Noble Coyote Huehuetenango La Basa

First off I have no idea how to correctly pronounce the variety of this coffee. In my head it sounds pretty. Correct? Probably not!

Noble Coyote Coffee Roasters are based out of Dallas, Texas. Their name has interesting roots. A coyote is a middleman who buys coffee from farmers. Noble Coyote wanted to be ethical about how their coffee was sourced and that a fair price was given to the farmers. Hence the name.

This variety of coffee is no longer available on their site and I’m not familiar enough with the company to know if varieties are a one-off roast or if they are seasonal. That said, if their other coffees compare to this one they’ll be good.

Their tasting notes said:

In this cup we were pleased to find a smooth, creamy texture imparted by lactic acidity. Look for a pecan flavor and chocolate finish. We highly recommend pairing this coffee with a truffle or two (or a dozen).

There was also a neat chart on the bag that had scales that showed different flavor profiles:

They hit the chocolate dead on. It was the overwhelming flavor from the coffee. While it was definitely nutty, I don’t think pecan was it. When I drank it I was reminded of walnuts. I tried it alongside both pecans and walnuts and I really think walnut is the better match.

I was worried at first that I wouldn’t like this coffee. When I first opened the bag it overwhelmingly smelled burnt. I let the bag sit to get the Chemex ready and when I was done the smell had been replaced with a nice toasty aroma. Even after being resealed the burnt smell did not come back.

Every time I ground this coffee something weird happened. On top of the coffee grounds would be pale, flaky bits. They didn’t affect anything in the Chemex or the espresso maker, but it was odd enough to be noticed every time.

While brewing in the Chemex there wasn’t a ton of bloom, but the smell was delightful. It had a smell like bread baking.

Normally I break my reviews out by brewing method, but I’m not going to for this coffee. The coffee was really consistent in all the methods I used (Americano, Espresso, Chemex, Iced Chemex).

The coffee when hot wasn’t bitter or tart, but it had a hint of those things. I’d associate it as the feeling you get in the back of your throat when you let a piece of really dark chocolate melt in your mouth.

Now I’m going to totally discredit myself by saying something crazy. The smell of this coffee reminds me of the way Target smells when you come in the entrance doors.

After thinking that I began to question myself if Target does have a distinctive smell when you enter the store. I fact checked it with another Target shopper to make sure I wasn’t sounding crazy and she confirmed that there was. The more I thought about it, the reason is popcorn. It kind of smells like popcorn and I think having this with popcorn would be complementary.

She’s not a coffee drinker, but in that same discussion she suggested that maybe the flavor was butter. So I wondered, “Does coffee have a fat content?” (Probably the sort of thing a coffee reviewer should know…) According to a Google search, the oil in coffee is 71% fatty acids, but it is not enough to say coffee as a whole has a fat content. Now I know.

Typically I drink coffee with cream, not because I don’t like black coffee–I just like coffee more when it has cream in it. I drank half a cup of this before I realized it didn’t have cream in it. When I added cream though? It became something amazing. When I took the first drink I thought, “This tastes like hot chocolate.” Then the coffee notes come out and it’s an amazing combination of the two. You’re probably thinking, “Like a mocha.” But, no. It’s something wholly different and delicious.

A very similar thing happens when you drink it iced. (I did this by brewing in the Chemex over ice: 30g coffee, 165g ice, 335g water.) It tastes like chocolate milk, but again–not chocolate milk. It isn’t sweetened, but it gives the perception of sweet. It’s addicting. I’d drink a full pot of the stuff in the afternoon then stare at my ceiling at midnight wondering why I had done that yet again. (And if I wasn’t out of this coffee I’d still be doing it!)

This coffee sells for $1.92 an ounce in 12 oz. bags when you factor in shipping for a total of $23.00. That makes this the second most expensive coffee I’ve reviewed. (Ritual was the most expensive.)

The frugal part of me says not to order this coffee at that price. But then there’s another voice that says, “Really, you don’t indulge that often…”