Gorilla Coffee

Continuing my mission for coffee excellence, yesterday I experienced the most incredible coffee I have ever had the pleasure of drinking (those of you not interested in coffee no point reading on here.)

In desperation for a coffee fix yesterday, Mike kindly went out in some of the coldest weather New York has on offer and brought back coffees from a local Park Slope coffee bar called Gorilla (5th and Park Pl). The coffee had a smooth earthiness to it, heavy body, bags of flavour and without that usual S*******s bitter and sometimes burnt tast.

The bean was Sumatra Gayoland. I have been told that the island of Sumatra continues to produce one of the most popular specialty coffees available. Gayoland refers to a tribe that originally lived in the heart of the northern Aceh Province of Sumatra. Gayoland has recently come into its own largely through the help of Forestrade, a company that specializes in marketing and exporting organic agricultural products. Forestrade has done a great job galvanizing more than 450 local organic coffee growers to supply the increasing demand for high quality organic coffee. The standards and practices for organic agriculture in Gayoland have grown and thrived as a result, and have become one of the best cooperative models known in specialty coffee.

Coffees from Gayoland are semi-washed in the tradition of Sumatra. The fruit is removed from the bean while still fresh. After a quick fermentation and washed to release a bit of the residual fruit, the beans are dried and ready for export. The green beans are so fresh and clean they resemble small pieces of jade or sandblasted, blue-green glass. Their clean aromas are reminiscent if the shade-covered jungles they came from.

Gorilla coffee roast daily in small batches and by hand thus preserving freshness – a fantastic experience.

Today we strolled Central Park, Broadway, 5th Avenue – it was so cold we had to duck into the Met for a few hours to defrost. Dinner was at Joseph's and Ruth's in Manhattan. Joseph is from the Dominican Republic and cooked us a traditional dish of slow roasted pork shoulder (cooked for 6 hours in tomatoes and spices) and was quite incredible.

Couldn't stand looking at the tracks when we were in the subway stations!

Background information from ForestTrade.