After a thread a week or so ago I decided to add some decaf coffees.
This is Black and White’s Hambela Natural, an ethyl acetate decaf grown and processed in Ethopia and then decaffeinated in Germany.
This is a very young coffee, roasted last week, but I am impatient. I used a pretty typical V60 recipe. The drawdown was a little long even accounting for a long bloom, over 4 minutes, so I’ll need to grind a bit coarser going forward. Extraction is pretty close, so to compensate for the quicker brew I’ll go up a hair on temp from 92 to probably 94.
The coffee itself has bite from its youth, but interesting flavor notes are showing. Cocoa, cranberry, tart cherry. Not a lot of natural sweetness, but I think that has more to do with the age and me needing to refine my brew. I’m not sure it’s remarkable enough that I’d favor it going forward over their standard decaf, but we’ll see. Black and White, in its usual style, does have a funkier decaf among its rotating options that I haven’t tried.
Thank you for this review! I’ll be super interested to see how the flavor and experience changes after you’ve dialed in the grind size and the beans have rested a bit longer. Do you have a hario switch by chance? I’ve found that you can pull a good amount of sweetness from some beans by introducing some immersion pours.
I ended up grinding as coarse as I ever have for pourover, 6.1 on an Ode 1 with gen 2 burrs, and targeting a 3:45 total brew time with a V60 using the standard Hario filters, 40 second bloom. I’m getting a pretty balanced cup. The cocoa is still there as the backbone. Those tart red fruit notes dropped down to a low roar but they’re still present. Not a ton of sweetness, but what’s there is the best accent. B&W lists peach as a flavor note, which I can see, but to my palate it’s more floral.
As a natural process coffee I’d expected it to be a bit wilder. It’s subtle. Drinks a little more like a dark roast than I’d expected. It’s out of character from what I usually get from B&W (I bought a coffee they call Gummy Shark at the same time that is wild) but solid as a rock.
I’ll keep adjusting this until I’m out, but all in all I consider this a win.
Thank you for the update! I super enjoy your note descriptions; it sounds like a great roast and one I’ll definitely be picking up soon. I’ve been craving some tartness! I was honestly considering their Gummy Sharks as well- I super like the name’s they use for their beans 🤭
An update for the Luminous decaf - I think the previous batch of beans I had purchased were compromised in some way. I’m going to assume it was on my end; I repurchased them since they had a bogo deal a week or two ago and decided to give them another try. It’s a night and day difference. Super sweet, a lot more body, and dynamic notes similar to a caffeinated cup. I would definitely recommend them if you’re looking for a sweet decaf sometime!
I don’t have one, but it’s been on my wish list for a while. I taught a friend to brew on one, strangely enough, and the added control was interesting, but I never got around to buying one for myself. I don’t usually find myself wanting that versatility but coincidentally would have liked it on this cup for a full immersion bloom.
I’ll update you once I feel I’ve gotten everything I can out of the coffee. I’m confident it has more to give, at least more clarity. I’m very happy with what I’m now getting out of B&W’s standard decaf, I don’t think I’d have correctly recognized it as decaf if I tasted blind. Whether that’s on my palate or the coffee I’m not sure. Probably a little bit of both.