Brio Coffeeworks - Ethiopia Shakisso

Brio is the origin story of where my specialty coffee rabbit hole began. That is correct… it was here, at their roastery in Burlington VT, where I had a basic “drip coffee” that completely blew my mind. And it was from the growing nation that we are talking about here; Ethiopia! Though I think the beans comprising that fateful cup was produced in a different part of the country than Shakisso (Yirgacheffe, a classic), I still remember it tasting like straight up blueberry juice. It re-shaped my idea of what coffee could taste like.

Almost overnight, I was doing things like replacing the Keurig with a V60, the pre-ground coffee with fresh beans and a grinder, the coffee creamers with new filters; all to attempt to recreate the great taste I experienced that day.

And so that is how we arrive here today, with a new bean released by Brio. Since I follow them on social media, I found out (and ordered) almost immediately. Flavors on this one took some time to really hit my palate. At the start of almost every brew (regardless of method), I get mostly tea flavors (think those English Breakfast teabags you find in stores). It is quite a change of pace from the coffees I’ve consumed in recent history, but still nice. Not something I often go for these days, but it was not offensive to me at all.

I also noticed that the flavor, after cooling down a bit, became much sweeter. This prompted me to use lower water temps and, in my opinion, this really brought the best out of the beans. I was getting some sort of berry note. The bag, saying “raspberry” for a tasting note, was having me lean in that direction at first, but it lacked the tartness one would expect. To me, it was a more generalized berry flavor; delicous!

Overall, I guess the OG roaster is still challenging my idea of what “coffee” actually is with this one; it can be tea-like, it can be fruit-like, it can just be “diffrent.” So while not the juicy, acid bomb I have been sipping lately, Brio still shows why they will be a perennial favorite in this abode.

Stats tracked:

• Best Method: Origami Air S
• Key notes: tea, berry-esque
• Overall rating: 3.5

Photo Credit: Mike Kenneally