Guatemala Rio Dorado – Kaldi’s Coffee Company

I had the opportunity to first try this coffee at the Kaldi’s Roastery during a tasting session. We paired the coffee with the flavor notes found in it (apples, vanilla, caramel and chocolate) to see if we could better identify those flavors within the coffee. After that initial tasting, I brought a bag home to try the coffee a bit more thoroughly with a few different brew methods, including V60 and espresso.

Overall this was a quality Guatemalan coffee. One of its strongest attributes was how versatile it was between brew methods; I thought it held up equally well with pour over and espresso. It had a nice, subtle acidity that I think really did resemble that found in an apple as described on the bag. The flavors were balanced as well even though some of the flavor notes (specifically the milk chocolate) described on the bag weren’t present when I tasted it.

While this wasn’t the best coffee I’ve had from Kaldi’s, it was still a really high-quality coffee and one I will enjoy drinking in a variety of ways until the bag runs out.