by hslade3 » Wed Jul 01, 2009 12:34 am
These are very much the comments I have heard from people in the industry which befuddles me to no end. A few months ago, I had roasted some up (somewhat difficult to find an acceptable profile for it) and shared it with several people I admire and respect in the business without telling them what it was. We got favorable comments all around - extreme as this bean is. Most thought it was some kind of natural Yirg or even Harar. What I have had of Liberica has a strong bite, to be sure, but we have had considerable success with it as an espresso blend component and even as a SOE, believe it or not.
Maybe it is just my palate - I tend to prefer natural coffees or anything with a distinct prime attribute. Maybe what I have gotten was long enough from harvest for enough of the "over ripe" or "over fermented" flavors to fall off. I also fear that my coffee preferences have too strongly influenced those of my staff (all of whom were new to coffee when they came on), to the point that I have cloned my palate onto them.
I can only hope that when we can finally afford to bring in this Indian Liberica, that we will have it exclusively!! Not that I really want that to happen - what I would really like to see is a resurgence of it being grown and handled as a fine bean. It was almost completely wiped out in the 1890s by a wave of coffee rust, not to mention how large the plant tends to be presents some legitimate harvesting problems. Perhaps it is all a pipe dream from an unusual convergence of events that produced about ten lbs worth of amazing coffee.