Stumptown Coffee Roasters Burundi Kinyovu
Here in Portland we’re very gastronomically blessed. Within a couple miles of where we’re living now, there are several breweries, three distilleries, a couple of restaurants specializing in house-made charcuterie, one specializing in selling and serving incredible local cheeses, and a chocolate maker. Not to mention the slew of good restaurants and food carts. Phew! Oh, and a couple of coffee roasters.
Actually, a plethora of coffee roasters is more like it. The number of coffee roasters is right up there with the number of breweries in town, and their range in terms of size can be just as dramatic. There are small micro-roasters who are roasting a pound at a time, just as there are small nano-breweries brewing 1-barrel (31-gallons) at a time. And the quality can be just as variable as well. Let’s face it, not all of the breweries brew good beer, and not all of the coffee roasters are roasting great coffee. But on the whole,… (read more)
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Renwood Sierra Foothills Barbera 2007
Renwood was a winery that I first encountered a long while ago, back when I was learning about wine a few years after starting college. At that time, I was pretty much a confirmed zinfanatic. My wine travails had been inspired by a bottle of Nalle Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel, and I was completely hooked. I’d tasted many other wines by then, but the intensity of the wine in the glass really blew me away. Nalle was one of only a few producers back then who focused on producing zinfandel, and so I used that as a starting point, and went from there to tasting a number of wines from other zinfanatically-inspired winemakers.
There weren’t too many such producers back then, and the names that I recall clearly include Nalle, Ravenswood, Rosenblum, Rafanelli, Ridge, and Renwood. The list hasn’t changed too dramatically since then either. Alongside these makers I’d now include a few others that I’ve learned… (read more)
Glen Scotia 17-Year SMWS Cask 93.37
At one point in time, Campbeltown was a hive of distilleries and whisky, with over 30 distilleries dotting its small landscape. Move forward just less than a century, and no area of Scotland has been hit as hard by the loss of distilleries, to the point that author Brian Townsend refers to it as the “Detroit of Scotch whisky” in Scotch Missed. Today, only 2 remain in Campbeltown, the well-known and highly-regarded Springbank, and the much lesser-known, and harder to find Glen Scotia. Whereas Springbank has expanded in recent years, upping their production and reviving long-lost brands Longrow and Hazelburn, Glen Scotia has struggled to stay alive. This distillery that once produced over 386,000 liters per year when Alfred Barnard visited in 1885 distills less than a third of that amount today.
Glen Scotia was established in 1833, and experienced a steady first century of operations before being mothballed from 1927-1935, then again from 1984-1989 and 1994-2000. It’s been… (read more)
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Ron Abuelo 7 Años
Rum is a spirit that most often leaves me feeling a bit let down. I usually have high hopes for them, and they only rarely deliver. I suppose the idea of rum simply intrigues more than the actual rums themselves. The Ron Santa Teresa 1796 was one that I was very pleasantly surprised by, and I’ve found others over time that have been enjoyable if not impressive. The Ron Abuelo joins company with the Santa Teresa, as one of the few that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed as a sipping rum.
Varela Hermanos, distillers of Ron Abuelo, was founded in Pesé, Panama as a sugar cane mill in 1908 by Don Jose Varela Blanco, and began distilling from their own sugar cane juice in 1936. The Ron Abuelo 7 Años brings together two different methods of rum-making. During the winter season (December through April), sugar cane juice is fermented and distilled, whereas in the warm, summer season, they use a blend… (read more)
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Terroir Coffee Co. Panama La Esmeralda Baru Lot 2010
Panama La Esmeralda. No other words in the world of coffee convey as much excitement or allure as these. Since it first took the coffee world by storm in 2004, the renown of the La Esmeralda coffee has steadily grown, and today it easily generates more excitement than any other coffee out there.
The farm was founded by Daniel and Price Peterson in the Boquete region of Panama, and for many years functioned as most coffee farms do – blending its various coffee varietals. But in 2004, the Petersons decided to take an alternate course, and separated out the Geisha varietal to submit to the annual Panama coffee competition. That year their coffee won the Best of Panama, and essentially the rest is history. They’ve since increased the number of acres devoted to the Geisha varietal, and continue to win awards.
This particular lot of coffee is from trees planted only four years ago in the Canas Verdes region…. (read more)
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