Carnival Roasters | Cafe Amado (Alamonte) | Colombia
Carnival Coffee Roasters, are an eco-friendly, speciality coffee roaster based in the heart of Penge, South East London.you may recognise them by their vibrant packaging reflecting their Latin American flair courtesy of local artist Rosie Lovelock.
Carnival are an inspirational team. Their focus on providing an eco-friendly product is a great example for future roasters to follow. Their ethics transcend all the way from Colombia where they support sustainable coffee projects all the way to South East London where they offer local delivery on a bicycle.
Their story started in Medellin, Colombia where they grow and produce coffee on their family farm. The farm has been in the family for generations ever since Juan’s Grandfather won a mountainside on the outskirts of the city in a very lucky game of cards. Even more luckily the conditions were ideal for growing coffee. Fast forward to today and Juan's Parents, Aunties and Uncles still live and work on the mountainside. The coffee farm is surrounded by orange groves and banana plants with a waterfall separating the boundaries with neighbouring farms. Traditional drying methods are still used.
The coffee that Carnival use is hand-roasted in small batched in their garden workshop in Penge. They are passionate about amazing coffee and spend their days, roasting, testing, tasting and repeating to ensure you get the best possible tasting beans.
The Cafe Amado from Carnival coffee is pretty special, firstly this is a coffee that is grown on Juan’s family farm (now that is some serious direct trade). The reason that it is so important to trace where coffee comes from is that the complexities in coffee like beautiful floral notes or zingy citrus fruit flavours are an attribute of the particular varietal of the coffee plant, the farm it was grown on and the processing method, this is all before it hits the coffee consuming country. When coffee is purchased from a coop or a particular region of a country, often many varieties of coffee are mixed together which dilutes subtle and delicate flavours and are overpowered by bold, darker notes. So it is pretty special when a roaster grows his own coffee!
The coffee itself was superb. The fragrance of the coffee when you open the bag is rich and enticingly sweet. Grinding the coffee releases big chocolate notes while suggesting moments of acidity as I began to brew it more notes appear in an incredibly complex and layered aroma.
The first sips rush straight past your tongue and hug the back corners of your palate like a green apple, the acidity though is short-lived and is quickly smoothed out with sweeter dried fruits - apricot and fig. The interesting and complex combination adds another layer as the coffee cools. The dark chocolate notes at the start return and the coffee ends on an enjoyable dark chocolate note that sticks around for a short while after the brew has finished.
Great as a filter coffee but because of its big body at the end it performs equally well as an espresso.