Brewing Wisdom was sent 6 varieties of Coffee provided by Blessed Bean Coffee for this review! Before we get any further into our review (the coffee was amazing btw!), we first would like to tell you a little about one of the companies we received coffee from.
. It’s always inspiring to see how coffee brings people together around the world:
“Kao Jai Coffee (pronounced cow j+eye) is a specialty, single-origin coffee harvested on a single farm in the mountains of northern Thailand. Our unique, specialty coffee beans have been carefully grown, harvested, and processed in the Chiang Rai province near the Myanmar/Laos border. Our story began in late 2013 when two co-founders were teaching at a boarding school in the city of Chiang Rai and were given the opportunity to harvest coffee alongside farmers in a nearby village. Being able to see the community, work with the farmers, and understand the process inspired the founders to find a way to better connect coffee farmers in Thailand with coffee lovers like you.
Kao Jai, a phrase in Thai meaning “to understand,” someone or something means that someone is completely knowledgeable and sympathetic to others’ unique stories. When you experience something first hand, it opens your eyes and heart to not only knowing others but understanding them. Kao Jai Coffee was founded to create different opportunities for people to transition from knowing to understanding.”
Check Out Their Websites for more information!
www.blessedbeancoffee.com
As we usually do, the method and equipment we used to brew the coffee in this review was uniform throughout all 6 samplings. The coffee we received was whole bean coffee which we ground to a “medium” grind in our JavaPresse hand grinder (it was cleaned throughout the review). We heated fresh, filtered water to 200 degrees Fahrenheit and utilized our Hario V60 Ceramic coffee dripper to slowly extract every bit of flavor we could. The results were what we hoped they would be: delicious and aromatically intoxicating! Freshly roasted coffee makes a HUGE difference!
The first 2 coffees of the 6 provided that we tried were the Kao Jai dark and medium roasts!
KAO JAI COFFEE – DARK VIENNA ROAST – DARK ROAST
Website Notes: “Our single-origin, specialty coffee has been hand-picked, naturally processed, and hand sorted on a small farm in Northern Thailand. All of our coffee was directly purchased from our farmers at a Farmer Satisfied Price, and we use a % of our proceeds to financially support service trips and projects throughout the United States.“
Origin: Chiang Rai, Thailand
Roast: Dark Vienna Roast
Tasting Notes: Pecan and Walnut Notes w/ Citrus Tones
This was the first of the six that we tried. It was a great way to get started! With this coffee being a very dark roast, the roasting process brought out the natural oils in the coffee that left the beans looking stunning. Honestly, every bean that we tried in this entire review screamed “FRESH”! This coffee had what we could only describe as a deep, earthy aroma from the time it was in the bag to brewed in the mug. What truly surprised us was the lack of bitterness to the coffee. A lot of dark roasts linger in a not-so-great way, but this roast did not. We have to agree with the taster’s notes that there was a definite nuttiness to the flavor. If you enjoy a dark roast, this coffee is a slam dunk.
KAO JAI COFFEE – MEDIUM CITY ROAST – MEDIUM ROAST
Website Notes: “Our single-origin, specialty coffee has been hand-picked, naturally processed, and hand sorted on a small farm in Northern Thailand. All of our coffee was directly purchased from our farmers at a Farmer Satisfied Price, and we use a % of our proceeds to financially support service trips and projects throughout the United States.“
Origin: Chiang Rai, Thailand
Roast: Medium City Roast
Tasting Notes: Citrus Flavor & Chocolate Finish
This was the 2nd Kao Jai coffee sent to us. Upon opening the bag, we were again struck with the beauty of the freshly roasted beans. It’s a simple pleasure in life to appreciate the effort it takes to get coffee beans grown on the other side of the world into your hands. On top of that, they smelled and looked incredible. Even before we realized the notes on the label of the bag, we opened it and one flavor stood out over the rest: chocolate! It wasn’t overpowering, but it complemented the coffee in a refreshing way. This coffee goes beautifully with dessert after dinner! Again, there wasn’t much acidity to the coffee and it was just slightly bitter.