Similarly to Connecticut, Delaware - obviously one of our smaller states, both in terms of size (49th) and population (45th) - did not have a lot of options when I went searching for roasters. But as I've said, in the end that at least makes the decision easier! Brandywine Roasters out of Wilmington won me over with their variety of offerings and interesting packaging (with designs done by a local artist, Todd Purse), and just for good measure amused me by including a little plastic dinosaur toy in the mailer. (Two days later I got a text from my wife asking me what was the deal with the toy dinosaur on the counter.)
State #8: Delaware
Brandywine Coffee Roasters
Wilmington, DE
After having a good experience with Peruvian coffee from Colorado, I decided to try another option from that origin - although this one is from the Amazonas region in northern Peru, whereas the other one was from around Cusco in southern Peru. But no matter. There were some similarities - I picked out some chocolate notes in this one as well - but also some notable differences. The acidity here, which hit with peachy flavor, was a bit more prominent, and more resembled fresh fruit than the dried-fruit raisin acidity of the Cusco. This mix included Caturra in addition to Bourbon and Typica; I haven't had a lot of coffees with Caturra in the blend recently but looking over my notes it seems like I often associate a fruity sweetness with Caturra, so perhaps that at least partly accounts for the greater impact of the fruit flavors. In any event, I found this to be a pretty bright and drinkable coffee. The body was maybe a bit light - I don't have a problem with light-bodied coffees but with this mix of flavor notes I might usually expect a little more heft on the palate. I ultimately decided to rate this a 7, or Good.
Aside from the first time I tried Geisha, this was my first Panamanian coffee since November 2018 (that one was also a honey process). There was a fair amount going on in this one - a real pop of berry acidity, easing into fruity and herbal notes. It also morphed quite a bit during the drinking process as far as what I picked up - sometimes it would be berries, sometimes licorice and basil, and as I got near the bottom of the cup it smoothed into a sort of candy apple sweetness. The astringency was moderate which isn't my favorite thing, but I do appreciate a complexity of flavors - although a little bit less so with some of those vegetal notes that made me think of basil. Still, the overall experience was positive and I went with a 7, Good, for this one as well.
This is actually the first time in this project I've given both coffees from a roaster the same rating, which is a little surprising. It's usually been the case that I like one more than the other, and given that these two coffees were fairly different I might have expected that to hold here as well. But I think both earned their 7 scores for different reasons - one was a little less complex but more approachable, while the other had a lot going on but had a couple flavor notes pop up to keep it from scoring higher. In any event, a total score of 14 actually makes Brandywine one of the highest-scoring roasters so far! But we are still in the single digits in states, so we'll see how long they hold that perch.
You might expect that we're going to Florida next, and we'll get to them soon enough - but next up I'm actually going to the District of Columbia. Yeah, it's not technically a state - yet - but it's got enough of a coffee culture to be worth including. No taxation without roast presentation!
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