theReviewGuys

Stopped by Moschetti Espresso the other Saturday during the free tasting, and after hanging out for a while talking politics and sampling a variety of fresh roasted coffees, I chose three to blend at home for my daily shots of espresso.

I got Brazil for the base. You’ll find Brazil in most coffee blends since it is mellow, tasty and tends to compliment most other expensive or exotic tasting coffee beans. I also got a really nice batch of Ethiopian with it’s telltale aroma and flavors of blue berry. It wasn’t the blueberry bomb of a couple years ago, but it is still a clean and fruity smelling and tasting coffee. I love the stuff. The third bean I came home with was the Burundi.

The Burundi is a huge, aggressive coffee with an earthy base, a towering sweetness, and for several days it had an intense aroma of almonds.

I fiddled around for several days blending. Starting at 1:1:1 ratio of each I found the Burundi to be too aggressive as espresso. It overpowered the Ethiopian and Brazil. I kept decreasing the amount of Burundi and increasing the amount of Ethiopian.

In the end I preferred 4:4:1 of Brazil to Ethiopian to Burundi. At this ratio the sweet fruit of Ethiopian shown through, the Burundi added a very interesting layer of complexity and the Brazil just held it all together.

Big thanks to Fabrice Moschetti for the freshest coffee in the Bay Area.

Several years ago I visited Fabrice Moschetti at his place of business in Vallejo, CA (an ex-military town in the SFBay Area). Fabrice roasts coffee.

It was the beginning of a journey where I started to learn about various coffees from around the world, and a bit about roasting and a little about blending varieties of coffee beans to get well rounded flavors or even a distinct flavor profile.

Moschetti Mistral Espresso (medium roast) was the first Moschetti blend I tasted on that Saturday afternoon. I recall being amazed that the shots of espresso that Fabrice pulled for me did not have that funky, bitter, burned flavor that I’d experienced so often before at cafes from one end of the country to the other. Those experiences made me think that all espresso was funky, bitter, and burned. But this first shot from Fabrice was absolutely amazing. It was sweet, mellow, complex, and tasted of chocolate, and had hints of fruit. Whoa! I was transformed.

Since then I’ve come to realize that all those bad shots of espresso I’d gotten from Peet’s, Starbucks, and countless other cafe’s were inferior, and suffered from lack of good coffee, poor roasting and just as importantly understanding of proper technique of pulling shots.

I then discovered Blue Bottle in San Francisco, and found one more place I could go to get a decent shot of espresso. Blue Bottle is a highfalutin, look down their nose sort of roaster, and cafe. But I think they have good reason to look down their nose compared to most of the roaster and cafes in the country. They, just like Fabrice take extra care in selecting the coffees they want to roast, and how they blend them, and how they roast. And the Baristas understand the technique of proper espresso, and at times the shots they pull are just short of, “an Angel pissing on my tongue”. And both Fabrice and Blue Bottle understand that fresh is best when it comes to coffee.

And now I’ve gone full circle. Back to tasting Moschetti Mistral after so many adventures with Bali Kintamani, Ethiopian, Kona, Panama, Kenyan, Brazil, Guatemala etc. Single source coffees made me drunk with desire, and I started to avoid blends. But after a couple pounds of Moschetti Mistral, I’ve come full circle, and I’m back to blends. It’s so mellow, chocolatey, with subtle hints of sweet fruit, and complex. I’m back.

Visit Fabrice and his crew for an Open House and Coffee Tasting on most Saturdays from 9am to 1pm. It’s free, and you are likely to find local Honey being sold, organic burgers, live music etc. The line up varies from week to week.

I’m a lucky man. Went over to Moschetti’s yesterday and Fabrice’s right hand man, Mario, let me bury my nose and taste the latest fresh roast coffee (crunch those beans). I ended up with four pounds of amazing beans. Panama Finca La Florentina, Kenya Peaberry, and one more bean that escapes me.

This morning I’m pulling shots and happy as a clam, and then on the 7th shot, before it’s done I know it’s a good one. GOD Shot! Pure essence of coffee, port like intensity, dense, so complex I can’t describe every flavor I discover. Sweet and lingering goodness.

And it holds up very well in our typical giant latte. I’m wired.

Stopped by to visit Fabrice Moschetti hoping to catch him roasting a new delicious batch of fresh coffee at the only Vallejo Coffee Roasting company. Saturday is the open house for free coffee tasting. He always has a dozen or more freshing roasted and brewed coffees to sample. Many Saturday mornings, you will find live music, and a crowd of folks hankering for a couple pounds of Fresh Vallejo Coffee to take home with them. The coffee is excellent and the Saturday morning specials are nice on the wallet. Why go to Safeway or Raley’s for old stale coffee that’s been sitting on the shelf for weeks or months, when you can stop by Moschetti and get a pound or more of your favorite bean and roast. Want a blend for your espresso machine? Or a single origin organic coffee for your press pot or drip machine? You’ve found your supply.

Vallejo is in the North East San Francisco Bay and is called by some, the gateway to Napa, Sonoma and the Sacramento Vallejo. For me it was the final frontier in affordable housing in the SFBay area. It was affordable because of the big crash that came after the Navy left Mare Island Shipyard. You got a lot more for a lot less than more desirable areas such as Berkeley, Marin etc. Who would have thought we’d get a top notch coffee roaster in Vallejo to boot.

Fabrice and I talked politics and shop for a while as I sampled some new coffees he’d just roasted that day. There were two new Ethiopians, including a Harrar that had an amazing aroma. Fabrice’s right hand man Mario opened a bag for me and the fragrance of blueberries/cherries just about knocked me over. And it was a lighter roast like I prefer for espresso.

Had it the next morning for a couple of extraordinary shots. The first shot was a bit over extracted but it filled the kitchen with an intense bouquet. The flavor was super concentrated sweet blueberry / cherry with what I think was a hint of ripe fig, finishing with a lovely milk chocolate richness.

Amazing coffee, perfectly roasted.

Went by Fabrice Moschetti’s NorCal Coffee Roasting Business on Saturday and got to shoot the breeze with Fabrice, and taste some coffee, and get to see the new Bunn Trifecta machine he just got.

Up first was the coffee. Fabrice must have had ten or more variety of coffees to taste. I started with his 100% Kona which was it’s characteristic smooth chocolately flavor, and I followed with a taste of Yirgacheffe. This is the blue berry bomb. For some reason I tasted the fruitiness but not the blueberry. Could be my taste buds were tired. Anywho, went on to taste a few other coffees.

Then Fabrice showed me his new Bunn Trifecta, a high-tech single-cup coffee machine. It’s essentially a programmable French Press with three modes: preinfusion, turbulence and press-out. Very, interesting machine.

It was fun to watch and the Yirgacheffe I tried was delicious. It had that typical French Press, cloudiness, and richness. I then had a cup of Kenyan, that absolutely blew me away with the rich complex flavor. I fell in love with the Kenyan.

Then Fabrice said I should then re-try the Yirgacheffe, I did and once again I was blown away. The Blue Berry Bomb returned in all it’s glory, only this time it was a simple cup of coffee rather than an espresso. It’s as though the Kenyan reset my taste buds.

Wow. Now I wish I’d bought a couple bags of Kenyan Coffee, and a couple bags of Yirgacheffe to get me through the week with the most incredible coffee flavors ever.

What a marvelous visit. Do yourself a favor, if you love coffee, then go by Moschetti’s for the Freshest and Tastiest Coffee in Northern California. Moschetti has free coffee tastings most Saturdays from 9-1pm. You can also buy Fresh Slow Roasted Gourmet Coffee Online. I’m a huge fan.