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Whew, what a long name to try to spit out.It is almost as if this coffee bean is trying to pose as one of those European Fellows with a paragraph for a name. As I delve further into the Coffee Roasting wold I am beginning to notice how specific and thorough the monikers of these beans are. It is quite different than depending on a name brand or some “blend” cooked up in a test kitchen. I feel like some juiced up wine enthusiast as I rattle of the various names of the beans I have obtained to various semi-interested friends. Sometimes the names are just to much of a twister for my coffee stained tongue. Such is the problem with the Nicaragua Limoncille Java Longberry Cultivar. My hands cramp up as I even try to type it, so lets just call it Longberry.

The Longberry bean lives up to its name. The beans are long and flat, shaped like little row boats. The beans were apparently cultivated from a mysterious experimental bean smuggled out of a coffee research facility. That is how the story goes anyway. I roasted them for 25 minutes, hearing the first crack around 13 and the second crack starting up around 20 when the cooling cycle kicked in. The big oblong beans came out a little darker than I had wanted, more French than Full City. The initial taste was nothing spectacular ; it was a bit chalky with slight chocolate undertones. I found it very ho-hum after cracking out on the Anohki for the past few days. It tasted much better out of my French Press the next day (I used my little single cup drip on the first day). I really did not detect any lemony undertones that the name “Limoncille” would suggest. Perhaps I had roasted it a bit too much. It did mix well with the remaining Anhoki beans making for a good night-cap cup.

I was not really sold on the Longberry. It did not have anything that would make me want to purchase it again. I will probably roast the next batch from the pound that I had bought at a shorter time to see if a city plus roast will bring out

Ok, three entries on one coffee might be going a bit overboard. But, seeing that the India Anohki costs about three times that of your typical coffee, I figured I might as well get my money’s worth. As I said in my previous post, I was starting to get worried that I will never again experience that initial slap to the head taste sensation that this coffee had originally given me. I was hoping that all I needed was “just a little patience”.

On the second morning I brewed myself up another pot using my good old French Press and poured it into a thermos to take to work. I was too apprehensive to taste it first thing in the morning, opting for a single cup of some Kenyan AA Peaberry that I just happened to have laying around. So, I waited until lunch to give this coffee another try. I poured some of the brew into a cup and leaned over to have a little sniff.It smelled right: a musty pungency with traces of berry. I raised the cup to my lips and took a sip…

Ahh, there it was.My old friend had come back to me and my fears had been put to rest. My palate once again picked up on the sharp pungent flavor that this coffee’s initial sip brings you followed by a nice blueberry mellow that sticks with you like an onion sandwich. It is a taste quite unlike any other coffee you will experience. The India Anohki is not something that should be served after dinner with guests, unless those guests happen to be coffee freaks. I finished off my cup and then poured another just too make sure. I felt good to once again taste the the Liberca experience.

As the days passed by, the coffee’s taste got better and better. I did my best to stretch it out and even experimented with several different blends. The strong character of this bean makes it a good blending bean (especially if you are looking to stretch your dollar.) The overall taste will still be there, if not a little diluted. All things said, the India Anohki has quickly become one of my favorite beans, and I recommend it strongly to anyone with the need to try something different.

Same day taste:

The roast was mostly light brown, but was a bit uneven with darker beans scattered throughout. Perhaps it was time for me to give my Nesco roaster a good thorough scrubbing ( Many parts of the Nesco professional Roaster are machine washable btw) I was so so excited to taste this coffee that I could not even wait for it to sit a day and brewed up a quick cup using my little Bodum single cup drip coffee maker. This ended up being a mistake. The taste was still undeveloped and I felt like I had just wasted 2 tablespoons of a precious resource. This is a coffee that needs to sit for a while in order for the true taste experience to come out. Silly me, for getting overly excited and trying to sneak a cup before the right time. I guess my taste buds were all revved up to experience that pungent tang that had knocked my socks off the first time that I had tried this coffee. I screwed the lid back on the old mason jar and counted down the hours before I would try it again.

The next morning I attempted to once again experience the Liberica. I had even brushed up a little on the history of this coffee bean grown in the mountains of India. The trees that the Anohki coffee beans derives from are nearly twenty feet tall and are traditionally harvested by men only. Anohki apparently means “unique”, something this coffee definitely is, and most of it is consumed locally leaving only small batches of it available to the outside world. (For a more in depth history you should check Sweet Maria’s home coffee roasting site.)

So, anyway the next mornings cup showed character yet it still was not quite there . I started to get worried that I had not roasted this initial batch for a long enough period of time. The beans did seem a tad bit too light. However, judging from that first knee buckling whiff I knew that I was in the right zone. Perhaps another day was all this bean needed before I got what I was looking for.

After the morning after cup was finished, another worry hit me. What if, I thought to myself,I had already become accustomed to the taste of this exotic coffee with such an unique taste? My palate is like an overly finicky cat, especially when it comes to coffee. It does not take me long to get used to a specific taste after I am introduced to it. Sometimes, I feel like a junky always seeking a new high. I began to fear that I would never again taste the India Anohki in all its pungent glory like I had two months ago.

Giddy, like some schoolboy, I rushed into my apartment holding my prize. I had just got back from picking up my latest purchase of raw coffee beans from Sweet Maria’s. I had once again splurged, plopping down 17.50 for a lb of the most intense coffee that I had come across so far: India Anohki. This coffee, grown on giant trees in the mountainous regions of India, presents a truly unique taste to the coffee palate. It is not for everyone, only those of us who a true nuts will fully appreciate the overpowering taste sensation that this coffee gives of.

As soon as I got it out of the plain brown paper bag that SweetMarias packages all of teir pick up orders in, I headed straight for my Nesco Coffee Roaster. I roasted it for a total of 24 minute, with 19 minutes of actual cooking time (The Nesco Professional roaster as a built in 5 min “cool down” mode ) I heard the first crack at around the 13 minute mark and the second cracks were just starting up when the Nesco shifted to the cooling cycle. As soon as the machine shut off I poured the newly roasted beans into a recycled spaghetti sauce jar to cool..

After about fifteen minutes I decided to sneak a sniff. The initial smell was strong blueberry with pungent undertones. My nostrils danced a little jig and things started to fizzle within the smell/pleasure centers of my brain. I actually got a little woozy as I took in the odor. My knees buckled and I was taken back to the first time I had tasted this coffee put the cap back onto the jar and put the beans away to rest.

I could not wait to get me a taste…