In an earlier post, I introduced you to the Narali bean that Matt Godard is selling over at Cafe Kubal. His connection with the grower is closer than what’s usually found between cafe owner and the source of the beans. Well, as promised, here’s what Matt has to say about it:
The bean is Narali, which is the same exact bean and crop as our Sitara, but it is sun dried instead of being washed. The word Narali means “different.” It is an entirely different species of bean than nearly all others commonly served. Unlike the commonly brewed arabica and for that matter nearly all other robustae, the robusta coffee grown in the Sethuraman Estate is round and smooth.
Robusta coffee beans have a tainted reputation as being an inferior species of coffee primarily because of the large centralized roasters that started to get big in the early 1970′s. They tended to exhaust the soil and over-harvest in areas of South America, especially in Brazil, where there were millions of coffee bushes being grown on land not even suitable for coffee.
All Robustae have the potential to be equal in quality to the Narali and the Sitara, if proper care is taken from seed to cup. It is a shame that through mass production at least one species of plant is devalued.
Here are the cupping notes:
Aroma : pear, berry
Taste : Georgia peaches, sundried
Body : full body, round
Aftertaste : tart, cocoa
Now some people are so nuts about great coffee that they’ll travel great distances to get some. Few can beat the distance Patty Roker came in March – all the way from the Bahamas. Sheila Weed had been kind enough to drop off a batch about a year ago when her cruise ship just happened to be stopped at the port near where Patty lives. This year, Patty came to Eastwood for the first time in twenty years, actually to visit family. But heck, why not pick up some more of that fine coffee? Sean Kirst was on hand to do a professional job of documenting the visit. We see him here with Patty and her brother, Bruce Fehlman:
So Matt handed a bag of beans to Patty and made one more person in the world very happy:
My husband HAS to have Cafe Kubal coffee each morning…first it was the Sitara and now it is the Narali. A bag of beans is his little splurge every couple of weeks. I can’t wait to try it someday (I’m currently expecting and plan to breastfeed, so no caffeine for a while!) Especially since I am the one to grind and brew each morning! Smells great!
Lillian, if you’re allowed the small amount of caffeine in a cup of decaf, you might want to try their Swiss water method decaf. It’s the only decaf I’ve ever had that doesn’t taste like it’s lost flavor along with the caffeine.