Motivated by CBS Seattle post, "Best Independent Coffee Roasters in Seattle" issued in August 7, 2012, a day trip was made to visit "madrona coffee co." in Tacoma, WA.
Unfortunately, a roastery was closed on Sunday. However, Charles Banner, the owner and roaster of Madrona coffee, was inside watching football game with his kids and kind enough to give us a short tour of roastery/cafe.
This was before KEMEX became competitor of V60. This was before "hand-pour" taken by Harrio tools. The main hand-pour tools here are KEMEX. Series of KEMEX were on a espresso machine which made us think of Design and flavor. There are there roasting machines, Probat and Diedrich. There were one Smart roaster as well if my memory did not trick me.
Madrona coffee Co. is basically the roaster mainly for the whole sale so there are several cafes around use and sell their beans.
Tacoma is a bit slow but cozy town with many coffee roasters. Located between Seattle and Portland, the coffee culture here is somewhat dark and dense flavored. "Edgy" is not the word to describe Madrona coffee but "reliable" will be the word. We happened to stop by the cafe near by to grab a bag, flavor was decent even pouring technique has deficiency. Not too dark, not too bold. The flavor fits both in the morning and afternoon.
Madrona coffee is certainly on the third waver heritage with a flavor of good old American.
Beans: Grit city Blend
Roaster: madrona Coffee Co.
Roasting Degree: full City
Origin/Area: N/A
Grade: N/A
Screen: N/A
Defect: N/A
Altitude: N/A
Variety: N/A
Process: N/A
【Impression】
Medium, sweet orange, caramel, cacao, touch of lemon peel as a top note, vanilla, almond flower, smooth mouth feel, mild, citric acidity, pearly, lightly lemony, lime, mellow sweetness, cacao nib, dates sugar, slightly tangy bitterness,dried burdock root, apricot kernel, almond, Chinese leafy herb mix, roasted almond like sweetness as a long lasting after taste.
【Note】
Medium dark but smooth and clean enough for hand brew. This has more room to develop flavor balance and gives a sense that "coffee geek" blends beans to seek fine flavor coffee to fulfill his cravings for fine flavor.
