Coffee Review – Elemental Coffee Roasters - Vaquero

Since I’ve already written a rave review of Elemental Coffee Roasters where I wrote about the location and the drinks they prepare on the spot, I thought I might as well write a review of one of their coffee’s which I’ve bought a number of times. I first bought Vaquero at Crescent Market; this was right after I moved to Oklahoma City and I didn’t know anything about the coffee scene or who/what were the local roasters. Since then, I’ve bought it a few times, mostly directly from their café downtown, but I’ve actually also had this coffee at a nearby restaurant (Ludivine) which offers in a French press.

The Vaquero is, like all the rest of their coffees (I believe) fair trade and organic. This particular coffee is an Ethiopian Harrar (this is from their bag) and is actually a blend of small producers which belong to co-operative.

The coffee has a wonderful rich, chocolate like flavor and I love making it in my French press. I have yet to have a good experience making it in my stovetop espresso maker, but in that case it’s probably my grinder, my stovetop maker and myself to blame far more than the coffee. I look forward to trying to make this coffee on a stovetop machine in the future when I get a more well-made stovetop espresso maker like a Bialetti.

I’ve also made this coffee in my Clever dripper a dozen times or so, but I have to say that while yes the addition of a filter does make it taste “clean” and “light” I’m not sure that it’s a worthwhile tradeoff in this case. I think this coffee tastes best when you use a nice high dose, when I make it in my press I use a gram or two more than what I would usually use but steep it a little less. In this way I get, in my opinion, a richer earthier flavor without any of the bitterness I’d get if I didn’t adjust the steeping time.

When I was at the café last weekend I picked up a pound of a micro-lot. I’m really looking forward to trying it out and promise I’ll write up the review once I’ve had some experience with it. It better be good though, considering they charged me like 24 bucks for it!