Carta Coffee Merchants Kona Organica vs Nolyssa
Carta Coffee Merchants Kona Organica is the latest, enticing addition to the prestigious Kona offerings from Carta Coffee. I found this new offering conjuring up all kinds of images while I was sipping on it, savoring every drop. My current image is of a sea captain sitting down to have breakfast in the early morning before sunrise, savoring the earthy, robust flavor of this coffee. It is offered in a sampler pack with the Nolyssa Farm, both are outstanding coffees with relatively the same flavor and body profiles, but here is what I found.
Carta Coffee by the fire
You will find that the Organica is full of fruity flavor and citrus, with a lovely finishing note of chocolate, while the Nolyssa show cases the dark fruit and dark chocolate.
Aroma:
The aroma I found to be heady with suggestions of fine tobacco and coco offering a foundation of volcanic earthiness, making this a very large prescience in the kitchen. A wonderful way to start your day while you are waiting for this coffee to finish brewing. The Nolyssa has the same large aroma as its counterpart, but I did not pick up any hints of tobacco, just the volcanic earthiness.
Brewing methods:
As for brewing both of them, I recommend the French Press. If you want to treat your taste buds to a exotic pallet of flavors that you will not find combined in one coffee, let alone in one quality roast. The Nolyssa handles the Chemex better than the Organica did, in my opinion. The Organica lost a credible amount of body and texture, but the flavors were still there. It all comes down to how you like your coffee, bold and robust, or well rounded and a bit lighter.
The Sample Package from Carta Coffee Merchants
Body:
The body in both coffees is robust and full, I did not get the muddy texture that is often the case with the French Press, so yes you can drink your cup down to the thin bottom line. (French Press people know what I am talking about here). Using a paper filter does strips away some of the body and texture. Some of the flavors get muted, like the dark fruit in the Organica, but the chocolate and citrus are still there front and center. I was surprised that the paper filter took away the natural sweetness from the Organica and the Nolyssa did not lose any of it at all.
The citrus becomes the main flavor in both coffees if you use a paper filter. If you like a lighter body coffee that is still well rounded and has some extraordinary flavors of citrus that would be your brewing method.
Acidity:
The acidity in both coffees is low, they age well in the cup, maintaining their flavors through out. The only difference is the natural sweetness that I noted as above, and that is from a paper filter, but if you use a French Press or a metal filter you won’t notice a difference.
Carta Coffee Estate by hires sunset wide
Overall:
Here comes the hard part, and I think Scott enjoys this as much as I do, I can’t decide which is better than the other. I know some people out there can, but I can’t. Being a coffee fanatic I smell and taste all the good notes in each coffee and there are no sour notes. So it comes down to you, as a coffee drinker, what do you like? Order this sample pack and have fun this holiday season with some friends and embark on your own java journey and let Carta Coffee know what you think.
