chadkoh

For the past couple of years, some of my Fission comrades would get an Advent Calendar from Revolver Coffee in downtown Vancouver. Revolver is a pretty famous specialty coffee shop around these parts. Each year they gather together some interesting beans, package them up in little baggies, and ship them out as a mystery box. Now that we are back in Canada, this is year the first time I got to participate with the daily tasting with my friends. Here is what the box looks like:

I never used to drink coffee. I grew up straight edge but when I was 29 and climbing up the sides of ships with a typewriter strapped to my back, I learned to drink the absolute worst coffee as a way to pass the time with crews from India, the Philippines, and Ukraine. It wasn’t until I was a product developer in Kelowna with my pals Brent and Adrian that I actually learned how to appreciate a proper pourover, Aeropress, Chemex, etc. In those days we were roasting our own beans in the parking lot, shivering in the snow but casting the most wondrous smells over the neighbourhood and attracting all sorts of interesting people. Small batch coffee roasting is an amazing networking technique 😉

Anyways, back to the advent calendar. Although I have been a specialty coffee enthusiast for a long time, I have been pretty much non-discerning. I knew what I liked and didn’t like, but I didn’t know why. My favourite beans are Mocha Kadir from Yemen, but since the war it has been hard to get, so I usually go for Ethiopian beans. In my current neighbourhood is an Ethiopian coffee shop whose owner is from there and has all the farm contacts — a font of knowledge!

Anyways, back to the advent calendar again. The point is I have no idea what I am tasting. Each day was an adventure. I would brew in my normal pourover method, handwrite my impressions in the little accompanying notebook, share a sip with my wife to get her impression, and then type out my thoughts in a private thread on the old Fission Discord. Only then would I check the Revolver Advent Calendar website to find out what the coffee actually was, and how wrong I got the flavours.

And I do mean I got them wrong… like all the time. But it was fun to explore blindly with no real coaching. I would examine the size of the beans and consistency of the roast. Smell them before and after grinding, and during the pour. I noted the hardness of the beans during the grinding process, and how much chaff was in the grind. Over time I noted that smallish beans tended to be from Africa, and the big plump ones from Central and South America. Also, when there was lots of chaff in the grind, indicating dryness, this also tended to be for African beans. I would smell again after the pour, then sip a few times, swishing it around to determine the flavours. Some edited examples:

The pour was nice and chocolately. It kinda smelled nutty to me? When I drank it I got some tartness, acidity. Fruity flavours… Later when looking at the tasting notes they said Banana Pudding and Peach!

OMG Honeysuckle! Makes so much sense. I was casting around trying to figure out what that taste was: sweet? bitter? Spicy? But that sort of honeysuckle note put it together for me.

Wife was like “This tastes kinda like burnt soy sauce… me like!”

Wow that was an interesting smell and taste. Is that molasses? It is kinda sweet, but not fruity… but it did have some tang? What the hell is going on in my mouth? Why did I grow up in a small hillbilly mountain town on only THREE flavours: salt, Captain Crunch, and secondhand smoke.

There is something strange here… juicy… is it the honeysuckle again? Muscat? … tasting again… watermelon? Kinda cantaloupe or honeydew… there is definitely melons in here. Very smooth. I like. Maybe not for everyday, but for special occasions. [After the reveal:] OMFG I was right for once! It only took 23 tries!

This better not be candy cane dust 😦

This tastes like a marine’s a haircut: high & tight

One of my friends related some advice he once got from a pro: “A superior cup of coffee tastes good when it is hot, medium heat, and cold.” Interesting! Taking that advice I would not drink the freshly poured cup all at once, letting it cool and checking for consistency of taste.

The Revolver Advent Calendar was a great experience. Out of 24 cups I brewed 11 scored 4+ on the 5 point scale. And it was fun to learn how bad of a palate I have. 😅 I am really interested in doing a tasting course to try and refine my tongue. And now I have a lot of notes on the types of flavours and regions I tend to like.

Anyways, back to the advent calendar for the last time — no more digressions! Here are my top ranked coffees from the calendar (in order of day):

Day 12 DAK Milky Cake

Day 19: Duck-Rabbit Sumatra Kerinici

Day 21: Loquat Panama Pergamino

Day 23: Monogram Colombia Finca Milan

Let’s enjoy more good coffee in 2025!