It's a cold, raw morning, but in Claudia Barrett's climate-controlled garage-turned-coffee-roastery, the tastes and smells are tropical. Today, she's tasting four selections from her company, CQ Coffee Roasters, slurping up a spoonful at a time and describing the flavors. “Good grape acidity, red currant...” announces Barrett, Licensed Q Grader (and “Coffee Jedi”), using the standardized cupping method and terminology used in coffee tastings the world over. “Some Merlot,” she adds after another slurp. “Some guava fruit punch...”
At CQ Coffee Roasters, everything is meticulous, each carefully-selected variety roasted just enough, in pursuit of flavors far beyond your standard cup of joe. “What we really try to do with each coffee is bring forward one mind-blowing tasting note from that coffee,” Barrett explains.
And it looks like they're succeeding. [Go to the site to read the full article!]
