Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Coffee Collective, Copenhagen, El Salvador Santa Ana, Finca San Francisco


Being a very important specialty coffee center in Europe, Coffee Collective is one of the main destinations on my Scandinavia trip. Coffee Collective have four locations in Copenhagen but not with a chain style. I tried each and every one mostly to try the consistency level of brewing bars of this highly acclaimed brand. To be honest, I stayed speechless against the level of standardization of cups including several nuances which are not easy to be controlled indeed. I tried several beans but the highlight was the El Salvador San Francisco Santa Ana and the espresso 1 blend of beans from Guatemala and Kenya. The strawberry and apricot flavors of Kalita brewed El Salvador San Francisco was totally mind boggling.  Considering that there are also solid hints of complex passion fruit aroma, the roaster is indeed a master magician in this case, creating an African-like layered texture from a non-African coffee.  

Coming back to the espresso 1 blend, the acidic and crispy hit at the first second followed by a balanced and soft finish was really impressive. This was probably the one and only blend that I accepted as something from specialty coffee world so far. For me the most impressive location was the one in the Godthabsvej, which also looks like the headquarter - where I also came across a cupping session held as a part of a training for the new baristas, showing again their care about the education on coffee professionals. They also let me get some sips from several new beans they put recently on their shelves including a Panama Geisha.

The open bar style of Torvehallerne location in this open market area and the newly opened cosy and pub-like place in Kristen Berniko are again must see places for Coffee Collective.    

The package that I carried from my Coffee Collective surely belong to the amazing El Salvador San Francisco Santa Ana beans and I did my best to try it in several methods. Coffee Collective is mostly using Kalita Wave 155 for brewing at their serve. I also managed to get real good and sweet extracts from V60 with these beans applying my reference method 12/200gr 12/40 grind with 95 degree in 2:20, however it looks like the best result was again from Kalita 185 15/225gr 16/40 grind with 97 degree in 2:30. My trials produced a little bit more acidic results compared to what they brewed in Copenhagen probably because of the calcium content in Dutch water but still the fruitiness in the coffee was just amazing in all trials.   
     








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