Virtual Coffee Tasting
Early in 2020, we installed a coffee roaster inside our Drip Cafe Newark retail location. We decided to lease and operate a Bellwether Coffee Roaster. This new style, an automated, electric coffee roaster allows us to offer the freshest coffee at all times at both of our cafes in Newark & Hockessin, DE. While Bellwether is a young, growing company, I have had the opportunity to meet and connect with other coffee shop owners across the country also roasting their own coffee using a Bellwether Coffee Roaster. Through Bellwether, a new coffee community was born.
Tastings and cuppings are a critical part of learning about brewing and expanding your coffee knowledge. By reducing variables in brewing, you can begin to compare coffees side by side to compare the aroma, flavor, body, acidity and finish of the coffee. Depending on climate and different growing conditions, coffees can vary dramatically on these spectrums. Even as we roast coffees, we need to taste the same coffee with a few different roast profiles to make sure the chosen profile is highlighting the best the coffee has to offer.
Recently, I was invited to participate in a virtual coffee tasting with six other Bellwether owners throughout the country. Through the zoom call, I was able to place faces with people I had only communicated with via email. We made connections and told stories about how we have survived and even improved our businesses over the past months during the toughest of times.
Throughout my 15 years in the coffee industry, I have participated in hundreds of coffee tastings and cuppings, but this virtual event was a first. Each participant received a package of Bellwether’s Mexico Reserva El Triunfo as well as some basic parameters for brewing. Since every location is going to have a different water source, grinder and brewing equipment, we conceded that not everyone was drinking the exact same brewed coffee, but we were still able to discuss the flavor notes and come to some consensus. For an hour, we discussed the aroma, flavor notes, body and finish of this coffee and we connected through our shared experience. Mexico Reserva El Triunfo is a great balanced cup of coffee, with notes of cocoa and tart apple - a perfect coffee for a bright breakfast. This coffee will be available for purchase at both of our cafes as well as via our website www.driproastingco.com in Spring 2021.
GV