Roast Review: Pueblo 57 Light and Medium Dark Roast
Roast Review brought you you by Sheila and James.
Well here we are again, sitting down with our trusty Pipamoka to sample the wares from Pueblo 57. This sustainable coffee roaster — which you may recall from Beth and George's prior showing with the Nanopresso— is well known for sourcing extremely fresh beans straight from Colombia’s Valle de Cauca coffee region. Their boast of premium Colombian coffee had us all excited to taste the java these beans would produce. We already knew that Pueblo’s beans work very well with our portable handheld espresso machines ... but what kind of coffee would they help to serve up?
We sat down with a full crew this time around, at an impromptu (and socially distanced) welcome party for our new dog, Buckwheat. James and Sheila were joined again by Sheila’s cousin Evan (who you may recall from our last roast review with Death Wish Coffee)
We were here not only to celebrate Buckwheat, but also to see if our tasters would be able to tell the difference between the light roast and medium-dark roast that Pueblo had sent us. James loaded the ground coffee from the light roast into our Pipamoka, and started us off. As he twisted the Pipamoka’s screw-top brewer upwards, the air in Evan’s backyard grew redolent with the scent of great earthiness. Indeed, as the light roast was poured into small testers’ cups, we all were surprised by how light in color the coffee was — even as it had appeared to be so dark and mysterious in the Pipamoka’s travel mug (and now decanter).
We all agreed that the light roast came across as light and floral, with one tester going so far as to say there were hints of wood at the end of the flavor profile. For the most part, though, the others agreed that this was a light roast, and Evan noted its fruity flavor; evidence of the beans from which this brew had been summoned!
Next up was the medium dark roast, and the differences between the two were immediately apparent. Even strictly within the confines of the Pipamoka, our testers could see that the coffee was considerably darker in appearance than the light roast had been. We passed out the tasting cups, and the testers all exclaimed with delight at the nutty, chocolatey smell; whereas there had been a hint of fruity bitterness to finish the light roast, the dark roast was significantly more mature in flavor, with nothing but smoothness being described by all who tasted it.
In both cases, Pueblo 57 has curated a wonderful selection of fresh beans for use with the Pipamoka. We found the morning’s tasting session to be a true delight; even with the threat of Covid-19 out there, there are few things more special than sharing your morning cup of coffee amongst responsible friends, and this proved no exception to that rule.