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Beans: Tacu y Trapiche, Bourbon, Washed, Samaipata, Bolivia.
Shop: Alt Wien Kaffee, webshop, Vienna, Austria.
Alt Wien Kaffee – Samaipata Bourbon: background information.
Alt Wien Kaffee (roaster of this Samaipata Bourbon coffee) is a typical Viennese coffee shop located just outside the centre of Vienna. Aside from the Viennese architecture, this coffee shop is very different from others in this city. Alt Wien Kaffee is the place where tradition meets specialty coffee and the people responsible for this fact are Christian Schroedl and Oliver Goetz. In the present days, Alt Wien Kaffee is the coffee shop in Vienna that offers the traditional liked dry chocolaty espresso’s and, for those that are looking for something special, a range of high quality specialty coffee. In September 2021 I went by and visited the Alt Wien Kaffee shop in Vienna and loved everything about it. It was a shop for regualr customers as well as for the coffee geeks among you.
The Samaipata Bourbon comes from the Tacu y Trapiche finca in Bolivia. The farm is owned by Pedro and Daniela Rodriguez, a family that owns 8 farms in the Caranavi region(60 ha) and 5 farms in the Samaipata (60 ha) region. This coffee comes from the Samaipata region and was grown at an altitude of 1600 meters above sea level. During the high season, more than 300 people work for this company and they also invite agronomists from abroad to their farm to get the best information on farming. In 2019 the company won the SCA Sustainability Award in the category: ‘Best Sustainable Business Model’.
Alrt Wien Kaffee – opening the package.
Alt Wien Kaffee coffee comes in a stylish white bag with a ziplock and a degassing valve. The front of the package depicts a distinguished gentleman from the roaring twenties with a high hat, moustache and a suit. On the back of the package there is a lot of information! First there is the origin and the name of the coffee, then a short story about the coffee together with some tasting notes and info about the farm, altitude etc. There is also information about the process, roasting style and of course the roasting date. On the sides of the coffee you can read about the two sides of coffee according to Alt Wien Kaffee.
When opening the package of this espresso roast coffee, you will see equally roasted beans and no defects. The aroma’s that come off of the beans is sweet, caramel, chocolate and buttery. The buttery aroma actually ‘feels’ thick in the nose which is very pleasant. The bean is crispy and gives off a whole grain flavour before getting a cocoa and dark note to it. The flavour dissipate fairly quickly and turns bitter after chewing for a while. When grind the coffee, the Samaipata gives off a wholegrain cookie, caramel and chocolate aroma. in the background a hint of spices and vanilla can be found as well.
The tasting.
Since this an espresso review, I reviewed this coffee on my espresso machine: Rocket Giotto Evoluzione R. The coffee was ground with the Eureka Atom Specialty 75 grinder on position 5.5.
Take a sip of the espresso and slurp some oxygen inside. Swirl the coffee round in your mouth and let the flavours sink in. The first thing you will notice is the citric soft Orange juice mouthfeel of this coffee and the firm body this coffee has. The coffee feels thick, gooey, velvety, grainy and sweet. Take the aroma of the espresso in and smell the spices, Caramel, a hint of Butterscotch and Vanilla on the nose.
Slurp another sip and focus on whats happening in your mouth. There is a hint of dark brown sugar, Salmiak, Liqorice wood, and laurel as a foundation to this coffee. But there are also notes of dried sultana that you can find in cookies, and a hint of Orange peel.
The aftertaste is long and made up out of Sherry, Salmiak, Laurel, cookie spices, almond peel and Tamarind. Notice how these flavours develop in the back of your mouth and how the juicy character of the Salmiak and sherry can be found in the front of your mouth, underneath your tongue. The coffee starts pulling saliva after you swallowed it and feels nice.
As a latte based drink, this coffee performs really good as well. The overall high sweetness of the coffee in combination with the caramel, chocolate, vanilla and nutty aspect of the coffee go well with the frothed milk. The fruity character is somewhat diminished due to the milk, but thats perfectly fine to me. The Tamarind and Salmiak notes can still be found in the aftertaste of your Latte based drink and is very nice.
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Alt Wien Kaffee – Samaipata Bourbon: The verdict.
This espresso roasted coffee is such a welcome addition to the darker and colder days ahead of us. The notes of Salmiak, Tamarind, Caramel, Chocolate, Laurel, Sultana all add to a nice sweet espresso experience. The nicest part about this coffee is the body: thick, gooey, grainy, velvety and sweet. All you want in an espresso if you’d ask me!
The fruity notes and acidity add a little extra to the coffee, making it a modern espresso instead of the ‘normal’ espresso coffee where nutty and cookie notes prevail overall. I also like how this coffee go’s in a Latte based drink such as a Cappuccino. The sweetness of this coffee really adds an extra to the frothed milk and the Tamarind and Salmiak can even be found in the aftertaste. The acidity is a little high, so you will not be able to drink this coffee one after another…I guess you will have to save some for later!