||ESPRESSO|| Counter Culture Coffee - Twin Cities Express

Coffee: COUNTER CULTURE COFFEE – TWIN CITIES EXPRESS
Price: $15.50/12oz + Shipping = $1.61/oz
Year: February 2008
Blend: Lem Butler’s custom blend with coffees from Brazil, El Salvador, and Ethiopia
Roast: Full City, no surface oils
What they say: “Counter Culture barista Lem Butler used this custom espresso blend to win his second Southeast Regional Barista Competition in three years. Rich notes of caramel, toasted nuts, and citrus dance atop a smooth body and a sweet, berry-like aftertaste.” Read about it on their website

TASTING NOTES:
Scores - 87, 90, 88, 89, 89

Crema: Rich, dark brown crema with a toasted marshmallow flavor. More sweet than bitter

Aroma: Mostly sweet on the nose – almost floral. I also noticed a faint hint of fresh sawdust on the nose.

Body: Excellent body, very rich and smooth. I often consider how viscous an espresso feels in the mouth as a major determinant of body. It isn’t just the pull – some blends give a more syrupy character, and this is an amazing example of just how syrupy and rich an espresso can feel in your mouth. The initial sip is thick and rich, and the body never fades.

Milk: A very nice espresso to blend into milk drinks. I found myself consistently making some very interesting cappuccinos. The coffee flavor was not at all lost in milk, and the resulting
drink was very rich with flavors of cream and dark berries.

Profile & Flavors: Overall, this was a blend that I felt I was pulling fairly consistently by looking at the shots. Upon tasting, however, I found a wide variety in flavors. Some shots were very sweet, with orange and blackberry flavors predominating. Others I found a completely different profile, with brown sugar, butter, and nutty flavors. Yet others were a sort of complex medley that was difficult to define. Though the shots may have tasted different, they had one thing in common: they were all very rich, and all very delicious. I think not quite knowing what to expect out of each shot may very well have made me like this espresso even more. Overall, the most notable characteristic was the thick, rich body. The overall buttery, sugary backbone of the shots reminded me of dark nut brittle that hasn’t quite hardened.

Pairings: Come to think of it, some dark nut brittle would probably have been a great companion, though I cannot confirm this. I did find that the shot tasted great with dark chocolate pieces.

Buy Again? Yes, though I believe this blend was a limited time thing. Mr. Butler, if you come up with another espresso creation, I will certainly give it a go.