Review: Counter Culture Coffee’s Intango
(2019) Looking back at some of our favorite coffee shop visits along the east coast, one similarity presents itself often: the shop uses Counter Culture Coffee, a roaster from Durham, North Carolina. From Keene, NY, to Frenchtown, NJ, to points south, Counter Culture Coffee is the final selling point to a gourmet cup of a coffee. When a bag of Counter Culture Coffee found its way to the creakybottombracket.com office, we were supremely excited.
As per tradition, the first order of business was to inhale the intoxicating aroma of the Intango roast emanating from the one-way valve. As with all Counter Culture Coffees, it took as long as expected to open the bag. The huffing took extra long. Opening the bag was a deluge of roasty goodness.
What is striking is the compactness of the roasted bean. Easily the ¾ pound bag fit into the plastic container reserved for coffee beans. Many bags are not able to fully fit in the container but Counter Culture’s did. The tiny dry beans looked like casings ready to explode with flavor. I would advise pulling back the ratios just a bit on account of getting more beans per tablespoon than normal. Trying to match scoop for scoop could find you trembling a few hours after the cup has been tidied away.
The back of the Counter Culture Coffee bag hints at the possibility this origin/ roast won’t be around long.
The beans were upended into the burr grinder and released more of the built up gases contained in the bean. The whole office smelled incredible. It was an eager peek into the hopper to see what kind of grind came out. Sure enough, there were the fine brown grinds without the yellow flyaway husks. The anticipation was building strictly on sights and aromas.
Here is what you are probably waiting for, the opinion on the flavor and the persuasive part of the essay on whether Counter Culture Coffee is, in fact, a stupendous purchase. The flavor of Intango, the single origin bean from Rwanda, had the intense flavor of quality roasting without the acidic bite up front. Described as date, blood orange, and brown sugar, the flavor spread out and hung around. This is dangerous coffee in its charge and easy drinkability. Naturally we prefer black around here and the boldness without the bite may translate into a great cappuccino or flat white. After consuming five cups in the morning shift, here is where we realized the ratio discrepancy. There was prodigious productivity with many jittery limbs. The delete button was used often.
While this single origin coffee is highly recommended, the trouble is we cannot find it anywhere. It is no longer listed on the Counter Culture Coffee site. There was concern that would happen. The packaging hints that Intango’s longevity was never to be measured over years, so here is the recommendation: If you see a bag of Intango, grab it. It may not be as fresh since Counter Culture does not list it on the site anymore. Or, if the next one-off Counter Culture Coffee comes out, grab it. The experience itself surpasses the effort of locating the bag.
