Before returning to London from New York I sent this Tweet from El Beit coffee bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (map):
If there’s any doubt the character of a Ethiopia Sidamo can cut through milk, El Beit’s blueberry muffin of a cappuccino ends it.
A few minutes later I received this facebook message from my sister-in-law Sharon Baumgold:
Please forgive my ignorance – how can a cappuccino also be a blueberry muffin?
Fair question. Guess I got a little carried away with myself. But there are aromatic notes suggestive of blueberries within many examples of Ethiopia Sidamo. Hints of black cherry or lemon may also detected. When this Sidamo’s aroma was extracted into a single origin espresso and then combined with the sweetness of beautifully textured steamed milk, the effect reminded me of a blueberry muffin. (Turns out I am not the first to make this association.)
You can buy Ethiopia Sidamo beans online from many leading roasters, including Zoka and Gimme in the US and Londinium and hasbean in the UK. In its cupping notes, Zoka makes its organic Sidamo sound even better than a blueberry muffin:
Blueberries fill the air, sparkling with hints of tangerine, ripe peaches and bakers chocolate in the aroma. At first taste strawberries and cherries welcome you up front as the juicy acidity tingles in your jowls, dark chocolate notes paired with the sophistication of brandy arrive soon after. The creamy vanilla mouth feel is both rich and lingering.
Thanks for the post Daniel!
Perhaps I’ve got sandpaper for a palate but it wasn’t till my New-Yorker/Ethiopian girlfriend introduced me to her native land’s Sidamo that I fully appreciated the variety of our planet’s coffee. Until then I’d always felt a little like the famous emperor being shown new robes as I tasted different coffees and strained to taste their subtle differences.
But as you explain here Daniel, Ethiopian Sidamo does have a truly striking flavour, often resembling blueberry which shouts it out from the crowd. To me it’s almost as if God made it for those of us with a less sophisticated palate to say: ‘Here, see, coffee does have variety of flavour. Here’s the proof! Now, go forth and train your pallet to hear all the other languages which whisper their story in softer tones’.
Personally I like Waitrose own-brand pre-ground Ethiopian made strong in a cafetiere/french press with a dash of milk (‘how my people make it’ said my now ex-girlfriend in a slightly tongue-in-cheek way). Unfortunately, their supply does seem to have changed in the last year and to me appears slightly less fruity. A recent edition of the Monmouth Coffee notes laments the difficulty in tracing back Ethiopian Sidamo to single estates due to the trading patterns of the country. They promise that this is something they’re now working to rectify in order to improve the standardisation of supply.
Not a coffee drinker but definitely a burger eater. Great advice. Thanks. Youngand foodish is now listed as one of our favorite links on MovieWithMe.com Maybe we should do a movie/dinner promotion? See ours for Fresh Direct meals.
thank you for the explanation!