Monday, October 12, 2009

Ecco at the Rail

Photo 'courtesy' of ConfusedBee

As anyone who’s ever had the pleasure to meet the man behind Ecco Caffe knows, Andrew Barnett is one heck of a guy and a top notch coffee man. We’ve always known we wanted to have ‘guest’ coffees come in and out of the shop and we always knew that we wanted Andrew’s to be the first to really get that slot. So this week at Third Rail we’ll be pulling shots of two of his espressos. We’re going to alternate somewhat but right now we’ve got a very special single origin espresso (another first for us):
La Maravilla from Guatemala.

This is a stunning coffee and a wonderful espresso. It's very clean and crisp, with a wonderful cherry hard-candy flavor, light chocolate notes in the foundation and a ton of juicy fruit, including nectarine, apricot, and sweet grape. It has incredible floral and fruit aromatics. The aftertaste is long lasting. This is one of those espressos where 75% of the pleasure comes after you drink it.

This espresso has a medium to light body and is gorgeous as a straight shot and very nice as a macchiato. This is not an espresso for people who like the “massive” or “intense” espressos (syrupy, hyper-concentrated), nor is it for people who drink milk drinks. But if you're in the market for something more delicate and layered and expressive, this might be your coffee.

…and then the Ecco Espresso is going to be on tap as well.

Gorgeous notes of bittersweet chocolate begin the cup. Vanilla and sugarcane transition seamlessly into a lingering caramel finish. This coffee exhibits a rounded acidity and silken mouth feel creating a classically balanced espresso.

Ecco Caffe's Espresso was designed to deliver an abundant, luscious, and syrupy crema that is perfect for cappuccinos and caffe lattes. When blended with steamed milk, notes of cocoa enhance its elegant caramel-toned soul.

…Andrew tells me this blend is currently made up of about 85% of the Cachoeira Yellow Bourbon and the rest is the Finca Maravilla.

Hope to see you there and just a heads up – we’ll only have it in this week!

PS: We have both of these available in 8 oz. bags