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Coffee Break!
Above: Chocolatier, Xenon Mallari, samples a Kenyan coffee at the “Coffee of the Year” cupping area of the SCAA Show.
The Happy Ending crew was recently visited by our good friend, Josh Walter (aka Josher), owner of Sunrise Coffee in Las Vegas. Josher’s boutique coffee shop only serves organic products and he’s extremely particular about the products he carries. As an avid coffee connoisseur and hands-on owner, Josher attends coffee expositions to sample products to make sure they pass his strict criteria. We joined Josher on his quality-coffee-quest (say that three times fast) at the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) show in Anaheim.
Here are some of the show’s highlights and our favorite products:
Top 5 Espressos (with a couple of ties)
5. Intelligentsia, a coffee company determined to provide top notch coffee products through a high caliber staff trained at their Chicago location. We had their Kenya Tharaka blend. It was extremely wild, like a jungle in your mouth. Very acidic with hints of bacon and mushroom. Lots of umami! quite savory and great for the seasoned espresso aficionado.
5. Fratello, Boutique Coffee Roasters, based in Alberta, Canada, produces coffee artisinally with careful attention to sourcing and responsible purchasing. We had their Diamond Mountain Single Estate from Panama. They used the Slayer Machine, which allows the artisan barista to use their instincts to control pressure and timing instead of digital machines. The Panama blend was bright with a plethora of citrus notes, very springtime. Almost sour throughout. The Slayer machine is shown below.
