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Beans: Evermore, Udaini, natural, Ans Dhamar, Yemen.
Shop: Evermore, webshop, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Evermore: Background information.
In 2008, Eline Sandberg and her son Lowik Pieters started selling tea under the brand name Evermore. The name Evermore and the black Raven logo originated out of two ideas. The first was that drinking tea automatically has strong connection to Great Brittain and the second is because of Eline’s old English teacher. Her teacher always read from The Raven (1845) by Edgar Allan Poe. The black Raven in that book says “Nevermore” which changed into ‘Evermore’.
Husband Ian Pieters and son Aito started to roast coffee in the backyard. They would sell the coffee on markets and fairs and things went very well for them. At one point they had to roast their coffee in an official roastery and eventually ended up building their own roastery in ‘Coolhaven’ in Rotterdam. There they renovated two old garages into a roastery, a shop, a coffee and tea bar and even a cookingstudio.
Todays review is about their Yemen Bani Ofair coffee. This coffee hails from Ans Dhamar region and was purchased from Qima Coffee.
This coffee comes from eight different farmers who grew the coffee at an altitude between 1700 and 2100 meters above sea level. The cherries are handpicked and dried for 22 days in the sun. The netural process ensures a lot of fruity notes to this coffee.
Opening the package.
Evermore packs their coffee in an all black package with a degassing valve and a ziplock. On the front side you will find a label with information such as the name, origin, tasting notes, process and varietal. The roasting date is written on the package by hand and is clearly vissible. The funny thing is that the package is a little slimmer and taller than other packages, giving off the impression that the roaster handed over more coffee. When opening the package a soft sweet berries like aroma comes forth. The beans are small and equally roasted and there are some shells in the package but nothing noteworthy to be honest. The beans are medium roasted and crispy. The flavour is mildy bitter like tea leaves with a hint of cherry when you keep chewing.
When grinding the beans the cherry aroma pops up again, together with a broth and soft mokka like aroma. Let’s brew!
Evermore – Yemen Bani Ofair: The Tasting
I have reviewed the Yemen on the V60, Aeropress and Clever Dripper. This coffee is pretty delicate and should be handled as such. The best results in terms of flavour came off of the Aeropress brew where the fruity notes came up better than with the V60.
When brewing the coffee you will get a sweet mango like aroma. There is also a floral hint to the coffee. As soon as you pour the coffee into a glass, you will get hit by the aroma’s coming free. Vanilla, Raspberry and berries are on the nose while the coffee is hot. When the coffee cools down, honey and dark cherry is added to the palette.
Now take a sip of the coffee while it’s hot. Slurp some oxygen inside and swirl the coffee round. Let it rest and notice the acidity in your mouth. Citric with a cherry-like sourness to it. You should also notice a walnut-shell bitter which will disappear quite quickly when the coffee cools down. While the coffee is hot, the flavour of mango and berries create a mix of sweetness and a soft of creamyness in your mouth. The oily and satin like mouthfeel are great with these flavours.
The next thing that should stand out are the flavours of dark cherrie and raspberry. Depending on the grindsize this flavour can be quite strong and very nice. Other times I noticed that the raspberry flavour mingled with the dark cherrie, creating a sweet fruity mix of flavours.
When the coffee cools down a little more, a soft mokka flavour is added to the palette and it remains throughout the aftertaste.
The aftertaste is very interesting with the Yemen Bani Ofair. Aside from the mokka, there is a raspberry and caramel like aftertaste popping up. When you breathe back out with your mouth closed and through your nose, you will get a fresh mint-like sensation. This creates a very nice freshness that pairs great with the mokka, caramel and raspberry. The aftertaste lingers for a while as well.
Yemen Bani Ofair: The verdict.
Evermore roasted the Yemen Bani Ofair with a medium roast and created a nice coffee that you can drink all day long. The fruity notes came out beautifully and the mouthfeel was exactly right.
The Yemen coffee is balanced and delicate. With delicate I mean that to get that perfect brew you should get your grindsize exactly right. When you do, this coffee is delicious. Evermore gifted me with a light-roast Ethiopia to try out and it showed me that they also posses the skill to pull that off. I would love to see a light roasted Yemen Bani Ofair and compare both results in a cup. Thank you for roasting this coffee Evermore, I will definitely drop by whenever Im in Rotterdam again.