the coffee as fresh as possible.
The card attached on the front is where you will find all the information on the coffee. The roasting date is printed on the lower side of the front.
On the card you will see the land of origin, the name of the coffee and three tasting notes. When you turn the card around, you will find information on the region, altitude, farm, variety and process of the coffee. Information on the package is always a big plus for me; every coffee lover wants to know where the coffee comes from and the notes always help you with pinpointing certain flavours and aroma’s while drinking.
When opening the package you will smell a dark chocolate aroma that is accompanied by a soft faint fruity smell that points toward blueberry.
The coffee looks evenly roasted and when eating a bean you will notice that it’s quite hard. The flavour of the bean is balanced and makes me think of wholegrain cookies and raisins. The reason why I say balanced is because you will not get a salty, sweet, bitter flavour out of it at all. Grinding the coffee produces an aroma of dried raisins, grain and a hint of dark chocolate. Let’s brew!
Schot Koffie – El Corozal: The tasting.
I reviewed this coffee on my Rocket Giotto Evoluzione R while using my Eureka Atom Specialty 75 grinder. I started out with 16 grams of coffee but soon upped it to 18.5 grams. The reason for this is that I found that the coffee offered better results in flavour when using more coffee. I kept the brewing time around 28 seconds, pulling longer shots made the coffee unbalanced and pushed the fruitiness of the brew to background.
When starting to brew the coffee gave of a nice soft sweet smell and even a hint of blueberry can be found. After the brewing I found a light brown thick crema on the coffee. The aroma that comes off of the brew is that of blueberry and wholegrain cookie as well as a faint dark chocolate. Taking a sip I noticed how the acidity of this coffee immediately felt sparkly, just like white pepper would stimulate the tip of your tongue (not the white pepper flavour mind you!).
Swirling the coffee round in my mouth and slurping oxygen makes the coffee come alive a little more. Blueberry and dark chocolate dominate at first but as you swallow the coffee, you will find a sweet raisin flavour. Take a moment now and think of the dark chocolate bar with raisins inside.
As the coffee cools off, the blueberry flavour pops up a little more as well as a citric acidity mouthfeel. This comes together with a lime aspect that complements the medium citric acidity.
The mouthfeel:
The aroma’s and flavours are great but the thing that stands out most is the mouthfeel. At first you will notice a thick and buttery mouthfeel that gives real body to this coffee. After a while, when the acidity turns citric, there is a roughness appearing as well as tannins. Tannins in your brew might be a turn off for some of you, to me its a plus in the right conditions.
The aftertaste doesn’t linger very long but will give you the flavours of dark chocolate for a little while longer.
El Corozal: The verdict.
Schot Koffie has once again delivered a great coffee with the El Corozal. This coffee delivers on it’s tasting notes and is a very pleasant as an espresso.
The blueberry flavour is not very dominant but easily noticed when drinking the El Corozal. The dark chocolate and raisin flavours, in combination with the lovely mouthfeel, give the coffee the body it deserves and the acidity adds a little extra to the coffee. The lime acidity isn’t too high, so drinking more than one espresso will not give you that ‘full’ stomach feeling.
When looking at the price of the coffee, 9 euro’s for 250 grams, this is definitely a coffee to try out. Enjoy!