Having had Alaska so early in the run of the project, I was certainly familiar with the idea that I would start researching a state and not have a lot of options to choose from. But it was a little surprising how relatively few roasters there seem to be in Connecticut. Nevertheless, I still found a nice-looking option that had the benefit of adding a new origin to my personal tally.
State #7: Connecticut
Shearwater Organic Coffee Roasters
Trumbull, CT
I will say, though I like the look of Shearwater's bags quite a bit, the labeling left a bit to be desired. I've certainly seen bags where the coffee type was just handwritten with a Sharpie (you can see an example of that back on the Arizona post), but having an actively incorrect label that was only partially covered was a bit of a miss. I assume they had pre-labeled the bag with the Ethiopia label and then hadn't turned out to need as many as they made, so they just repurposed some into bags for the DRC coffee - which is fine except that you end up with these incorrect tasting notes on the front, which I find a little problematic. The actual tasting notes for this, per the website, were "Creamy Chocolate, Lemon-Lime, and Cherry." This was fairly close to my actual experience with the coffee - there was a significant chocolate note, but a lot of what I tasted was a lime-like acidity. I didn't find the coffee to be hugely complex, and the body seemed a little flat on the palate, but the flavors were solid for a morning cup of coffee. I rated this one a 6, Above Average.
The Colombian offering was labeled in a similar fashion, but at least the tasting notes weren't as far off - on the website the specific coffee I ordered is described as tasting like "chocolate, brown sugar, and juicy raspberry." I did get some of the raspberry notes as the coffee cooled, but the acidity initially tasted more sharply citrus to me, kind of like a grapefruit. The bigger problem was that after the initial acid hit with that bit of fruitiness, I didn't taste a whole lot else. Notably, this coffee was described as combining four varietals - Castillo, Caturra, Tabi, and Typica. I did some research on this, and both Castillo and Tabi appear to be Colombian-specific varietals that were hybridized for their greater resistance to coffee leaf rust and pests. Although that's obviously beneficial, they were hybridized in part from Catimor, itself a hybrid with Robusta ancestry. Robusta is known for being a more resistant species, so this isn't surprising, but there are the expected trade-offs. Though the reportage differs a bit depending on who you ask, there is some question as to whether you get the same levels of flavor with some of these Robusta-derived varietals, especially at higher elevations where Arabica varietals really shine as they have the appropriate amount of time to fully develop their more complex flavors. Robusta beans do not have the genetic makeup to produce the same variety of flavors that Arabica beans do, and so if even some of that makes its way down to the hybrid offspring, it could well be that you're not getting beans that are really even capable of producing some of that depth of flavor that you expect out of really good Arabica. In any event, I rated this a 5 - Passable. It suffices for a morning cup but I would have liked to see more out of it.
It was probably inevitable that after rating the Verve and Color offerings a combined 17 points (and both were quite close to 18), I was going to have to deal with a dropoff from that. I should also note that it's arguably a little unfair to have asked Shearwater or anyone to follow that double act, but that's the way this project is organized. I don't want to be overly negative during the project unless I have a really good reason to be (which I hope I won't), so let me put a positive spin on the overall score of 11. I think if you're the sort of person who wants better coffee than what you'd get from Starbucks or a grocery store shelf, but you still drink it a little more casually, either of these coffees will certainly get you through the day. Neither is bad - I just found them less rich and complex, flavor-wise, than coffees that I would rate higher. And of course the usual caveats apply - this is one man's opinion, I am still just a novice when it comes to tasting, coffee can taste different to anyone depending on a wide variety of factors, and different people like different flavor profiles.
Anyway, next up is Delaware - another small state with only a handful of options. I've got probably a week's worth of Shearwater left to drink, so I'll make my Delaware order in the next few days; that post will then be ready by the end of the month at the latest. Getting some momentum going here!
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