Detour Coffee - Guatemala Finca El Limonar

Recently Detour Coffee Roasters placed 5th at the 2011 Canadian Barista Championship.

Espresso profiled Guatemala from Detour.

Barista Geoff Woodly was pulling a version of the Finca El Limonar at  the competition. You can see the full results by clicking here.

I already posted a preview  of this coffee, which you should check out if you haven’t already.
Also, you can catch Detour on the twitter machine (@detourcoffee).

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So I received this coffee long before the Canadian Barista Championships, and before I saw Geoff place 5th. Again, prior engagements caused a delay in correlating and posting my results.

As per usual, I started with the usual baseline I use, 94 degrees Celsius, 19grams. Given this was a single origin coffee, I was expecting it to be more difficult to pinpoint the sweet-spot.
Here is some footage of one of the early shots of the El Limonar:

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This espresso seemed to work the best at 93 degrees Celsius. The dose seemed ideal around the 18.5 – 19.0 gram range, with a final liquid weight of 28-29 grams with a total shot length of 26-28 seconds. Keep reading for details.

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Straight Shot

Guatemala Finca El Limonar

This espresso seemed to be pulling a little hot on my baseline parameters,  but a quick drop down to 93 degrees Celsius I was getting some good results.
@ 93 degrees Celsius: chocolate, orange rind, lemon acidity, stone fruit (primarily red plum), subtle sweetness and faint anise.

Unfortunately, all of these elements weren’t dominate at once. I found slightly different parameters highlighted certain aspects. For instance – an 18.3 gram dose to 29 grams of espresso – produced chocolate and a certain tobacco element in the cup. Yet – a 19.0 gram dose to 28 grams of espresso – produced that chocolate plum and faint anise.

In Milk

Pulling 19.2 grams solid to 28.7 grams liquid and adding 116 grams of milk (~6oz total volume cappuccino), the dominate flavour was a milky chocolate. There were hints of toffee and this interesting tootsie-roll like thing happening. If parameters were really tight, you could get a little of that anise (which was responsible for the tootsie-roll play).

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Guatemala Finca El Limonar

Straight: notes of chocolate, lemon acidity and plum. It’s downfall was the one-noted-ness from the top of the cup, all the way to the bottom.  8/10

In Milk:  nice in milk, with milk chocolate and a toosie-roll chocolate/ anise play 9/10

Americano: faint notes of chocolate, lemon and lemon rind. Particularly straightforward, a little dull. 7/10

This had some interesting components, and I was surprised by the plum and anise. However, personally, I was disappointed by the one-noted-ness it produced in the cup. It was a little straight-forward and perhaps not one of the things I’d look for in a single origin espresso. Despite this, the Limonar earns a respectable… 88/ 100.

Of note, however, is Geoff’s 5th place finish at the Canadian Barista Championship. Evidently others found this interesting as a single origin espresso. Again, I found it lacking the complexity I look for in espresso.

Total 100 point score of 88/100.

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