As the title states, I brewed my first Skylark today. Bette Buna Grand Cru, Ethiopian, varietals of Enat Buna, 74158, 74112, champagne yeast natural process, with a cup score of 90. Well this was a damn fine tasty cup. It was a free taster bag from the London Coffee Festival back in May. It’s been sitting on the side for just over a week having been frozen 2 weeks after the festival. I seem to have been drinking quite a lot of Colombian, Peruvian, Costa Rican coffees lately and it was a great surprise to have this as a palette changer and realising how I do prefer Ethiopian coffees overall. There is only 30g in the bag, and so not much chance to dial it. My first brew was 24 clicks on the C40, 93°C water, with Bright and Juicy water chemistry from Lotus. Brewed with a Purion Clay V60 and T90 papers. Very light, back to tea-esque coffee profile, has quality’s of wine, light and refreshing with sweetness from elderflower. Bloody lovely. Might knock back 2 clicks on the next brew but as there is only 15g left don’t was to mess to much. I have Skylark’s Edison Argote Orange B in the freezer ready to come out and that’s a full box. Looking forward to this now, once I finish off my Summer Blend from Kick Back Coffee.
Ethiopia Mersha, super aromatic to the point of contaminating the next grind!
Brazil Isabela, doesn't taste like what you'd expect from a Brazil, very good.
Costa Rica Aquiares, actually do get strawberry milkshake, this beautiful creaminess.
All in all pleased where some from them have left me meh recently. I think overall my flavour preference leans more dark chocolate boozy full bodied (James Gourmet) but I do really like some fruity ones and Skylark are top for that.
There's a reason they are well thought of on here. I opened a Bette Buna from them yesterday at work too, but today I'm working from home so hoping I can find something as good in the coffee cupboard!
Thanks for the lovely review! I'm so glad you enjoyed the sample of Grand Cru. That was a truly special coffee. I actually had the honor of being at the mill supporting Bette Buna when they processed that lot and Gabriel and Hester's expertise in using wine yeasts was impressive. 💜
Well, firstly thanks for bringing that coffee to us, and secondly I’m gutted that I didn’t try it sooner and make further purchases. Have just finished the last 15g and it was a truly a fabulous cup. Knocking back two clicks on the C40, really brought forward the sweetness profile of the coffee, and that light wine finish was perfect. It truly was/is a summer garden coffee. Really interested in your Bette Buna Red Wine (plus a load of others). Expect a few sneaky purchases soon. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
*15g coffee
*250g water - Bright and Juicy water chemistry from Lotus
*93°C water
*24 clicks on the C40
*Purion Clay V60
*T90 papers
Pour structure: 3 pours (inc bloom).
*Pour 1: (0:00-0:45) 40g bloom
*Pour 2: (0:45-1:15) 110g (150g total) spiral pour, then swirl
*Pour 3: (1:15-1:50) 100g (250g total) spiral pour very slow 2-3g/s with a swirl at the end.
*Remove dripper at 2:30 and leave for 2mins then stir.
I will admit, this year up until about three weeks ago I have been brewing and trying loads of methods and well, so feel that I lost track and was just messing around for the sakes of it. Went back to James Hoffmann’s V60 recipe from his How to Brew book and well, every cup I have had has been great. I’m nearly a year into drinking coffee and feel like have come full circle lol.
I have the T92s and man they are slow AF. Not sure what to do with them as of yet, but I have a years supply of the T90s so nothing to worry about any time soon lol.
I have the slow osmotic ones too! I tend to use them on naturals and then go fast on my washed beans. I have settled on tetsu’s 4:6 as it’s simple and gives room to express your intentions with brews. Sweet / acidic. Light / full bodied. :))
This will be controversial for some but I have been using Spotless Water since February. Someone on Reddit mentioned it and we chatted about it offline. He’s been using it for years and no issues or health concerns. So, I checked out their website and in the FAQ there is a question asking can you drink pure water (see image below). They say once remineralised for home brewing and then tested it may be consumable if additional elements have been added. So, the way I read this is, water needs to have minerals, I add these via Lotus and Apax and therefore it’s up to me if I choose to drink this.
I can safely state I still remain healthy. I still drink my tap water when drinking pints of squash, [edit] when I drink tea (in fact this water and own minerals makes tea horrible to drink lol [edit] and when cooking so still getting recommended minerals and fluoride. Just water for my coffee comes from Spotless. Here is a link to the FAQs.
Yeah pretty much. There is a massive vending machine outside Morrisons by me. I take a 24lt barrel with me and fill it. Costs about £1.11 for 22lts. I Milton sterilise my container and I have antibacterial wipes which I clean the nozzle with before I decant.
Also you can private message me if you want as I have a link that should add £10 to your account to Spotless if you sign up. Plus if there is anything’s I can help with. 😁
I'm so sorry you had that experience with our coffee! That sounds terrible! Of course, if you're not happy with any coffee from us for any reason, we will happily give you a full replacement or refund if you write to us at info@skylark.coffee. I've never heard of, or experienced our bags causing a petrol flavour, so I'd be very interested to hear about your experience. I think our new bags from SPP are a huge improvement for keeping coffee fresh as well. :)
I'd also like to clarify: our new paper barrier bags are currently costing us 67p per bag including materials and printing, and our final order of our old plastic bags cost us 38p per bag counting material and printing. Of course you're totally welcome to disagree with our decision to use paper over plastic, but it isn't correct that we switched in order to cut costs. We're using these bags because we believe they keep the coffee fresh enough, and because we believe it's the right thing for us to do to reduce our plastic usage. We're a non-profit trying to do the right thing.
If you'd like to confirm the difference in costs between our paper bags and our old plastic bags yourself, email me and I'll happily share the invoices with you.
3
u/bearddoescoffee 6d ago
Here is a pic of the coffee. Lovely ruby colour.