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[/media-credit]Barefoots Joe is debuting six new coffees this fall from Mexico, Columbia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Ethiopia.
While the coffee drink options remain the same, different base coffees from semester to semester add different nuances. The difference come from the the coffee varieties and country origins.
It all starts with 10 coffees selected at the beginning of each semester to sample for Barefoots drinks. Levi Hartsfield, junior engineering major and roaster at Barefoots Joe, contacts a specific coffee importer every year.
Hartsfield researches over 100 different coffees from the importer, narrowing it down to 10 coffees. Samples are taken of those coffees, and six are finally chosen after taste testing them.
“We taste for regular brew coffee and we cup for specific coffees to figure out an espresso blend that will work,” Hartsfield said.
Coffees that are easy to drink, less “vibrant” in flavor, mainly juicy, sweet and creamy are what Hartsfield looks for.
He first eliminates coffees with defects, then chooses the coffees he thinks would appeal to Union as a whole.
“Then the job falls to me to take the coffees that we’ve gotten and roast them so that the flavors that they are supposed to have are not washed away by the roasting,” Hartsfield said. “They are actually brought out.”
An espresso requires three coffees blended together with the first coffee making up half of the density of the entire drink.
“I’m looking for a base that’s going to be heavy, really sweet and lends itself to a little bit of acidity so that it can tie nicely into the other layers,” Hartsfield said.
A medium “juicy” layer of espresso is chosen for the “middle layer” followed by a lighter layer to add “body” to the drink. Altogether, the espresso consists of layers providing a sweet, heavy effect from the first base layer to a creamy element for the middle layer to the complex and juicy elements from the last layer.
“You can still come to Barefoots and get your drink, but [the new imported coffee] creates ripples that slightly change everything,” Hartsfield said.
For example, Hartsfield noted last year’s Barefoots espresso drink was made with coffee beans from Ethiopia and Brazil. This year, the same drink is made with beans from Brazil, Ethiopia and Guatemala. Last year’s creamy, caramel-flavored espresso is now made with greater complexity and flavors of toffee, brown sugar and peaches.
“I like [the coffee from] Mexico better,” Ashley Beck, senior art major said. “It’s not as bitter as the Ethiopia.”
Emily Williams, senior education major, said that the coffee from Ethiopia topped her list. Since her visit to the African country for a month in 2013, she has enjoyed Ethiopian coffee because of its familiar taste.
