- Jun 25, 2026
- 142
- 13
I reviewed this coffee on another site several months ago and had a good experience with it. It's a medium roast, tasting notes "apricot, dried fruit, hazelnut". When I finally dialed it in I was able to get the apricot flavors quite strongly in the middle strata of my mug. I like apricot so that's a good thing!
Roast date September 29, 2026. Only 5 days ago. They are from Hillsborough, North Carolina. I am in Winston-Salem, only 2 hours away, so this is local. It was surprisingly cheap at Whole Foods with a Prime discount, only $7.69 for the 12 oz. bag. I don't know how they are managing that, but I got good coffee out of it last time.
This time I have several questions, like whether it is consistent. Also how fast it perishes in the bag. My notes from several months ago says it definitely aged quickly in its bag. The bag is a hard plastic type with a recloseable plastic zipper. I don't think much of either this bag material or zippers. Zippers tend to fail either because they don't have good hold when dirtied, or user error. I try to avoid the latter but often when we need coffee, it's because we are fogged and uncoordinated. Or we get interrupted and don't pay as much picky attention as we usually do.
I am going to immediately put half of the coffee in carbon dioxide storage. The other half I'll leave in the bag, see how it brews, and how it ages. I'm hoping this will establish a "known good" reference for how coffee should taste when fresh and brewed correctly. Then some weeks later, I will brew the half stored in carbon dioxide and see if it is equal.
I could swear that 95*C was necessary to extract the full apricot flavor, and that this was the major event that convinced me of the value of dropping the water temperature. But darned if I can find that event in my notes now. Nevertheless it's where I will start. I also think I settled on 80 clicks with my KINGgrinder hand grinder as the right coarseness. That's generally been true of a lot of coffees, so it is where I will begin.
The Cafe Feminino sales pitch is: "to end the cycle of poverty in coffee growing lands by giving women farmers decision-making power over the coffee they grow." Good cause if it is working out. How does that square with the very cheap price?
Roast date September 29, 2026. Only 5 days ago. They are from Hillsborough, North Carolina. I am in Winston-Salem, only 2 hours away, so this is local. It was surprisingly cheap at Whole Foods with a Prime discount, only $7.69 for the 12 oz. bag. I don't know how they are managing that, but I got good coffee out of it last time.
This time I have several questions, like whether it is consistent. Also how fast it perishes in the bag. My notes from several months ago says it definitely aged quickly in its bag. The bag is a hard plastic type with a recloseable plastic zipper. I don't think much of either this bag material or zippers. Zippers tend to fail either because they don't have good hold when dirtied, or user error. I try to avoid the latter but often when we need coffee, it's because we are fogged and uncoordinated. Or we get interrupted and don't pay as much picky attention as we usually do.
I am going to immediately put half of the coffee in carbon dioxide storage. The other half I'll leave in the bag, see how it brews, and how it ages. I'm hoping this will establish a "known good" reference for how coffee should taste when fresh and brewed correctly. Then some weeks later, I will brew the half stored in carbon dioxide and see if it is equal.
I could swear that 95*C was necessary to extract the full apricot flavor, and that this was the major event that convinced me of the value of dropping the water temperature. But darned if I can find that event in my notes now. Nevertheless it's where I will start. I also think I settled on 80 clicks with my KINGgrinder hand grinder as the right coarseness. That's generally been true of a lot of coffees, so it is where I will begin.
The Cafe Feminino sales pitch is: "to end the cycle of poverty in coffee growing lands by giving women farmers decision-making power over the coffee they grow." Good cause if it is working out. How does that square with the very cheap price?
