Occasionally I get caught up in the grasp of coffee-buying apathy. Invariably when this happens we end up running out of coffee, necessitating an urgent run to somewhere, anywhere to get coffee.

As result, two of the more recent coffees I’ve been drinking were Trader Joe’s Costa Rica Tarrazu (accessible and satisfactory, if not wholly enjoyable) and this bag of Starbucks’ Mexican Chiapas. While getting coffee at work one day, and knowing that I was buying a cup of Starbucks because we didn’t have any coffee at home for me to bring into the office, I saw this bag of one of their specialty coffees and decided to give it a roll. It was a double-bonus that it was from the same region as a Barrington coffee that I’d just finished.

This coffee is from the Chiapas region of Mexico, and was sourced from two specific farms, Santa Teresa and Guadalupe. The beans were grown at an elevation of 1000-1300 meters, and include the Catuai, Caturra, and Bourbon varietals. According to a post on their website, all of the coffee was grown under shade trees, though it doesn’t say this on the bag itself.

The most remarkable thing is the roast level of this coffee. Starbucks says that it’s their medium roast, and yet the beans are very dark and oily. To me, this looks like much more of a French roast, a level that carbonizes the bean to some extent, and releases more of the oils, creating a darker, sweeter cup of coffee. Dark roasts are, of course, typical of Starbucks approach to roasting, and is a style that really originated on the west coast with companies such as them and Peet’s. So I suppose that their’s is a subjective idea of a medium roast.

Contrast this to the approach that Barrington took with their Chiapas coffee. They used a City roast, and labeled it a “light roast” on the packaging. The beans are a light, milk-chocolate brown, with no oils coming through on any of them.

This is really a clash of two opposing coffee ideologies, the leveling approach as embodied in Starbucks’ dark roasts versus the embracing difference approach as captured in Barrington’s light roasts. But how does the difference play out in the cup?

Tasting Notes

The aromas in this coffee are very dark and roasty, with notes of molasses, toast, and vanilla bean. The palate is voluptuously smooth and soft with little acidity. There are flavors of hazelnuts, milk chocolate, vanilla wafers, toast, and a distant hint of black cherries. The finish is very dry and dark, with the flavors melding into a seamless, rather indistinct mash of molasses, nuts, and chocolate.

All in all, the flavors are okay, but lack much in the way of nuance. The overall impression was a melange of rich, dark, sweet flavors, and very smooth. It’s hard not to wonder what it would have been like at a lesser roast.

And here’s where the differences in Barrington’s approach play out relative to Starbucks. With Barrington’s lighter roast you get a much brighter cup of coffee, one that enables the nuances and layers in the coffee to shine. Starbucks’ approach leads to a more indistinctly, darkly flavored cup.

Is one better than the other? It’s really a question of preference, but if you like a coffee that is expressive of where it came from and what makes coffee from that place unique, then you should pick up the Barrington Coffee Chiapas. On the other hand, if you like heavily roasted coffees, then this one isn’t really much different than Starbucks’ other coffees, expect perhaps with less of a dark char flavor, and so I’d say give this one a roll.

I like drinking coffee. I enjoy the ritual of grinding the beans, boiling water, and filling the french press in the morning. Sitting at work with a cup of coffee on my desk, filling the office with its aroma, makes everything feel just a bit less stressful, deadlines less imminent. All in all, I love the role that coffee plays in my day.

And so my recent excursion into drinking tea in the morning has proven to be somewhat less than satisfying. I like tea, but it doesn’t give me the same level of enjoyment and satisfaction that coffee does. I feel more prepared for my day after having a cup of coffee in the morning, more full of life. After I drink tea in the morning, I may feel more calmly aware that my day is beginning. It’s a nice feeling, but not really what I’m looking for. Plus, I miss the smell of coffee when it’s not there in the morning. I may just not be an overall calm enough person.

It’s coffees like this one from Barrington Coffee Roasters that keep me coming back to the bean. Here is a coffee that is alive and full of flavor, while being graceful and lithe in the cup. It straddles the border between teas and coffees, in that it packs all of the flavor, body, and (let’s face it) caffeine of coffee, with the delicate flavors and subtle nuances that are the hallmark of great teas.

This specific coffee is from the Sierra Madre region of Chiapas in southern Mexico. It’s produced by the UDEPOM coffee cooperative, short for Union de Ejidos Profesor Otilio Montano. The cooperative consists of roughly 850 family-owned farms that range from 1 to 10 acres in size. The farms are situated in the mountains, with all of the beans grown between elevations of 4800-5400 feet. The varieties include Typica and Bourbon, and are washed before being sun-dried.

The beans are a light-to-medium roast. The nose has notes of orange rinds, cinnamon, cardamom, and milk chocolate, overall very enticing. The palate is lightly textured and supple with enough mellow acidity to brighten the flavors without distracting from them. The flavors are sweet , citrusy, and herbal. On the finish, a layer of acidity gently gives way to lingering flavors of vanilla and creme anglaise, much richer than the nose or palate might lead you to expect.

A very nice coffee, well-balanced in flavors, body, and acidity. I think Barrington once again hit the nail on the head with the roast for these beans. While I still tend to be a bigger fan of rich, ripe African coffees, the subtlety and delicacy of Latin American coffees is really beginning to grow on me.