{"id":1902,"date":"2016-03-19T10:00:09","date_gmt":"2016-03-19T15:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/?p=1902"},"modified":"2016-03-19T10:00:21","modified_gmt":"2016-03-19T15:00:21","slug":"review-la-colombe-coffee-roasters-colombia-san-roque-philadelphia-pennsylvania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/?p=1902","title":{"rendered":"Review: La Colombe Coffee Roasters Colombia San Roque (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’ve heard of the show Dangerous Grounds on the Travel Channel, you might already be familiar with Todd Carmichael, one of the men behind La Colombe Coffee Roasters. I admit, I have never seen the show, so I went into this tasting almost completely blind. The only real association I had with La Colombe was that I remembered hearing after David Bowie’s passing that he would regularly visit one of their NYC locations<\/a> and order a double macchiato. La Colombe doesn’t have any locations where I live (they’re based primarily on the East Coast and in Chicago), so I opted to order a couple of bags from them online.<\/p>\n

Now, when I order online, I am accustomed to ordering on a Sunday or first thing Monday morning, so that my order will be in the queue for Monday roasting and will be shipped within a day or two after it’s roasted, to arrive by Wednesday or Thursday. I did exactly this for this particular order, ordering on Sunday February 7. The next day, I got an email saying that my order was being prepared for shipment, but to allow an extra 24-48 hours for any orders containing single origins, as those are roasted to order. This raised alarm bells in my head, because the clear implication was that anything that wasn’t a single origin would NOT be roasted to order. Strike one?<\/p>\n

My order arrived Thursday, February 11. So far, so good. However, when I inspected this bag of Colombian beans, it had a sticker that stated the beans were roasted on February 4. What?! So, I got pre-roasted beans, when they claimed that all single-origin orders were roasted to order? Even the best psychics in the world could not have predicted that I would be placing an order 3 days before I actually did it. The other bag I ordered also had some freshness issues, which I will discuss in more detail when I write that review. Some people might not think it’s a big deal to get week-old coffee… after all, it’s still pretty fresh! But, I have never had this problem before when ordering directly from a roaster so I was pretty shocked that a company as well-known as La Colombe would do this. Strike two.<\/p>\n

Whole bean: Smelled like chocolate and Coca-Cola. Seriously sweet and syrupy.<\/p>\n

French press: Very smooth on the tongue – plush and velvety texture. There was a little zing on the finish like orange zest.<\/p>\n

Chemex: Ooof. I like coffees that are naturally sweet (to clarify, I never add sugar), but I think I have finally found a coffee + brew method that is just TOO sweet for me. This smelled like chocolate-covered cherries and tasted like someone blended chocolate syrup into a Cherry Coke. I could not drink this.<\/p>\n

AeroPress: Consumed straight as a concentrate, this was smooth and pleasant. Rich flavor with a nice bright acidity on the finish that kept it from tasting overly cloying or sweet (like the Chemex rendition). Chocolaty flavor.<\/p>\n

V60: Light and acidic cup with a floral finish.<\/p>\n

Summary<\/strong>: Overall, it’s not a life-changing or groundbreaking cup of coffee, but it’s reasonably pleasant when NOT brewed in a Chemex (unless you love chocolate-cherry cordials, then you’ll LOVE the Chemex version of this coffee). Once I finished the tasting and looked at the tasting notes on the bag, I noted that I was pretty spot on — people, these guys aren’t playing around; you’d best believe what they say in the tasting notes. La Colombe does get a demerit from me for sending me pre-roasted beans, though.<\/p>\n

From the roaster: Clementines, Cherry Cola, Chocolate<\/p>\n

La Colombe Coffee Roasters Colombia San Roque<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’ve heard of the show Dangerous Grounds on the Travel Channel, you might already be familiar with Todd Carmichael, one of the men behind La Colombe Coffee Roasters. I admit, I have never seen the show, so I went into this tasting almost completely blind. The only real association I had with La Colombe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"The tasting notes were as advertised, but I was miffed that these guys didn't roast to order like promised.","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[158,159,3,154,10],"tags":[244,18,120,100],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/tn_IMG_3486.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2756,"url":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/?p=2756","url_meta":{"origin":1902,"position":0},"title":"Review: La Colombe Panama Ironman VI Geisha (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)","date":"September 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this summer, I visited the District of Columbia and while there, visited a La Colombe coffee shop for the first time. I've reviewed La Colombe coffees before (their Nizza espresso and their single-origin Colombia San Roque), and while neither were exactly to my personal taste, both were exactly what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Central America"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeecantata.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/tn_IMG-0663-e1748008076710.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1931,"url":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/?p=1931","url_meta":{"origin":1902,"position":1},"title":"Review: La Colombe Torrefaction Nizza Espresso Blend (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)","date":"March 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the second bag of La Colombe coffee that I've had in recent months, and this was the reason I wanted to order from them in the first place: I had heard that this company is known for their espresso. 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