Pour-over the Black Gold and get out of the Cold

Siberia on a hot summer day!

 I was raised on the same coffee you were. It was from the grocery store, it was cheap, and it pretty much had one purpose: to wake-you-up & punch-you-in-the-face. Any thought or hope of flavour, or dare I say; character, was solemnly devoid. This was how it was and you didn't ask questions. I'm talkin' communist Russia-style shades of grey with a few highlights of more grey.

Then I had my first pour-over. Not a Ronald Regan/cowboy kinda battery-acid, more of a Jimmy Carter "the Cuban-loving skinny-guy still trying to make a difference brew."

Light, delicate, and understated. Coffee? Coffee is suppose to be a black tar-sludge with a prize under the rim isn't it? Remember: everything in it's right place.

As part of my continuing "coffee canadiana" rehabilitation, when I find a joe that tingles my taste buds, I breath in, I blink slowly, and smile deeply. I reach down between my legs and ease the seat back... no no, not Panama... El Salvador! Just a couple of rogue states away but close. Last week I was in love with our popular Guatemalan pour-over, this week, I'm dancing in Siberia. Stay with me...

El Salvador IS Siberia. Have I been reading one too many Tom Robbins books. Perhaps, but one thing he does well is connect the unconnectable.

Enter Detour Coffee Roasters, stage left:

Finca Siberia (the roast in question) has been farmed since 1870, when Fabio Morán and Etifanio Silva decided to settle on this hostile territory, sowing coffee trees on one of the highest cultivable areas of the Apaneca-Ilamatepec Mountain Range. They named their 28 hectares of land ‘Siberia’, inspired by its unpredictable weather conditions and remote location.

Siberia lies at around 1450m, where its 28 hectares of coffee trees are sheltered from the sun and strong winds by numerous native trees. It's planted out with a mix of bourbon and pacamara varietal trees. The lot we have for pour-overs takes on notes of brown sugar, tangerine and honeysuckle. Yum.

Is this blog done yet?

More on the Silvas... ok: The Silvas are committed to protecting their local environment and have accumulated a vast collection of earthworms, which they use to produce completely organic fertilizer from the leftover coffee pulp. Their coffee is hand picked, sun-dried and hand selected to guarantee quality, a process which provides work for some 24 local families.

My advice: give the pour-over a go. It's a great way to experience the subtleness of coffee. Black is the way to go for this. The bitterness you imagine only exists in the Siberia in your head.