Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Mugged: Anodyne Coffee


Subject: Anodyne Coffee
Coffees Mugged and Rating [see key]:
- Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Gelena Abaya 6+
- Colombia Tolima ASOPAP 6+

Certain North American regions are definitely under-appreciated, one of them being Wisconsin. Full of beautiful landscapes and interesting cities, most people (at least the ones I run into) seem to overlook Chicago's northern neighbor. The same tends to go for Wisconsin coffee, as America's Dairyland is home to quite a few great roasters such as Kickapoo, Colectivo and the subject of today's post, Anodyne.

Some years ago, I had the pleasure of visiting the Bay View location when it was still their roastery, an experience that proved to be one of my all-time favorites. Since then, I have experienced Anodyne when I could find them in my visits around the land, mostly in their wholesale accounts or as guest roasters in multi-roaster shops. Fast forward to present day, when I recently received two coffees of their coffees to slurp at home base, two coffees I took to task via pourover, french press and siphon.

The first coffee is a naturally processed Ethiopian coffee produced near Abaya Lake northwest of the town of Yirga Chefe. The pourover produced a bright explosion of blueberry, semi-sweet chocolate, corn chip, strawberry, biscuit and honey dew. The french press similarly doled out a fruity cup full of strawberry, chocolate, raspberry syrup, biscuit and honey dew. Not to be outdone, the siphon made for a delicious infusion of vanilla cake, strawberry, buttered biscuit, honey dew and nougat. To the final sip, this light-bodied coffee demonstrated an excellent mix of chocolate and wheat-esque notes carried by a strong punch of fruit. 

The second coffee boasts an Organic and Fair Trade certification and hails from the Tolima region of Colombia, southwest of Bogota. Starting again with pourover, I found a coffee full of fig, raisin, carrot cake, sourdough and romaine, making for a sweet, rich coffee with a medium body. The french press held a little more sugary sweetness, with notes of caramel, dark honey, fig, pear, sourdough and cream. The siphon polished off the series with similarly flavorful notes of caramel, honey, raisins, buttered sourdough and black tea. All in all, a deeply sweet brew proving robust yet smooth.

To put it simply, these two offerings from Anodyne proved quite excellent and would satisfy most tongues. If you seek a bag of great coffee, swing by one of their shops and/or wholesale accounts, or simply secure a bag from their online shop.


note: coffee was provided free of charge and the above review is objective feedback.

No comments: