I do appreciate your fair-play entertaining of public demand that you review something which you know you're not a fan of, and your generous consideration of its differences. I totally agree, it's incredibly light bodied (and it's an extremely light roast), which is one of the main reasons I chose this green. It's by far one of the cleanest expressions of decaf I've ever tasted. I was also egged on by customers to start carrying decaf (it's a genre I generally dislike). I have found that I like to push my extractions very very hard with decafs, so it makes sense that you preferred the chemex. My main goal when profiling this bean was CLEAN and "not so decaffy tasting" 😂
Appreciate you taking it all in good stride as well. Clearly not an indictment on S&W as a whole as the reviews we have coming up will be a much better gage for that. Either way, appreciate the info and the feedback you've provided as well and stay tuned for those other coffees in the near future 😀
Thanks for this review! This decaf has gotten tons of praise but I really didn't enjoy it either and I actually drink primarily decaf, as in 12/14 cups per day are decaf. I've gone through tons of decaf and your review is spot on. This isn't the worst since it's so bland the disgusting decaf taste isn't as strong but def not the best since it's lacking in character as well. I actually came across your channel precisely to find a review of this coffee from someone who's well known to have had more experience with coffee. Will def subscribe. Thanks again!
@gc01480 thanks for watching, the feedback, kind words and support Grace. Plenty of familiarity reviewing coffees, but very little on the decaf side. Nice to hear our experiences mirroring that of someone that is far more familiar with this field of coffee. Appreciate your insight, cheers ☕️
Decaf is tough, you kind of have to commit all the way if you want anything like the experience you like from regular coffee including diving deep on brewing it, sourcing rare bags, storing/consuming them differently and it's still quite a flimsy thing. One thing I'd be curious to see you try is the lower caf varieties like Laurina, Aramosa and others as I am also looking forward to trying those myself.
That was a lot of the concern. We've worked through all sorts of coffees over the year but was completely stumped after three brews of this coffee on what direction to go. Even our best fell pretty short, just a lot of work for what seems like a low ceiling payoff. Have a slight bit of familiarity with Laurina and would be happy to revisit it. Know some high end roasters have also carried it so it's certainly something we'd explore in the future
even though from the first moment you knew that this is not going to be great, you still treated it the same as any other coffee. i was listening to this with a smile on my face and with great anticipation to the tasting wheel. despite the scores you treated this coffee with respect. i probably would have quite on this coffee early on. huge kudos to you!
To be honest, was actually ranting to my best friend about the frustration with having to brew this coffee 😅 but wanted to be as fair as possible, especially given how many people were looking forward to the review. Tried our best, hopefully we did it some justice
Hi Julian, Stevie here. Sorry I’ve been absent, trying to get atop my health and get situated. I was looking forward to this review. Didn’t get a chance to grab this one but ended up grabbing the September decaf option and have been enjoying it, though it has proven quite challenging to get a decent extraction. Thanks for sharing your thoughts here. Decaf isn’t for all but you are a good guy for deciding to give it a shot. Cheers
@StevieHamm hey Stevie, continuing to wish you the best on a healthy and speedy recovery. As you know, we'll also be releasing a review on September's decaf so it'll be a great chance to compare notes. Cheers ☕️
This is pretty close to my experience with this one. It’s pretty good for a decaf, but it’s not really comparable to a regular coffee. I did wind up going more with a 15:1 and a coarse grind, low temp. It helps improve the intensity.
Very very low on the extraction. At least we were headed in the right direction. With a lack of familiarity with decaf in general, it's hard to assess how it is comparatively, but that's seemingly the sentiment on decaf as a whole leading us to wonder how the rest of the decaf market is then. Really appreciate the feedback 👍
Very similar results unfortunately. Every once in a while I venture out to find a good decaf, and the only offering that I genuinely think is great is Quietly coffee’s decaf. That was the first decaf I could very fruity notes from, you should check it out!
It is unfortunate, but it sounds like there was a lot of this sentiment with this coffee. We are working on one more for the time being (September's Wilton Benitez) but it might be a bit before we return to this genre based off the results so far 😅😅
Good Morning! Thanks for the review! I experienced VERY similar things to you when it came to this coffee. Even down to the flavor profile in the Stagg XF and V60. Coarse was better, but it was very hard to brew most of the time, as it stalled easy and I noticed it was quite hard to extract. But overall, decent decaf when you get it right, but was quite clean as you described. Interested to see more decaf on your channel down the road! The hunt for a good one is difficult.
Appreciate the feedback Nick, and it's good to know that we weren't too far off on this one. When you mention it, you're right, one of the most difficult to brew coffees as well. Still working on at least one more decaf, but it's likely to be an overly regular occurrence 😅 cheers ☕️
I should further note that I'm using a Ode Gen 2 and a 1zepresso J MAX and had to really tinker a lot before I got something close to what I liked. Unsure if espresso would be better for this coffee. I attempted a shot or two out of my Cafelat Robot but couldn't retain enough heat to promote a good extraction. (I know the robot struggles with lighter roasted coffee's) I noticed I very often would get a sour cup across brew methods. But either way. Thanks, always, Julian!
Actually I pulled this as espresso and disagree. This other decaf bag from hunky dory was much better, prob more a medium light roast tho, slightly darker than this one, but still possessed a lot of brightness which I found lacking in this as an espresso.
Could absolutely see that. Fwiw, we dusted off the old aeropress in the hopes of it ramping this one up, but it didn't yield much better results unfortunately
I have had similarly underwhelming experience with V60 recipes. But found more success extracting flavor and body with this decaf when using the Tetsu Switch (God or Devil) recipe (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gC8K40kZ_6E.html). I'd be very interested in your thoughts if you give this recipe a try. I went with 8.6 clicks on a K-Ultra and 93C, dropping to 73C for the immersion, by the way. But one could go coarser still.
More than willing to give the recipe a try, but we actually don't own a Switch. Could perhaps try replicating something similar with the aeropress, but we also struggled a little utilizing that brew method for this coffee
@@CoffeeReviews Just brewed this in an Aeropress using this recipe: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Uw5nWy9NZxQ.htmlsi=eJmCOpDn8k772fJc I have to say it is disappointing and draws out more of the "decaf flavors" you referred to in your review. I recommend the Switch recipe referenced above. Out of curiosity, why have you held off on picking up and experimenting with a Switch?
Thanks for the feedback. Going to ramble out loud for a second: We don't really have a good reason for not picking up/experimenting with the Switch. Brewers have become so niche that we have an abundance of choices based off personal preference. In reality, the most logical thing would be for us to continue utilizing the V60 as our primary brew method, swap the chemex and April days for a kalita as the flat-bottom alternative and use the aeropress as our immersion brewer since those are the most common ones. Problem is that we've never been a big fan of the kalita and the slight shortcomings of an aeropress. We're certainly open to changes, but a lot of it will continue to depend on feedback to see if any of these brewers reaches a point where they replace their contemporary as the most commonly utilized brewer in their category.
@CoffeeReviews it's nice to have a brewer with an immersion capability. I used to use my Switch a lot but preheating that heavy glass cone became tiresome. My pulsar provides a good option when I have a coffee that doesn't shine in a V60 combining a flat bottom with immersion and percolation. Really good for 20 to 28 gram brews
