Coffee Tasting Notes: Allpress Espresso, Nude Espresso and Union Hand-Roasted Coffee
Posted by the Cake Shop
At our ongoing coffee tasting afternoons we bring new espresso blends from independent London roasteries into the shop for a taste test. Without further ado, here are our tasting notes from the latest blends.
Allpress Espresso’s Redchurch blend is a traditional Italian-style espresso: the beans are roasted very dark, giving it a strong, full-bodied flavour. Well balanced (though without much in terms of acidic top notes) with a dark chocolate-y flavour and a smooth mouthfeel, this blend is a good, solid espresso base.
Union Coffee’s Revelation blend is a similar dark roast. Again, it is low acidity, though it also has a little less depth than the Allpress blend. It has a lovely mouthfeel: thick, smooth, almost treacly.
Nude Espresso’s Santa Maria is a very different coffee to the previous two. For one thing, it’s a single origin rather than a blend, which means that it only uses one variety of coffee bean. It’s also a much lighter roast, giving it a sweeter, more uplifting taste. It’s remarkably complex for a single origin, and the addition of milk brings out a range of lovely, unexpected notes (the description promised a banoffee pie flavour, and we were surprised to find ourselves nodding in agreement). It’s not your traditional espresso: it’s light, sweet, unusual and indulgent.
How we’d drink it
Allpress Espresso’s Redchurch blend: a simple espresso paired with a chocolate swirl cookie to compliment this no-frills roast
Union Coffee’s Revelation blend: an americano, with a wodge of sticky date cake to highlight the treacly mouthfeel
Nude Espresso’s Santa Maria blend: a milky latte, with a slice of macadamia toffee cheesecake, for a sweet treat
Our next coffee tasting afternoon will be on Wednesday 3 December, when we’ll be trialling Caravan's Rocko Mt. blend.
