deconstructing espresso

i'm sitting with the prospect of creating espresso by deconstructing it. today i thought i'd start with one of the best: intelligentsia's black cat espresso.

i began by reading everything google would fetch for me on black cat. mostly it's the novice's review here, intelligentsia's own one paragraph description there. basically i'm just trying to get some background and some hints as to components and proportions. from what i've been able to divine it is a blend of latin americans only--something i find very interesting indeed.

i cupped it out in both a couple of my new cupping bowls (shown left, courtesy of my buddy has bean steve) and via my aeropress, for reference and for slightly different accentuation.

the bowls created a really buttery, creamy chocolate base that showed a lavender or clove or licorice--i still can't decide--quality. something very floral or sweetly spicy, which i've often noticed in black cat before. as an aside, i've noticed those bowls really do butter up my coffees. the wide mouth flare must help create those notes, or at least put them more up front for display. i've cupped africans, centrals and even a sumatra in them and they all display more butter than i can remember noticing before. (steve?)

in the aeropress it displayed a little more of the cloves and licorice spice, but also a real roastiness...and not necessarily a good roastiness. it was almost too sharp. maybe that's a function of the centrals components without something with more body to balance it out.

i've read that the black cat was designed to work specifically with la marzocco machines at specific temps. maybe it can be more a matter of tweaking some of my serving temps--i don't have a la marzocco lying around, though.

anyways, more on this later as it unfolds. i mocked up some stuff i thought would replicate the black cat a little bit ago: tanzania/yirgacheffe for floral and cloves; sumatra for low end and some costa for sweet higher tones. the sumatra brought the whole thing noticeably lower and more chocolately, especially when i went back to the black cat. then i noticed the black cat seemed really tinny and sharp even as it displayed that characteristic licorice.

this is why i've always been a big proponent of cupping coffees next to other, very different, coffees. it really pulls together some perspectives from vastly different angles.

what do you think of black cat?

more later....