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Top Ten Coffees of 2011

So its the video no one asked for and no one wanted. But you give me a few days off from work and stick me at home I will make something like this.

Its my top ten coffees of 2011. There were some rules. I could only choose a country once, it wasn’t just on the taste but a collection of feelings, relationships and god dam amazing coffees.

I think I’ve changed it 5 or six times since recording, so nothing should be taken too seriously, but was fun to put together.

Enjoy.

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10 Comments

  1. Geoff Glees 30 December, 2011 at 5:34 pm

    Great video Steve! My top ten:
    1. Alaska
    2. Bolinda
    3. El Bosque
    4. Limoncillo Pacamara Natural
    5. La Yerba
    6. Shakiso
    7. San Rafael
    8. Rwanda Kigoma Red Bourbon
    9. Los Milligros
    10. Finca De Licho

    (didn’t get around to Machacamarca this year!)

    Thanks and keep up the good work! Happy New Year

  2. Chris Carne 30 December, 2011 at 7:57 pm

    No doubt there were great coffees that I tried and forgot how great they were and many more that I never got around to trying but fwiw here’s my top ten.

    1. Nicaragua Limoncillo Pacamara Natural
    2. Ethiopia Shakiso Natural
    3. Honduras Finca Santa Marta Pacamara Lot 237
    4. Bolivia Finca Machacamarca De Berengula
    5. Costa Rica Las Lajas Perla Negra Natural Organic
    6. Kenya Mukui
    7. Mexico La Yerba Natural
    8. El Salvador La Ilusion Bourbon
    9. Malawi Mzimba Geisha
    10. Rwanda Kigoma Red Bourbon

    Here’s to more great coffee in 2012. Happy New Year

  3. Ernesto 30 December, 2011 at 10:34 pm

    We are very happy to see our Finca La Illusion in the first place in the top ten coffees this year, thanks for your beautiful comments to ours coffees, it was a great video in which we were watching it with my wife, were with frozen hands from start to finish and our hearts beating a mile a minute, was a feeling similar to the top ten COE coffees, thanks Steve for this great honor of being the best coffee of the year for you, we want to wish you have a Happy New Year we hope that you enjoy La Ilsuision coffee with your clients in this Christmas and see you soon.

    Regards

    Ernesto

  4. Colin Harmon 30 December, 2011 at 11:14 pm

    Hard to argue with any of that Steve. A stunning list and a great year for coffee. The second Yirg of the year was a stunner mind….

    p.s. Can we have tshirts with the top ten on the back? 😉

  5. Ben Miller 30 December, 2011 at 11:16 pm

    Congratulations, Ernesto. Number one in Steve’s top ten? That’s simply means you produce one of the best coffees in the world. Just keep doing what you’re doing 🙂

  6. Tibor Varady 30 December, 2011 at 11:40 pm

    Only been a Has Bean customer for a few months, but together with my fellow baristas I think we have a top two. It would be Shakiso and La Ilusion – not in a particular order.

    I would argue with you Steve about the acessibility of Shakiso. Just today I was serving it, and everybody seemed to be into it, weather a tourist having such coffee for the first time (one lady was just stunned), to more geeky cupping-champ types. Shakiso to me is a very reliable coffee, low stress for the barista. In fact, brace yourself, but Shakiso is great even in a mokka pot. 🙂

    Similar feelings with la Ilusion. Accesible, elegant, and exciting at the same time. Takes you from a known spot (“yes, this tastes like great coffee”) to a new place (“but what is this, wow!”) So I’ll take this nice opportunity to thank you Ernesto for the lovely coffee, one we’ll keep having.

    Other notables were Kicker on the blend front (not surprisigly), and two doubleshots of Herbazu which were still the sweetest shots I ever tasted. Couldn’t repeat, then ran out, so it’s a bit of a Yeti feeling – was it real?

    Re: Colin’s top 10 idea: a band-on-world-tour type of shirt could be nice, with dates and coffees listed.

  7. Luis Rodriguez 30 December, 2011 at 11:52 pm

    So great to see La Ilusion and El Salvador again in the top position! Thanks Steve for working so hard and encourage producers to grow the best beans possible… We will do our best to make the 2012 list with San José! I hope all your customers enjoy and sweep every Salvadoran bean you have!…Cheers!

  8. Has Bean steve 30 December, 2011 at 11:55 pm

    Luis you were the reason the rule one coffee from on country came in, San jose Elephante is the coffee that suffered from the new rule, but was also the reason. The red and the orange could and would have been in my top ten of this year.

    You guys do the best (the best) job in coffee, and would have been my number two/ joint first. El Salvador rocks so much

  9. Chris Woodford 4 January, 2012 at 6:40 pm

    And well done to you Steve for hunting down all this excellent coffee.

    My top five probably went something like this:
    1. Bolivia: Loayza
    2. Bolivia: Machacamarca
    3. Colombia: Heliconias
    4. Guatemala: El Bosque
    5. Costa Rica: Finca de Licho

    I will be *eagerly* anticipating this Colombia-fest you mentioned. And I hope there’s much more Bolivia to come too, as I’m sure everyone does.

    Have a great year!

  10. Stephen Leighton 4 January, 2012 at 11:14 pm

    Chris one thing for sure is Bolivia and Colombia will be huge in the next two months

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