This month’s selection marks Kopi’s first foray into the niche tradition of aged coffee. It’s a small niche, too – with more than three years required to age coffee properly, few producers are prepared to take the risk. But the rewards can be incredible: a rare, expensive coffee that challenges connoisseurs in a way few coffees can.
Jim, 35 years in the coffee trade
“The flavours of this month’s coffee offer a challenge but also a big reward for coffee lovers. For me this is where coffee gets close to wine and I would regard this coffee as akin to Port or Sherry, where high quality but relatively uninteresting grapes are carefully transformed over time into something unique and delicious.”
Geoff, 35 years in the coffee trade
“As there is very little fresh milk in the whole of Indonesia, they tend to whiten coffee with condensed milk. If you like your coffee sweet, give it a try and tell us what you think.”
Aged coffees can be a bit of an acquired taste. Begin by smelling: see if you can smell leather and candied sugar in the dry aroma, and then an earthy, spicy raisin scent in the wet aroma. This is a result of the ageing process.
The first sip might come as a shock, so give your taste buds a minute to adapt to the extreme flavours: intense, deep, savoury, woody, syrupy, rustic. Can you taste a peppery initial hit, and then a rum-raisin finish? The flavor is incredibly complex, a Sumatra to the power of ten. And like anything this complex, it appeals to those extremes of the taste buds.
This is a dark roast, of course, and the intense, brooding weight of the roast pairs beautifully with the original flavours of the bean. If ever a coffee was made for espresso, Aged Sumatra is it.