Saturday is starting to become a day for me to slow down and be intentional about going places or doing things that are experience-focused. In May, I spent two Saturday mornings at Coava Coffee Roasters attending coffee cuppings for both drip and espresso coffee.

Coava Coffee Roasters was founded in 2008 by Matt Higgins. The company started in his garage in North Portland, where he repaired motorcycles to fund the coffee business. Higgins focused heavily on direct relationships with coffee producers and sourcing exceptional green coffee (“coava” is an old Turkish word for unroasted or green coffee).

They are committed to long term and sustainable partnerships with coffee producers. Their coffee philosophy is:

• single-origin focus
• long- term farmer partneships
• light to medium roasting
• balance and clarity rather than dark roast bitterness

They are deeply focused on quality, and from what I gathered during conversations at the cuppings, most of their team members have at least 10 years of experience in the coffee industry, with several having more than 20 years of experience. They travel to coffee farms around the world at least twice a year, and they take pride in the quality that goes into each bag of coffee, every handcrafted drink, and every interaction with customers.

Coava team is offering coffee from Ethiopia, Columbia, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Rwanda.

Public Coffee Tasting – drip coffee

This was a 60-minute guided cupping featuring four different coffees. Matthew was our host, and he is one of Coava Coffee Roasters’s coffee experts with over 20 years of experience in the coffee industry. He guided us through the same cupping (tasting) techniques their team uses for quality control, focusing on observing the flavors and aromas of brewed coffee.

The cupping started with three aroma passes, each revealing different characteristics of the coffee. First, we smelled the freshly ground coffee before water was added. Then, after hot water was poured over the grounds, we observed how the aroma changed during extraction. The final aroma stage happened at the four-minute mark during the “breaking,” when the crust on top of the coffee was gently broken with a cupping spoon, releasing an intense burst of fragrance and oils.

One fun part of the tasting was the slurping. It is done so the coffee coats the entire palate, not just the top of the tongue.

It is a fun event with a small group of people, and at the end you get a free 300g bag of coffee of your choice to take home.

Coava X Fellow Home Espresso Workshop

This was collaboration with Fellow that focused on espresso extraction, using Series 1 Espresso machine. Host was Dave, who has over 20+ years in coffee industry and is another Coava coffee expert. Dave has such a passion for coffee, and even though this tasting was more technical, his presentation style was light and entertaining. He used different aspects of music to explain dose, yield, and time, and his ability to go into detail and share facts without being boring was really refreshing.

He was accompanied by Chris, who was excellent at guiding us through how to use the grinder and machine. He effortlessly pointed out technical aspects while also stepping in at just the right moments to provide guidance.

We explored classic, modern, and competition-style espresso while getting to experience Fellow’s newest creation firsthand. We tasted Royos del Sol as the espresso base and Kilenso as the drip base. I preferred Kilenso, which tasted balanced and full-bodied with a great aftertaste. Royos del Sol had a bitterness from the darker roast that I did not enjoy as much.

For me, 19 g of Kilenso brewed in 25 seconds was the perfect spot to be in coffee heaven. After drinking it, I did not even want to rinse my palate with sparkling water. Then Dave created a more compact profile for me using 18 g. That one was more intense and would be great as a first morning coffee or as a midday energy boost.

The 19 g profile brought a deep sense of joy and palate pleasure. It felt like the kind of coffee meant to be enjoyed slowly with people I love — alongside music, conversation, and the feeling of being emotionally present in the moment.

Locations

Coava Flagship – 1300 SE Grand Ave, Portland

Coava Espresso Bar – 2631 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland

Cafe & Roastery – 1015 SE Main Street, Portland

A few photos of the coffee I had at the Flagship location:

If you are in Portland, I highly recommend making time to visit Coava Coffee Roasters. Definitely worth a visit if you want to experience what thoughtful, craft-focused coffee tastes like at its best.