Here again; The Mill, the best place to stay all day.
The Mill is, as we all know, a joint venture between Josey Baker Bread and Four Barrel Coffee.
The mill is one of few serves freshly baked sour dough breads, just out of oven!!!, together with a fresh cup of specialty coffee with freshly roasted coffee beans, both with choices. San Francisco has several nice cafes and Kiosk style coffee stands, but no other place manages to keep specialists there, both Barista and baker.
Evaluating too high? I do not think so.
The Mill opens 7am to 7pm( 9pm on Mon.) and you may have difficulty to find a seat anytime during their open hours. This has a big enough capacity more than 50 person , but difficult to find a place to dine in especially in the afternoon.
There are many just come and grab a just-out-of-oven "Josey Baker Bread", besides clouds of people seated with a piece of favorite bread and coffee.
Talking about coffee beans in a bag, it might be better to go Four Barrel Coffee Valencia if you have enough time. Maybe just a feeling around, but it makes more tasty if enjoyable roasting aroma is there when we grab a bag.
Amazingly, Josey Baker Bread has published the cook book , "Josey Baker Bread", already!! Together with the book, there were a series of specialty ingredients, such as a package of stone-ground baking flowers and so on. (Hope these promise to bring "juicy breads like the Mill offers here.)
This is the movement: A good cup of coffee needs a better pastries. Not ordinarily, but tasty enough to compete with excellent coffee. Even Starbucks offers La Boulange pastries nationally, although the flavor of them ditches "freshly baked" and "specially selected" copy.
Anyway, Blue bottle has been offering Freshly baked waffles together with a cup of freshly poured coffee. There are always a line at Ferry Building. Four Barrel Coffee offers variety of toasts using Josey Baker Bread even at Portola Kiosk.
San Francisco is the city for Foodies and we all welcome this lovely movements for coffee industry.
Name: Finca Buenos Aires
Roaster: Doi Coffee
Roasting degree: Full-City
Area: Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua
Variety: Maracatu (or maracaturra)
Grade: N/A
Screen: N/A
Altitude: 1,200～1,500m
Defect: N/A
Processing Method: Fully Washed
【Flavor scale】
Aroma: 5
Sweetness: 3
Acidity: 2
Bitterness: 2
Richness: 3
※Grade 1 to 5
【Impression】
Medium Dark, Dutch cocoa, honey, dry roasted wheat, wheat cereal, well balanced bitterness and sweetness, creamy, honey like mild sweetness, hazelnuts cream, almond chocolate, milky, fruity acidity as red apple, Gala and granny smith, natural sweetness followed by light acidity, mellow sweetness as a long lasting aftertaste.
Unlike how it look, this Maracatu variety in Nicaragua has delicate and sensitive flavor. So does Maragogype, sizey beans often requires sensitivity in roastin, although this may gives better flavor in deeper roasting degree.
【Note】
Lovely 'Maragogype' look, long nose huge beans. The Maracatu variety from Nicaragua is a hybrid of Maragogype and Caturra
Maracatu is a hybrid of Maragogype and Caturra in Nicaragua. Maragogype is considered as a natural mutation from Typica while Caturra as from Bourbon. Latin and Central America produces series of hybrid varieties from Coffea Arabica for more disease-resistant and more fruitful trees. Often new varieties has poorer cup quality, in terms of flavor, but recent specialty coffee movements motivates to “create” higher quality and sophisticated cups together with to adjust growth environments.
Name: Finca Alcatraz, Wilfredo Ule Vargas
Roaster: Sightglass
Roasting degree:
Area: Huila, Oporapa, Colombia
Variety: Caturra
Grade: N/A
Screen: N/A
Altitude: 1,780m～
Defect: N/A
Processing Method: Washed, patio dried
【Impression】
Light to medium light, citric, lemony, red grape fruits, concord grape, lime, Madeline orange, high in acidity, a touch of light tangy-ness as matured red wine, bitter persimmon, shinny and bright, lime like freshness as a long lasting aftertaste.
【Note】
Beautiful beans but rather small and rough surface.
Sightglass roast always leaves full of silver skin, chaff, which makes coffee flavor cloudy. There would be special technique to extract fine flavored coffee out of so called Scandinavian roasting beans, but I need more experience and blessings to figure out how. Some says silver skin creates an aspect of flavor, which could be true for the light-roast fans and supporters. In my opinion, coffee flavor could be more clear and more friendly if there are less chaff.
On cozy afternoon, if there are enough time to enjoy a cup, it could be better to sift after grind beans to remove "silver skin meal" before pour hot water.
Talking about Scandinavian roasting, Ritual Coffee carries highly edgy ones, "accelerated" raw beans flavors. Sightglass is lighter roasting but not "Scandinavian" enough compared with Ritual. U.S. "specialty" coffee has benefit of a bigger capacity and higher capability roasting machines: however, this lighter roasting movements may be the back way to minimize the benefits since lighter roasting technique are developed for/with small-batch machines w/ limited land benefit.
Name: Finca San Juan Microlot
Roaster: Doi Coffee
Roasting degree: Full-City
Area: La Libertad, Huehuetenango, Guatemala
Variety: Caturra, Catuai
Grade: N/A
Screen: N/A
Altitude: 1,525m～
Defect: N/A
Processing Method: fully washed, patio dried
【Flavor scale】
Aroma: 4
Sweetness: 3
Acidity: 2
Bitterness: 4
Richness: 3 ※Grade 1 to 5
【Impression】
Medium, mellow, freshly baked vanilla cake, maple syrup, cocoa, roasted almond, a touch of lemon peel, chocolaty, silky texture, bold but smooth, deep mellow sweetness along with tangy bitterness, high citric acidity as a top flavor, raw cacao nib, roasted pecan, raw cashew, earthy spiciness, mild bitterness as a long lasting aftertaste. Acidity impression changes when cup is chilled.
【Note】
Unfortunately, there are not much information available about San Juan Microlot, besides the farm location. Located on a slope of Acatenango, a stratovolcano. Hope more transparency, though I understand Microlot farms are hidden treasure for importers in this specialty movement.
Name: Finca El Limon
Roaster: Doi Coffee
Roasting degree: Full-City
Area: Departamento de Matagalpa, Nicaragua
Variety: Java Nica
Grade: N/A
Screen: N/A
Altitude: 1,150m～
Defect: N/A
Processing Method: Washed
【Flavor scale】
Aroma: 5
Sweetness: 4
Acidity: 4
Bitterness: 2
Richness: 3
※Grade 1 to 5
【Impression】
Medium body, aroma-ful, fruity, fresh cacao, milk caramel, grapes, clear flavor, clean, well-balanced sweetness, natural sweetness of cooked red barley, oatmeal, almond, sheer sourness of fresh black berries and gooseberries, low tone clear bitterness, juicy sweetness and light bitterness as a long lasting aftertaste.
【Note】
Located by the conservation of natural forest, Finca El Limon is has achieved Rainforest Alliance certification. The farm is also one of few grows Java Nica, very rare derivational spices of Java brought from Indonesia.
Name: Burundi Karusi
Roaster: Doi Coffee
Roasting degree: Full-City
Area: the Lake Kivu Region, Western Rwanda
Variety: Bourbon
Grade: AA
Screen: 17up
Altitude: 1,250～2,000m
Defect: N/A
Processing Method: Fully Washed, Sun dried
【Flavor scale】
Aroma: 4
Sweetness: 5
Acidity: 3
Bitterness: 2
Richness: 2
※Grade 1 to 5
【Impression】
Medium, cacao, clean aroma, passion fruits, lemon, lime, cinnamon, smooth texture, tangy, highly citric, fresh lemon juice, orange, honey like sweetness, linden honey, dark chocolate, thick mellow cocoa, rich, well bodied, velvet richness as a long lasting aftertaste.
Name: Karoma Estate
Roaster: Doi Coffee
Roasting degree: Full-city
Area: Pico Duarte, Santiago, Dominican Republic
Variety: Catura, Typica, Bourbon
Grade: N/A
Screen: N/A
Altitude: 1,250～1,500m
Defect: N/A
Processing Method: Washed
【Flavor scale】
Aroma: 4
Sweetness: 3
Acidity: 3
Bitterness: 3
Richness: 4
【Impression】
Light dark to medium, nutty aroma, raw almonds, almond essence, apricot kernel, nutmegs as a sheer top note, mellow, well-balanced, juicy, bright acidity, clean, rich, smooth sweetness followed by orange like citric acidity, cacao like bitterness, natural sweetness of roasted almonds and cashews, juicy sweetness as a long lasting aftertaste.
