Disappointment with Stumptown’s Ethiopian Wondo

This morning I had a disappointment. After pulling a glorious double of Intelligentsia’s Classic Black Cat, I decided to bust out the Aeropress and break into a new bag of Stumptown’s Ethiopian Wondo. The Ethiopian Wondo is a washed coffee from Yirgacheffe, the birth place of coffee. It tastes great as a single origin espresso or as drip. When used for drip, it often times is characterized as having tea-like qualities. It’s delicious.

Today, i brewed some using my Aeropress. Water temp was 195F via a K-type thermocouple, and I used a fine grid somewhere between an auto-drip and espresso. Dosage was two scoop fulls (didn’t weigh it this morning, but found this amount to be ideal with Intelligentsia’s Ethiopian Yirgacheffe). I poured the water in, stirred for 10sec, let it sit for 10sec, and then pressed for 10 secs. It was a bit flat in the cup and had a slightly burnt flavor. As it cooled however, some citrus notes were there. I was disappointed to say the least. My wife immediately noticed it in her cup as well and commented.

I have yet to make up my mind whether to alter the variables – is it grind size and/or amount, water temp, brew time? Was it due to the two week old roast date? – or just maybe, just maybe this is one for the chemex pot. I find Stumptown coffee on a whole to be delicious and I’m gonna chalk this one up to an off day. I think I’ll try it in the chemex tomorrow.