Coffee Cupping with Social /Manic Coffee

Manic Coffee

Address: 294 College Street

Neighbourhood: Little Italy/College&Bathurst area

Social Coffee Company

Address: 55 West Beaver Creek Rd. unit 45

Located: Richmond Hill, Ontario

This past weekend, Social Coffee Co held a special cupping session at Manic. The quickest and most trusted source: Twitter informed me that @Socialcoffeeco would be heading down for 4PM amd it only seemed like a no-brainer to get in on this action.

The weather was amazing this past weekend, so that meant pumping up the tires and go for a spin, to warm up the mind, body and soul.... or just my tastebuds for what would be a great experience.

For starters: Esmeralda Farm in Panama, is home to the only location for the Geisha Bean.. It's travelled from  Ethiopia-Kenya -Tanzania crossing the ocean to Costa Rica and now it's located in Panama. The origin of the bean, might give you a hint of flavours, yet the beans speak for themselves.

We were privy to trying the 8 different lots located on this same farm. With this consistency we were able to compare the same bean roasted at the same level. The buzz surrounding the Geisha beans, since there is only one location that houses these beans, the farm can start a bidding war.

Let's get an update of the players in this special cupping.
They come from either Jaramillo, or the Canas Verdes region.
The farm is located at different elevations, making each lot so uniqurely last year the lots sold for $30 - $150/lbs. Mainly auctioneers pushed the price of this bean! (Japan... ahem)

LOT                         Elevation          Region                Harvest

1) Mario Carnaval - 1500-1650ft.    Jaramillo             Feb 2011

2) Mario Energo      1500-1650ft.    Jaramillo             Feb 2011

3) Mario San Jose   1500-1650ft.    Jaramillo             Mar 2011

4) Montanment        1700-1800ft.   CanasVerdes  Jan/Feb/Mar 11

5) Caballeriza           1500ft.           Jaramillo         Jan/Feb/Mar 11

6) Baru                   1400-1650ft.   CanasVerdes  Jan/Feb/Mar 11

7) Colga                  1400ft.            CanasVerdes  Jan/Feb/Mar 11

8) Naranjo               1450ft.           Jaramillo         Jan/Feb/Mar 11

Verdict: Huge Floral notes, with clean bodies, and pleasant lingering mouthfeels. Peach, stone fruit really comes out.

Steve, Social, decided to break the cupping into 2 flights.
Starting with the lower elevation lots 5-8,
followed by trying the higher lots 1-4.

My Fav: lot 7, and lot 1
Auction lot 7: was very clean, and the brightness wasn't overpowering

Auction lot 1: just had amazing qualities, where the coffee start ed to shine as the temperature dropped. Delicious floral, citrus/orange were ooozing from this cup.

Really hopes that someone in Toronto will pick up some auction lot activity at the end of May.
Happy Espresso Adventures.