Sharing competition coffee with the coffee lovers in town. Costa Rica COE #11 for 2023 is here!

Another competition coffee is here! I have to admit that latey I’ve been purchasing a lot of competition coffees that are quite a bit pricier than the basic specialty coffee. Some of them are a lot better, while others are just fine.

So let’s go back to the last week when we visited the Dabov coffee shop in Sofia… Wheb I entered the coffee shop, I saw that they had a coffee that I really wanted to buy when it was on Pre-order on their website, but actually didn’t buy. When I saw this on the shell, I knew that I wasn’t leaving without one bag. Luckily, this was the last one.

You may also know, from my posts, that I and my wife tend to visit a specialty coffee place in my hometown and enjoy having time, chatting with the barista - Misho. This time I decided to take this bag of beans with me and share it with people that would enjoy it for sure.

And here we are - in the Specialty Place 23 with the Costa Rica COE competition coffee.

I didn’t open the bag beforehand, so the honor was Misho’s. He is always open for new coffee experiences and there is something more… he is now prepating for an AeroPress competition. The beans are very lightly roasted. And they possesed a special and pleasant aroma even before being brewed.

We wondered which technique to use for preparing these beans. Being lightly roasted they would definitely taste better when brewed with pourover. The choice was made. Misho wanted to brew them on the AeroPress and practice for the vompetition at the same time. Very, very wise choice! Aaand now… action!

Misho currently has two bronze cups from competitions in the past years, so let’s keep our fingers crossed for him. If he is lucky he will get home with silver cup, at least. And I am sure that he is capable of achieving that.

18 grams was the dose and he grinds his beans a step or two coarser than V60 filter coffee. The pleasant aroma was already more intense and I couldn’t wait to try this coffee. While the water was heating up in the kettle he passed me the ground beans. Mmm… lovely!

The recipe he used or brewing the coffee was including about 180 grams of hot water and after that he would add about 50-60 grams more in the already brewed coffee. The extraction was over in about 2 minutes. I mean, he finished pushing the coffee out exactly at two minutes after the first hot water contact.

Time to taste that! I insisted him to pout half of the coffee for him, but he told me that it was his fifth coffee already and he was full. 😁 At least he poured about 50 ml just to try it. The remainig part was for me.

Although the coffee was excellent his opinion was that it was a bit overpriced, costing about $30 for a bag of 200 grams. We shared the same opinion, that living in a world of very special, anaerobic and wild taste coffees a sample like this fades a bit. It is still amazing with its honey and jasmine flavor, but a bit too ordinary for the modern specialty coffee lover. My opinion is that I can give this amount of money, from time to time, but this wouldn’t be my everyday coffee for sure. Also, when you buy sonething that rare and special, you never know what its actual taste be like. I enjoyed this one a lot, for being so delicate and tender, but definitely wouldn’t pay the same amount of money for it again.

And while we were chatting about coffee, my wife enjoyed a piece of delicious chocolate cake. Misho’s girlfriend is always perfect with her desserts, just as he is perfect with brewing his coffee. Of course, I had a little bit of cake too! Hehe…

So, that’s for today! See you very soon with another delicious coffee from this amazing world.
See you soon!
Bye!