La Pradera Natural Tabi Dial

Dose: 21g
Ratio: 1:16
Grind: Significantly Finer than Neutral
Brew Time: 3:00
TDS: 1.40
Extraction: 20.2%

Sensory Description:

This Natural Tabi from La Pradera is a heavily sweet, fruit forward profile. In well extracted brews, I was finding notes of raspberry, pomegranate syrup, red wine, red grape, and ripe citrus. The aftertaste was long and coating with red fruits. The aroma had clean notes of honeysuckle and berries. The leading characteristic of this coffee is its full body and syrupy mouthfeel contributing to a very dense sweetness. The sweetness is balanced with bright, citric and tartaric acidity that becomes more present as the coffee has time to cool.

Dial Notes:
I up-dosed the dial to 21g to accentuate the syrupy raspberry and pomegranate notes in the coffee. The larger amount of coffee requires a grind size significantly finer than neutral (greater than one full grind setting on the EK43) to properly extract. The coffee is relatively dense and lighter in roast color, meaning finer grind sizes are required in general to achieve proper extraction.

Under-extracted brews of La Pradera lacked the full, syrupy body found in higher extraction percentages and were sour, similar to underripe pomegranate seeds. The key indicator of under extraction was the lack of sweetness and body, resulting in an intense and sour brew due to the up-dose. 

Over-extracted brews stood out for their powdery mouthfeel, leaving a distinct drying and fuzzy feeling on top of the palate. While most of the flavor notes found in well extracted brews were present in over-extracted brews, they dissipated quickly on the palate, leaving a burnt sugar note, like bitter burnt caramel, with little to no citrus or floral notes. 

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