Sound and Vision Blend
$ 17.00
Who doesn’t like David Bowie? We like David Bowie.
Bowie's pretty much always the right choice. And while there are plenty of moments when we reach for that Misfits record and a cup of bright Kenyan coffee or some NSFW early 90's gangsta rap and a cup of slightly savory coffee from Sulawesi, we also value both music and coffee that's always the right choice, no matter the audience. Something that'll please both the classic rock fans and the hipsterest hipsters. In our blend lineup, that’s where Sound & Vision comes in. It’s not quite as poppy and in-your-face as Phantom Limb or many of our single origins, but we also wanted to give folks a bit more intrigue than tried-and-true Blue Orchid.
So, we’ve started out with a chocolatey, full-bodied Latin American base very similar to Blue Orchid, and kicked it up just a tiny bit with a small amount of natural-processed Ethiopian goodness. A tiny bit of fruit and brightness to keep the more discerning palates satisfied, but also plenty of comforting, traditional flavors for folks who want their coffee to taste “bold” or “like coffee, damnit.” Confident on its own, but also plays very well with milk.
Do you like cold brew, too? This also happens to be the blend that we use in our kegged cold brew, so if you’re too far away for us to deliver a keg, don’t have a tap system, or just want to do it yourself for any other reason, Sound & Vision is our go-to cold brew suggestion. What about espresso? We're pulling shots of S+V as our house espresso at our Dairy Block café in downtown Denver. Whether it's a shot, a cup full of ice, or a filter brew for a crowd, Sound and Vision is an easy choice.
Current Blend: 50% Brazil Fazenda Cachoera da Grama, 40% Guatemala AProCafé El Grano, 10% Ethiopia Ardi
Related Items
Blue Orchid Blend
$ 16.00
Blue Orchid is Huckleberry’s house espresso blend. We serve this coffee every day in our cafes, and it is designed to be approachable, both as espresso and as a brewed coffee, with and without milk. If you’ve ever had a great latte experience at one of Huckleberry’s cafes, Blue Orchid was the base.
While the Blue Orchid blend does change frequently, we try to maintain a sweet, full-bodied, chocolate and caramel flavor profile by using Central and South American coffees specifically chosen for those qualities. This is great tasting comfort coffee, and is a well-rounded crowd pleaser, especially if some of that crowd likes cream in their cup, or is still making the transition from darker roast profiles into specialty coffee. We love intense floral aromatics, but some mornings we just want the chocolate, toffee, and a bit of milk in our mug, and for those days, Blue Orchid is our go-to.
The current version of Blue Orchid is a blend of Brazil Fazenda Cachoera de Grama and a washed coffee grown by AProCafé El Grano in Guatemala.
View full product details
Colombia Las Brisas
$ 18.00
We love the balance of approachability and jaw-dropping flavors that great Colombian coffees can exhibit, and Las Brisas has been one of our favorite Colombians for the past few years running. Last August we had the chance to visit the group, and we're looking forward to not just roasting this year's harvest, but also many harvests ahead. In this crop we taste bright green grape and citrus, balanced by sweet flavors of stone fruit, cherry cobbler, and caramel. All of this makes this an exciting coffee for the nerds, and also a friendly coffee for less-seasoned specialty coffee drinkers, too.
Las Brisas is grown by growers in ASOQUEBRADON growers group, based around the town of Rioblanco, Tolima. This area sits near the juncture of Colombia's three mountain ranges, or cordilleras, and the name Las Brisas refers to the strong winds blowing through the region.
We roast quite a bit of coffee grown by small producers. Las Brisas and our other Colombian coffees are unique in that smallholder farmers mill, wash, and dry their coffee individually, at their farms, rather than at a centralized wet mill. Most of our other smallholder coffees, like Guatemala Atitlán el Grano, Ethiopia Adado, and Rwanda Kanzu, for example, are picked and delivered in its cherry to a centralized washing station, where it is processed collectively.
Individual processing can create challenges for consistency and quality, but luckily our export partner Caravela's regional team of Davier and Wilfer work together with the growers to improve farming and washing practices, to help ensure that the coffee is delicious. All of the farmers who make up Las Brisas are well-practiced in proper fermentation and washing, and dry their coffees on covered beds for slow, even drying and protection from Colombia's rains.
Careful growing, proven varieties, excellent terroir, and skilled processing help create an impeccable, dynamic coffee that we think you'll love. Las Brisas has sweetness that lovers of more basic, milk-friendly coffees will enjoy, but also packs a punch of stellar, fruity brightness and the juicy flavors that excite the roasting team here at Huckleberry.
View full product details
COTM: Guatemala Miel de Oro Black Honey
$ 18.00 $ 20.00
Guatemala Miel de Oro is our Coffee of the Month for December!
This is our second year roasting this sweet, creamy coffee from Acatenango, and we’re stoked to have Mario Alarcon’s black honey process back in the Huckleberry quiver. While the bulk of our Guatemalan coffee and our efforts in the country will remain centered around the smaller-scale growers in AProCafé, we’ve never closed off the idea of other Guatemalan coffees, especially with a personal connection.
Our coffee buyer Kevin’s friend Frosty (or Cristian, but he’s pale by Guatemalan standards and that’s what everyone calls him) introduced us to Mario Alarcón and Christian Starry, two slightly larger-scale growers in the Acatenango region who banded together with other growers in the region to export their own coffee under the name Truth Trading Company. When we first tasted coffee together, Mario’s coffee stood out, and that excitement holds true for year two.
This honey-processed coffee is picked ripe, like any other coffee in our lineup, but falls somewhere between a washed coffee and a natural. Washed coffees are depulped of their cherry skin, then have all the additional sticky fruity material (honey or mucilage) washed off prior to drying. Naturals are dried with the fruit intact. Honeys are depulped, but dried with varying levels of that mucilage still on the bean. White honeys dry with very little mucilage, black honeys dry with the most.
Mario takes the basics several steps further. He uses a brix meter to decide when to pick his coffee (22 Brix), then before depulping, keeps his coffee in its cherry for a day or two of anaerobic fermentation. Then he depulps his coffee, leaving a large amount of mucilage intact, and dries slowly on raised beds over the course of 2-3 weeks. With its in-cherry fermentation, Miel de Oro almost straddles the line between honey and full natural, and we have a feeling that’s part of the reason it’s a standout.
All said and done, we’re here to roast you coffee that tastes good and tastes interesting, and we’re pretty happy that Frosty put Miel de Oro in our playlist. This is a full-bodied, creamy, and deeply sweet coffee that will stand up great to milk and work great as an espresso. It also packs plenty of complexity, without the intensity of some full naturals and a tad less brightness than some full washed coffees. On the bag we say cashew butter, grape jelly, chocolate, and creamy. If you’re looking for a coffee with complexity but mellower acidity and full sweetness, Miel de Oro might be your pot of gold.
View full product details
Ethiopia Ardi
$ 21.00
We're almost at the point where we're losing track, but this is the sixth year roasting Ardi! This is our favorite natural year after year, and our 2018 lot is loaded with the in-your-face fruit and subtle chocolate we've come to expect, and also packs some lovely florality. We're stoked to have one of our all time favorites back in the quiver!
Coffee is the seed of a fruit, and most of the coffee we roast and drink is washed - that is, the fruit is removed from the seed before drying. For Ardi and other natural-process coffees, the coffee is dried with the fruit still intact, and the dried cherry is removed during milling. This process imparts a uniquely fruity, jammy quality to the coffee, though improper and uneven drying carries a distinct risk of off, funky flavors and early fading.
Our importer, Samuel Demisse of Keffa Coffee, works directly with Israel Degefa's washing station in the town of Kilenso Mokonisa, Sidama to ensure that Ardi is picked and processed to the most exacting standards. Approximately 1500 farmers contributed to Ardi, and 200 women carefully manage the coffee’s drying process, removing over- or under-ripe cherries and constantly rotating the cherries to ensure evenness. Ardi is dried on raised beds to start, but unlike most Ethiopian coffees, finished on concrete patios for the final few days of drying.
This year's crop has all of the juicy mixed berries and milk chocolate we've come to expect from Ardi, but is one of the most complex versions of this coffee we've had yet. We're also tasting lavender and guava, and we're not complaining about it. Juicy, fruity, and jammy, and one of our all-time favorites!
View full product detailsSign up to get the latest on sales, new releases and more …
© 2018 Huckleberry Roasters.
Website hosting by Shopify
