Day 1: Sweet Bloom - Hambela
Sweet Bloom
About the Beans
| Roaster: | Sweet Bloom |
|---|---|
| Location: | Lakewood, CO |
| Instagram: | @sweetbloomcoffee |
| Region: | Guji, Ethiopia |
| Producers: | various small plot growers |
| Elevation: | 1970m-2241m |
| Process: | natural process |
| Varietal: | heirloom |
| Tasting Notes: | raspberry, yellow peach, milk chocolate |
| Price: | $23.50/10oz |
From Sweet Bloom Coffee:
This will be the last natural coffee from Ethiopia we share with you in 2025 and it’s pretty easy to argue we saved the best for last! Apart from our taste buds telling us so, this coffee also initially won top prize at the African Fine Coffee Association’s (AFCA) Taste of Harvest Competition this past spring! Not good enough? Well, we decided to submit this gem in the very recent Global Coffee Awards for the US and Canada and Hambela cleaned house with 3 gold medals, 1 silver, and 1 bronze in various filter and flat white (with regular dairy milk) categories, including top honors for the overall Flat White category! Sweet Bloom will now move on to compete in the global finals this coming spring…
Hambela is everything we’ve grown to love over the years about excellent natural processed coffees from Ethiopia – it is clean, full of ripe fruit, but the fermentation does not dominate – the beautiful terroir of Ethiopia still shines through! Fresh off the grind the aromatics are intense and intoxicating with ripe raspberry taking center stage. As a pour over, we are tasting everything from raspberry to ripe yellow peach, with a mid tone of silky milk chocolate. As espresso, incorporated with milk, the berry notes shine through upfront and then fade to sweet chocolate on the finish. No matter how you drink this coffee, it’s a winner! Enjoy!
The Story
I was traveling with the Van across the country to go out and work in California for a little bit when I discovered Sweet Bloom Coffee. Their cafe in Westminster, Colorado was close to my friend’s house so I gave it a shot. The shop was very well done and the coffee options were diverse. There was a little board with the available options. I chose a Mexican coffe and fell in love. I’ve been back several times and been to their roastery in Lakewood. It’s a cool company and when I mentioned it to several of my roaster friends, they were all familiar. Sweet Bloom has a strong positive reputation.
Very glad they got to be in the box this year and very excited that they are opening up the holiday with this coffee.
Reviews
Seth
Brew notes
- beans smell divine
- ground oddly uneven, like they shattered. Lots of fines and bigger chunks
- Grounds smell even better
- despite this, had a solid bloom even though I spritz my beans to knock down static and cut down on channeling for first pour
- Tons of fines immediately built up on the filter so it was a slow pour
- Coffee smells sooo enticing right now
Tasting notes:
Aroma after pouring into the cup was surprisingly muted from what I expected during grind and brew, however even piping hot it was smooth, clean and floral.
I got to experience it in three temperatures: first pour, close to brew of 94c (just as it was barely slurpable, maybe in the 70’s?), steady temp in my Ember at 55c, and cooled during a refill at likely in the 30’s.
Hot: very light, almost watery but not empty, a little bit bitter on the tip of my palate but otherwise nice for that first impression. So many recent coffee I’ve tried from Ethiopia are getting these harsh bitter notes after first pour
Medium: yeah, this is really good. I could drink this every day. I get this really special mix of bright fruit notes mixed with deep chocolate that works the way a Dandelion or Cho chocolate bar works - they blend and complement instead of fight. It makes me wish I had some saline solution prepared to put a drop or two in near the end to see if that opens these notes up even more, like they do in cocktails
Cool: wow, this was unexpected. Sometimes when I pour cooled coffee in and it reheats in the mug I get muddied notes. Instead, it actually accentuated the chocolate more without feeling silty. Totally unexpected after the fines situation at brew. As it reheated it continued to bring those flavors back and the fruity notes returned.
Overall, I think, for me at least, ideal temp would be a bit lower than my usual 55, maybe somewhere in the 48-50 area
Mike
Zack
Decided to go 1:1 this morning with this particular coffee. This coffee gives strong natural process vibes. I get the chocolate and I get the fruit, don’t know if I get the yellow peach, but I’m not sure what yellow peach really tastes like. Surprisingly, with milk it is also fantastic. This sweet bloom coffee definitely has a sweet profile, pun intended.
Honestly though, this coffee lives up the others I’ve had from this roaster!
