Coffee Reviews: Joy Coffee

Is coffee joyful? Or is coffee used as a vehicle to create joy?

We spend endless hours conversing, meeting new people, creating our life fantasies in coffee shops, drinking our favourite beverages. So in a sense you could say it is the vehicle. But that vehicle has to be a worthy companion to transport you to your next destination.

This is why coffee is joyful. It creates the joy we seek.

This batch of coffee is roasted by a true coffee master, Matthew Deyn. Starting his coffee journey at just 15 in his home town of Lincoln, with work experience at Starbucks before moving down to London to study music, when he became ever more fascinated and interested in independent coffee.

At 18 he landed a job at Notes Music and Coffee in Covent Garden. The whole London scene became his catalyst for becoming more mindful of flavour, skill and the craftsmanship of being a barista. Its safe to say he was hooked. He has been a part of the UK Barista Championships and Aeropress Competitions before taking his knowledge and experience to Melbourne Australia where he travelled and worked as a barista.

He has also experienced the coffee scenes in San Francisco and Portland because he knew "there was more to discover!" Over in the States is where his broader awareness amongst consumers for speciality coffee in those places helped to give him purpose for working within the industry once he returned back to Lincoln at 21.

After, learning some more in the art of roasting he moved on to setting up Wheelys Cafe, a speciality coffee bike which was perfect for the people in central Lincoln.

Matt Started Roasting with Nicaraguan La Samaria from Falcon Coffees and began roasting in his kitchen with a Gene Cafe. But now has plans for the future roasting for a local company.  

As you can see Matt is a passionate guy when it comes to coffee. It is clear he is a true people person after talking to him for only a short time. Coffee has certainly provided him with some amazing experiences - one of which is to be very proud off. Matt was selected as a Re:Co fellow this year in Budapest. Re:Co is a prestigious event that gathers all the greatest minds and most influential thinkers in the coffee industry to look at challenges and opportunities the speciality coffee industry has.

If you haven't already realised, this is a very big deal. 

So with a introduction like that I'm sure you are thinking I sure hope the coffee meets up to the expectations! It certainly does.

Joy Coffee, Matt explains to me why he has called it this.

   "for me Joy is the final achievement. A feeling of connection with those around you and it is also in memory of my Grandma who passed away when I was little"

The batch I received was a Kenyan bean roasted within 2 days of receiving it. It is called Tano Ndogo and was produced by 3 brothers and 2 neighbours in the Nyeri district. The name Tano Ndogo means 'small five' in Swahili to represent the five founding members. 
This coffee also won fifth place in the East Africa taste of Harvest completion this year! 

I decided to use two methods of brewing to compare the differences you can get through them. I used my espresso machine and a AeroPress. The AeroPress was very generously given to me by a very good friend, so thanks Kieren!  

The initial smell I got from the bag was very sweet and fresh. So with a freshly cleaned boiler and grinder I got to it with my Sage espresso machine. The first extraction was slightly fast and low on pressure so I adjusted the grind size accordingly to get a much thicker and richer espresso shot.

Instantly there were lovely sweet notes to the flavor. The espresso emphasised the lemon and tangyness of the bean in the after taste. The body of the coffee has a positive liqueur/caramel hint to it, although this is very faint and overpowered by the sweetness. From my experience Kenyan beans are predominantly known for their distinct sweet gestures and this portrays a perfect example!

Next up Aero Press method. Now I'm sure if Matt had seen me using this brewing method on his coffee he would have had a few tips to give me. Nevertheless, with my limited experience, I still managed to make a great coffee. The Aero Press is a completely different method to make your coffee. It is a much more conventional and raw way to extract the flavors. I think a whole stand-alone blog could be require for that though.

Anyway, this has got to be the preferred way to drink this type of coffee. Its has a much lighter impact but it is consistent right through the whole glass, making it a pleasure to drink with no bitterness or sharp tastes. The sweet notes of strawberry are better experienced and you get hints of floral left in the back of your throat.

I would like to thank Matt for trusting me with reviewing his personally roasted beans! He really knows his stuff and he is another fantastic ambassador to the specialty coffee industry.

Thank you for reading guys, until next time...