Its been a while since my last post on coffee and espresso but Intelligentsia came out with a new roast called Analog and I decided to go head to head with a staple, Gimme Coffee's Leftist blend from Ithaca, NY.
Both are the new smaller 12oz size that seems to have replaced the 16oz bag of the past. Everyone isn't following this because I got some Metropolis Red Line that was still in 1lb bags :)
Here are the beans both are very light roasts vs. Starbucks control, Leftist blend is even lighter than Analog Black Cat.
http://www.intelligentsiacoffee.com/product/coffee/analog-espresso/hb
http://gimme-coffee.myshopify.com/collections/frontpage/products/leftist-espresso-blend
Thoughts on Flavor and shot pulls Both Leftist and Analog are light roasts and as such have a strong fruit note and a lot of bitter front if not pulled at the right temp. I was steady at 95C, and the blends got better on the second shot as Brewtus always does, however, either blend never attained the smooth choco nutty flavor of the original Black cat, or Starbucks for that matter. Maybe 96C is in order for these. Also, since I had these only one day after roasting, there was way too much crema and the grind was ultra coarse not to mention the light tamp needed. The pulls were god like, globs of caramel and brown blurbing in a sinuous symmetrical line out of each side of the portafilter. If this was a bottomless filter i'd have seen brown mixing with light golden tones until it finally got blond and uniform at the end. Both were colored in a similar manner. Analog had a woody start and a nice dry red wine finish, Leftist a much more tart fruit start and finish with not much between them. I recommend both, however the packaging and smells coming from the intelligentsia blend had everyone who saw both (and another bag of Metropolis I kept out of the competition) thinking the black cat was from the coffee roasting heavens. Rich said the cat was just too strong for him. Steve and I agreed both were great but the fruit of the Leftist was better than the wine finish of the Analog.... that could all change with the correct extracting temp of the E61 head. 96C may be in order, possibly 97C? let me know. Jeff.
