Stirling Coffee

By Emma Jordan

This month we’re looking at Stirling Coffee, whose aim is to deliver barista quality coffee to your home. The beans are Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance Certified and are roasted within two days of your order being placed. They also offer a subscription for £10 and will deliver two bags of freshly roasted beans every one to four weeks, depending on how much coffee you get through.

The coffee arrives in low key lined brown paper bags with the company name stamped on the front. I rather like this: it seems authentic and fuss free.

All the coffee we tried is very mellow and that’s quite a nice change. None of these a manic caffeine high, but they’re really lovely easy drinking coffees for people who like a bit of a gentle, unchallenging morning cup. 10 Brazil In the bag, the beans have an interesting sort of unripe and crisp alpine strawberry aroma. This does not seem to be borne out in flavour of the drink.

From the cafetière, the aroma in the cup is milk chocolate. It’s quite mild, soft and sweet. The initial flavour is of toasted sugar and slightly singed candyfloss. The flavours are very mellow and the coffee has a watery texture with a glossy mouthfeel. There is not much acidity, although there is a slight touch of citrusy sharpness in the beginning and in the aftertaste, which is actually a bit zingy three will blow your head off or give you

in contrast to the sweet flavours of the drinking experience.

As an espresso, the aroma is the one you get when you open a box of milk chocolates; sort of sweet and creamy but there’s also something soft and Cibare Magazine www.cibare.co.uk

floral about it too. The flavour is initially sharper in the espresso – maybe a hint of sweet lemon, but it’s balanced by a toasted hazelnutty roundness. It’s pleasant and not too strong.

Honduras The aroma from the beans in the bag is one of warm spices and rich coffee.

From the cafetière the aroma is one of milk chocolate with extra cream; again, it’s very gentle and mild. It’s a very smooth to drink, but light bodied coffee with mild milk chocolate flavours. There’s ever such a slight pithiness on the tongue giving a somewhat chalky mouthfeel. There’s nothing I would consider a high note in this, as the flavours are very earthy and comforting. There’s a mildly acidic sensation on the lips of crisp white grape, which seems to balance out the sweetness. It has a slightly gravelly after taste.

The aroma of the espresso is slightly gravelly with undertones of chocolate. The first sensation on the lips is of juicy grape and that provides the initial burst of flavour. But there’s a very interesting and unusual wholegrain cereal flavour after that and an assertive dark chocolate after taste.

Colombia In the bag this coffee is rich, gravelly and slightly fruity; it reminds me of rosehips.

From the cafetière the aroma is of green grapes and perhaps a touch of unripe damson. There is something quite clean about it. It’s another light bodied coffee with a gentle milk chocolate flavour and notes of caramel with slightly burnt sugar, but it’s toasty rather than bitter. This expands into a crisp fruity flavour, rather like a medium white wine, giving a clean, refreshing flavour but not too sweet. It’s not particularly strong so it’s an easy drinking coffee. It leaves you with a long-lasting glossy mouthfeel.

As an espresso the flavour is quite different. The grapey flavour condenses into a much stronger but not too intense sour-ish sensation that fills my whole mouth with the flavour of juicy white wine. With a bit of aeration some herbal flavours of thyme and oregano come through. The glossy mouth feel is still present.