For a quick review from the cupping room, I would like to highlight a few coffees from earlier this year before talking about what we are doing today.  The year started out with a couple new (but limited supply) Ethiopian Naturals.  Our initial goal with these Ethiopians was to find new coffee we might use in our competition espresso for the season.  We got samples from everywhere and the best was a great Natural Coffee from the Aricha locality in the Yiracheffe region of Ethiopian: Aricha 2 . 

This coffee was sourced by our friend Joseph of 90+ and processed by the famed SA Bagersh (who brought us such famed coffee as the Idido Misty Valley, Aricha Seven, and Biloya).  This lot was very fruit forward with tons of berry, even more than the Aricha Seven.  Clean, Sweet, and fruity, one taste of this and you will know why every cupper loves Ethiopia.  On our table it scored 94 points.  Of course not every great cup works as espresso and this one did not.  No matter how we roasted it (slower, longer, darker) or how little we used in the blend to add some nice fruit, the Aricha 2 domintated the blend and cup.  It came out sour and while it remains a great varietal to drink, it did not play well with others as an espresso.  On its own we scored it:

Roast: medium / light

Aroma  9

Brightness 8

Body   8

Flavor 9

Aftertaste 8

Total cuppers score 94

But as we continued our fun we found a great lot both on its own and as a single origin espresso with the Aricha 9 .  This lot balances the fruit (berry) with lots of chocolate.  Rich, sweet, and fruity.  As we furthered our experimental espresso blends, this lot worked perfectly and was in our final blend which became our US 08 Comp Blend .