One year, and twenty-four bags of coffee later...
the first year of the La Marzocco Home Espresso Subscription has come to an end. If you aren't familiar with this subscription, here are the deets. The La Marzocco Cafe in beautiful downtown Seattle has a "Roaster In Residence" every month. These residents apply with their unique story, direction, and coffee and the folks at La Marzocco choose the winners. They are a varied group, and not all of them are from the United States. I highly recommend signing up for this subscription to anyone who is an espresso aficionado. It's the best $39 a month I spend.
With that out of the way, I wanted to take a moment to talk about some of my favorite coffees from the past year via the above aforementioned subscription. Unfortunately I began this blog about halfway through the year, so I don't have reviews for all of my top picks to link back to, but I'll link to their sites and the specific coffees that wow'd me.
First, lets talk about my favorite duo. I say duo because the subscription includes two bags of espresso, and most of the roasters provide two bags of different beans. Most of which include a blend, and a single origin, but there are a couple outliers there. That being said the standout duo of the year for me was Kickapoo Coffee out of Viroqua, Wisconsin. With their solar powered roasting facility, two coffees that stood out in their clarity, quality, Also, unlike most duos these coffees shined with or without milk. To read my full review of these coffees, click here.
If you've been reading my work for awhile, you've probably ran across the op-ed I wrote about preferring blends to single origins when making espresso. In that I did mention one single origin that really stuck out to me, and that is my choice for my favorite single origin of the year. This title goes to Olympia Coffee's outstanding Sweetheart Espresso. At the time that espresso was made up of solely Kenyan coffee, but the notes of berries, caramel, and citrus really hit me in my 'E' spot, a.k.a. espresso spot. Right now that espresso is made up of an Ethiopia Yirg, so probably still a fire cup of coffee.
Last, but certainly not least, my favorite bag design. I'll preface this by saying, I love design. I also can love designs of all kinds, but my eye tends to be drawn to clean, sharp, and modern design. The bags that really stood out to me this year was this of the coffee legend George Howell. The bags are a dark blue with clean, readable, and sharp labels. They have George's signature, and some nice details in this nice gold color. It all comes together really nicely, and they just looked great sitting on my counter. The coffee wasn't bad either, click here to read the review for these coffees.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to subscribe below for updates. As always, stay caffeinated pony boy.