“City to FC: Outstanding, fruit forward coffee, berry notes, apricot, lychee, mango nectar, tamarind candies, syrupy, articulate clean. A wild espresso.” -Sweet Marias
The initial sip is a syrupy blend of berry and tamarind notes. The berry notes are sweet and offset the tamarind tartness. There is little acidity after the initial tartness. The medium body is juicy, and the finish is clean. For now, it seems the sweetness and tart notes are the biggest notes.
As it slowly cools, the tartness has softened a little, and there are definitely more fruit flavors emerging. The apricot notes have emerged, and reminds me more of dried apricots, where the sweetness is concentrated. There is another fruit note in the background that I can’t nail down, which I am guessing is the lychee. It has a light strawberry note to me. The fruit notes balance well against the tartness, which also seems to have a slight bitter cacao note as well. There was a light hint of mango, a bright sweetness but I only tasted it a few times going into the finish, and it didn’t last long as the cup cooled.
The bright tartness and fruit sweetness definitely pair up to make it a nice cup to sip on. The tamarind notes are still present as it cools, but have softened to give it a nice smooth, clean finish. The fruit flavors in the cup are syrupy and strong enough to offset the tartness. The apricot adds a nice note, and the lychee gives a nice overall sweetness. As for the roasting details, the roast was done in the Gene Cafe roaster, with a heat setting of 460 degrees, for 14 minutes. First crack started approximately around 12:00 minutes and continued for about 2.0 minutes. Cooling was done in the Gene, down to 215 degrees, and then removed and cooled in a colander until room temperature. This was the second batch I roasted, as the first went past Full City. That roast still had a nice sweetness, but lost a lot of the subtle fruit flavors. It had a much more mild tartness and hints of dark chocolate versus the bitter cacao. Stay tuned for the espresso update on this one!