Review: Single O Firecracker Launch Edition, Limited Reserve Blend 2018 (Sydney, Australia)

I took advantage of a long layover (23 hours) in Sydney to explore the city a bit and check out its local coffee scene. Many craft coffee shops/roasters close on the early side so I unfortunately wasn’t able to make it to more than one cafe in the time I had available, so I ended up buying two bags from the roaster Single O – they popped up repeatedly on my Google searches for craft coffee roasters in Sydney, and luckily one of their locations was just steps away from my hotel.

Side note: I was lucky enough to find one of the best record shops I’ve ever visited, also just steps away from my hotel: Red Eye Records. I would have bought a ton of stuff if I hadn’t torn myself away! Knew I should have packed record mailers…

Whole bean: Mixed berry – raspberry and blueberry.

V60: This tasted like mixed berry yogurt with its bit of tanginess, combined with tart orange notes.

AeroPress: Super easy to drink, with a hint of raspberry. This was surprisingly weak tasting overall though – even as a concentrate, I felt it tasted watered down.

Chemex: Sweet berry flavor with a hint of citrus and a powdery finish. I liked this a lot.

French press: Equal balance between citrus and berry – this was an explosion in the mouth!

Summary: A lively, fruit-forward coffee. I didn’t particularly care for this in the AeroPress but I liked the variety of flavors in the other three methods. The Chemex method was my personal favorite for these beans.

From the roaster: Explosively juicy berries and sparkling citric acidity.

Origins: Wahana Natural Sumatra, Gedeb Ethiopia, Karogoto Kenya, La Florida Colombia

Single O online store

Review conducted 16 days post-roast.

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