West End Colombia and Guatemala Coffee Beans Review

A dear friend of mine gifted me a couple bags of coffee beans. I am always grateful for such gifts as I find it exciting to try out new beans from different roasters. In this case we have single origin Colombia and single origin Guatemala to try out and review. The beans were roasted by West End Coffee Roasters who are based in British Columbia, Canada.

Now, I am fairly amateur when it comes to describing how coffee tastes. In my experience any tasting notes that are present are quite faint. When I compare coffees I categorize them as: okay, good, excellent, or bad. For reference I think Tim Horton’s coffee is okay, and Starbucks (Medium Roast Pike Place Roast) is slightly better.

As an aside: if you like Starbucks’s latte you should try Caffé Misto. It uses brewed coffee instead of an espresso shot and it’s topped of with steamed milk just like a latte. More importantly it’s cheaper than a latte. It also happens to be how I like to make my own coffee at home.

Initial Impressions

Colombia

The beans have a faint, light, but pleasant smell. The light brown colour consistent with roast level.

The bag does not have a roast date, only a best before date. Furthermore, it has seven (way too many) tasting notes. To me these are red flags. But, it is quite detailed on the beans source. It has the region subspecies, harvest period, elevation, and process all written out.

When I hand grind it, the difficulty is consistent with medium roasts (dark roasts grind with ease, light roasts require some effort).

I typically make my coffee using an AeroPress, with 16 grams of freshly ground bean and 200 ml of filtered boiled water. I then top it off with 150 ml of frothed milk.

It tastes decent; it is okay. A little winey.

Guatemala

These beans also have a faint aroma that is different from the Colombia beans. Good colour, grinds like a medium roast should. No roast date and has six tasting notes. It has the region, subspecies, harvest period, and process written out.

After making my coffee the same way, it tastes good, but has a bit of a bitter after taste.

Blind Tasting

I think the only way to fairly judge these bean is by tasting them side by side, and compare them to the regular beans I brew with.

Procedure

To brew for tasting purposes I used the coffee cupping technique; I followed James Hoffman’s guide to tasting coffee. I got myself 3 identical cups and put a label underneath to track which coffee is which. To each cup I grounded 12 grams of beans. I then mixed the mugs around so I wouldn’t know which is which. I then poured 200 grams of freshly boiled water, and let it sit for 4 minutes.

Then I gave it a stir and removed the top crust.

Using a table spoon I tasted each brew, rinsing the spoon in water in between each taste.

I did all of this on two separate occasions.

Results

The coffee brewed from the Colombia beans was okay. In the first tasting it was quite acidic and it tasted worse then the commercial bean made coffee. However, in the second tasting session the Colombia bean made coffee fared better then the commercial brew.

Of of the three… Guatemala was the good one! Compared to the other two it was noticeably sweeter (as advertised) and less acidic.

Credits

Written by Val Efimov, published on May 31, 2024.