I found this bag of Cuvée Coffee at a different Whole Foods location than I normally go to – they had a slightly different selection than my local store, but this was the freshest option. I had just had the Cuvée Brazilian, so I wasn’t really keen to buy another bag from the same roaster, but this Ethiopian sounded different enough that it would be worth a try.
Whole bean: Very fragrant, full of lime and floral aromas. Much more strongly scented compared to the Brazilian beans.
V60: At a 3:35 extraction, this coffee was quite intense. It tasted rather like cough syrup to me at first (really, it was a bit of a flavor shock) but as it cooled a bit and I kept drinking, the flavors morphed into rose and Snapple peach tea. This is not a shy coffee.
AeroPress: Subtler flavor than I expected, given that I drank this as a concentrate! Floral with a hint of tea.
Chemex: Rose and additional strong floral notes. Tasted like a strong tea but not overly tannic.
French press: Peach dominated this cup with some floral notes, but the floral notes were a bit subtle so this cup had a nice balance.
Summary: Snapple peach tea with flowery notes. It was pretty consistent across all brewing methods, but I think the immersion methods (French press and AeroPress) were the best for flavor balance – getting things just right with the pourover methods seems trickier.
From the roaster: Peach, blackberry, rose petal
This coffee is not currently available on Cuvée’s website, but here’s a link to their online store: Cuvée Coffee
Review conducted 15 days post-roast.