Tasting 'tour' - Home edition

Frothbewithyou

I am on a bit of a roastery tasting tour and I wanted to engage the community here and get some suggestions.
We are blessed with a lot of great roasters and a plethora of shops to choose from which can be a bit of a mine field as internet shopping will always be.
So far I have tried the following roasteries.

Rave - multiple types
Origin - subscription
Lost Sheep
Clumsy Goat
Caravan Roastery
Assembly
Kiss the Hippo - multiple types
Bella Barista (free sample)

So if you could recommend one roastery or bean (I want to limit it for entertainments sake) you have personally tried that you would like to recommend, I would love to order it.

Points to note - Pour over and Aeropress drinker
UK based please - sorry EU friends
I will post confirmation of me receiving your recommendations in the “what’s in your coffee cup”

MediumRoastSteam

Frothbewithyou -

Foundry Coffee Roasters
North Star

Flat_Eric

Frothbewithyou

Carringtons Coffee Co

Frothbewithyou

MediumRoastSteam thanks for this I haven’t tried Foundry, so since you are first to reply that will be my first order!
Northstar I have actually tried they have a partnership with an independent cafe near me ….that’s my mistake! Very good though 👌👌 I like their espresso beans especially.

Hermenegildo Marin - Mexico - Edit ordered this from Foundry 💪

LMSC

Rave and Extract Coffee - Sugarcane Decaf

Coffee by the Casuals - Kenyan Mikari

Blackcat - Costa Rica and Ethiopia > Two great cup scores > 87.5, 87.

I will be opening Costa Rica tmrw

Frothbewithyou

So adding Carrington Coffee, Coffee by the Casuals & Blackcat to my next months order. Thanks guys

(next months order will be 1st of March)

DavecUK

Frothbewithyou adding Carrington Coffee, Coffee by the Casuals & Blackcat to my next months order. Thanks guys

The great thing about exploring roasters like this is that you can soon find a few you like and order your coffees from them.

PortafilterProcrastinator

A few I can think of, that I’ve had tasty coffee from:

Django

Smith St Coffee Roasters

Roastworks

Crafthouse

Roastery Hope Coffee (a bit left field maybe, but I did have a very tasty Brazilian Fazenda from them)

Frothbewithyou

DavecUK Its like you read my mind, so a little background. My friend and I are doing it together, but he doesn’t want any advice and wants to do it alone for the fun of it and I said I would ask on here and we would share our favourites etc.

Also half the fun in this hobby is to try new beans and roasts, so looking forward to it. Internet though personally just has too much choice if that makes sense.

I am sure I will have memorable bags by the end of this, I’ll share my highlights at then end, or when it runs its course.

Dusk

ManCoCo coffee, I enjoy their Hunda Oli beans

Frothbewithyou

Just an update - Finished Foundry and it was excellent, sped through the bag. I can see why its highly rated by so many.

March order in - I have gone for Carrington Co, @BlackCatCoffee, Coffee by the Casuals.

I will then most likely be going ManCoCo, but will need 2 more to fill in April 😉😉hint hint users.

Pretty please with sugar on top try and just pick your favourite one, just to save me time <3

Ernie1

Dark Arts Coffee - Lost Highway

New Ground - Mug Shot

Origin - Stronghold

Edit - just discovered Lost Highway is a ‘seasonal blend’ so it might not be the same one I used to have. I lived round the corner from the roastery when it first started and used to buy Lost Highway 5kg at a time for wholesale prices. Back then it was a really solid, fairy dark PNG.

Still very much a roaster to explore though.

Frothbewithyou

So because I’m enjoying this so much I thought I would include small updates and ‘highlights’ so far.

I have updated my list too in case this is viewed long into the future. Tried so far;

Rave - multiple types
Origin
Lost Sheep
Clumsy Goat
Caravan Roastery
Assembly
Kiss the Hippo - multiple types
Bella Barista (free sample)
Foundry
Carrington Co
New Ground
ManCoCo
Northstar
Coffee by the casuals
Blackcat

Obviously taste is completely subjective and I want to preface anything that so far all of the roasteries tried have been worth recommendations.

So far highlights have been the following:

Coffee by the Casuals - Kenyan Mikhari AA has been delicious as a long black, inverted aeropress and a milk drink. Such a rich body and flavour profile. I can imagine this makes an exceptional espresso.

My personal rankings so far in no particular order.

Kiss the Hippo - Los Vasco’s, Honduras Nancy, El Change as well as a couple of acclaimed.

Coffee by the Casuals - Kenya Mikhari AA

Origin - Resolute, Wa Choo (both types), San Fermin (many more now out of season)

Decaf
Rave
Foundry

Final thoughts
Kiss the Hippo still sits at the top for me and I’m not surprised to see it nominated as a top roastery at the London Coffee festival, along with alot of the ones already tried.

Hopefully people enjoy this and Blackcat, Carrington Co, New Ground and ManCoCo are in the tasting/workflow at the moment before finalising my opinion on them.