They arrived in sleek black packaging ready to take over our tastebuds. We did an impromptu cupping and then tried each as an espresso.
Two Norwegian coffee heavyweights, Tim Wendleboe and Stockfleths, had landed on our doorstep. We couldn't have been more excited. Oslo is one of the coffee culture capitals of the world so we had high hopes from these beans.
Stockfleths is one of the most prominent cafes in Oslo will mutiple locations dotted around the city. Their beans are roasted by
Solberg & Hansen, who are Norway’s largest speciality roaster. They pride themselves on Direct Trade and diversity of flavour, sourcing the best seasonal beans.
We had the privilege of tasting Madan beans from Papua New Guinea. Never knew that coffee was grown on Papua New Guinea? Neither did we. It is quite rare, accounting for only 1% of worldwide coffee production. The beans were large and long and the roast was even.
The Madan had a dry fragrance of cured meats. There was almost a savoury quality to the taste at first, but then a deep red berry jus sweetness (reminded me of reducing raspberries on the stove to serve warm berries over ice cream, that sort of tart sweetness) and a definite tabacco finish.
Tim Wendleboe has previously worked at Stockfleths, but he began his own very successful and highly esteemed roastery and espresso bar. He is a World Barista Champion and is also passionate about personally sourcing the crops that he roasts from his roastery. We were given a bag of Ethiopian Sidamo, washed beans.
Tim Wendleboe has a reputation for roasting his beans to a light degree to extract certain flavour qualities from the beans. Well. This was without a doubt the sweetest and knock-me-down brightest espresso I have ever tasted and I've drunk a fair amount of Sidamo in my coffee journey. Wow. We tried it again later as an Aeropress and got delightful notes of dates.
Two very different taste experiences from coffees roasted in the city of Oslo. It was a good morning.
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