The DAK Alchemist coffee is unusual and a little bit mysterious. How does it compare to other anaerobic coffees?

Time for a new coffee! It may be Monday, but it sort of feels like a Weekend for me. Today my wife is travelling to the capital of Bulgaria - Sofia, so I had to stay home with the kids. And although the tasks around the one year old and the three year old are like endless, there is always time for a bit of tasty coffee.

Today I decided to try the last coffee that I bought. It is called “The Alchemist”, its sort is Red Bourbon and the processing is Experimental Anaerobic, whatever this means. And if this doesn’t sound mysterious to you, then I don’t know what will.

When I saw this box of beans I was instantly attracted. I like its beautifully simple design and also the use of recyclable materials both for the box and for the bag inside.

”Dak Coffee Roasters is based in charming Amsterdam, Netherlands and was found by teo Canadians from Montreal. We select beautiful and unique coffees, and carefully roast them to highlight the best flavours they have to offer.”

And as I have understood, the team tries to pick and roast interesting coffees, presenting some unusual processing and techniques in coffee production. This one comes fro Rwanda and I think this is the first time I buy coffee from this African country.

The beans look usual, quite light roasted, just the way I prefer them. They are evenly sized and medium sized… nothing extraordinary here. But as soon as I opened the bag, the divine aroma of tropical ripe fruits instantly greeted me in the most pleasant manner.

Bit how this coffee compares to other similar coffees? For instance, here I have some beans left from a semi anaerobic Honduras coffee, which also is relatively light roasted and roasted by Dabov roastery from Bulgaria. A good thing to mention is that both the coffees are relatively equally priced, at about $20 per 250g of beans.

In person they are both equally roasted, but here on the photo you can see that actually the Alchemist beans are a little bit lighter and bigger in size.

Time for an espresso!
Although the Dabov coffee is not specified of it is roasted for espresso or filter, I tend to brew it only on the espresso machine. It has a good body and nice acidic profile, which ends with a good amount of sweetness.

But let’s see how will the Alchemist compare to it!
Definitely grindinng coffee is one of my favorite steps in the preparation, because you feel the aroma a lot more intensively than the ehole beans coffee. Here the Dutch coffee starts to make me a lot more excited! Instantly!

And! Hands down, it beats the Dabov coffee by a lot. Although Bulgarian coffee is great bodied, this one steps up. It is more complex and more intensive in its tastes. No bitterness at all, just souris freshness building up into a round and sweet finish. I may have a new favorite coffee here.

But hey, I don’t say that Dabov coffee is bad. It is actually pretty good and there is no coffee around that can beat the cheaper, entry varieties, eapecially when there is 15% discount for the coffee of the month.

Overall, I am really happy that I pucked exactly this one from the three available coffees of DAK roastery.

That’s for now, see you soon and have a great week!
Bye!