A Coffee Journey Chronicle

This one came in a four-pack with the predecessor. It is definitely the better of the two: the promised flowery notes were noticeable.

A new roaster with a fun twist: it is run by a Guatemalan and roasts only Guatemalan coffee. We discovered it in one of our local cafes. The quality to price ratio is decent, but only if you buy the discounted four-packs. As for the taste, it made a comfortable everyday coffee. Also, Venecia is a varietal we haven’t encountered before.

This one was considerably (~60%) more expensive than the predecessor, and the prominent mention of “funky” in blue on the bag does this coffee justice. It was a true fruity-floral bomb. Probably this is the key characteristic of the thermal shock processing, which so far I’ve encountered only on coffees from Colombia. Drinking this coffee felt almost like eating a bag of sweet-sour gummy bears, with an additional strong and pleasant floral scent. ...

Definitely not as fruity as the bag suggests, but a comfortable, adequately-priced all-rounder nonetheless. Tasted especially well as Aeropress or drip on ice during the summer heatwave of 2026.

Smok (Polish for “dragon”) is a new roaster. I decided to give them a go, even though this coffee is roasted on the darker end of my tolerance (as I prefer light roasts). The bag design seems to combine three things: op art, pixel art (scans don’t do them justice, as they are primarily on the sides and at the bottom of the bag), and swing tags. The latter are an interesting idea, admittedly aesthetically pleasing, but not really functional - they make opening the bag needlessly difficult. ...

It is always a pleasure to visit a café which also roasts its own beans. In those cases, baristas are usually well-trained to get the most out of the material at their disposal. Honey processing is a rare occurrence, therefore it’s hard to get the hang of what makes it special. In this case, the first sips were very heavy and intense, but it grew more pleasant as it went, and we finished it before it even got lukewarm. ...

Bought impulsively after tasting an exceptionally clear and fruity batch brew in a corner cafe. Even though the brew I made at home didn’t taste quite as good, it left a very pleasant, lingering fruity aftertaste after every sip.

Sadly, another Geisha disappointment. You try an incredible coffee at a local coffee fair, and then can’t get the brew quite right to recreate the tasting experience you had from the roaster. Lesson learned: no point paying a premium for a coffee which will probably not taste so good at home.

Whatever the roaster means by “Special edition”, it probably deserves this term, as the taste was truly unique. The comparison to PEZ candy (as seen on the bag) is an interesting one, although personally I’d call it a mint flavor with a touch of something green and vegetal, like celery — but in a very good way. It was so strong that it persisted even when sipped right after eating a sweet dessert. Usually, when your taste buds are overwhelmed by sugar, even the most intensely flavored coffee tastes almost like water. ...

A typical Lacava all-rounder, perfectly suitable for work.