Blue Bottle Coffee
Espresso Temescal
Roaster Location: | Oakland, California |
Coffee Origin: | Costa Rica; Mexico; Ethiopia; Sumatra, Indonesia |
Roast Level: | Medium-Dark |
Agtron: | 41/52 |
Review Date: | September 2005 |
Aroma: | 8 |
Body: | 8 |
Flavor: | 8 |
Aftertaste: | 9 |
With Milk: | 9 |
Blind Assessment
Exceptionally complex espresso that maintains aromatic intrigue from aroma through a rather majestic finish in milk. Elegant aroma with deep-toned fruit and herb notes. In the small cup smooth in mouthfeel and medium-full in body, slightly sharp and acidy in structure but with a continued fruity complexity that reads persuasively as chocolate. Both co-cupper Ted Lingle (92) and Ken (90) were particularly impressed by this blend's performance in milk: lavishly fruity and chocolaty with a rich, clean finish. Blue Bottle's espressos were nominated by reader Christopher Losa.
Notes
Blue Bottle Coffee is the quintessential boutique coffee business: A micro roasting operation in Oakland housed inside a space about as large as a suburban walk-in closet and a single retail location in San Francisco. Despite, or perhaps because of, its small scale, and certainly owing to its fine coffees, Blue Bottle has attracted a strong following in the San Francisco Bay Area. Temescal is the name of the Oakland neighborhood where the Blue Bottle roasterie is located. Visit
Who Should Drink It
This espresso, simultaneously exotic and elegant, particularly impresses in milk.
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This review originally appeared in the September, 2005 tasting report: Nice Going: Readers' Choice Espressos