Photos by Danielle Bauman
The rundown.
I’ve heard that there’s still a sizable amount of people who wait every year for the McRib to come back. Though I’ve been a vegetarian for five years now, I can understand the sentiment. I wait around half the year for Africa coffees to come into season, and we just had three great Kenya coffees come in: Gichathaini, Ndaroini, and Thiriku.
The Gichathaini, some have said, tastes like a big steak covered in strawberries when brewed through a Cafe Solo. Personally, I like to brew it through the Chemex — clean, savory notes with dried apricots and fresh cedar aromatics. The Ndaroini is a bit softer, but no less intense: baked pears and ripe plums, light floral notes and Middle Eastern spices. Both coffee have a great buttery mouthfeel and a great rounded body, but it’s the Thiriku that’s the star of the crop. The cup has an almost sparkling acidity with a tropical fruit sweetness, only to finish with an explosion of complexity that touches on spice, floral, sweet and savory notes at the same time until it hits with a pristine finish. Canned peaches, fruit snacks, middle eastern spices — it’s a coffee that never wants to quit.
These two found each other using an Internet dating service.
While these flavor profiles might seem off-putting to some people, they really are coffees you have to taste to believe the complexity that occurs in the cup. That’s why we’re now offering the Thiriku as a 16 ounce Chemex or 24 ounce Cafe Solo at the Millenium Park store.
Kenya coffees allow for much longer fermentation that other growing regions due to the higher
I bet you've never seen a bag this close up before.
altitude, and are dried on long, elevated screens instead of on cement patios — these and other post-harvest handling practices help develop the intense flavors, showcasing the extra care taken on the farming level.
Offering the Thiriku as only a Chemex or Cafe Solo is our tribute to these intensive growing practices. Sure it might take a little more time and energy to prepare, but the end result is worth it.
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