Quarantine coffee #3 - Electric Coffee Company
This is a hard review for me to write, and for some time, I toyed with the idea of not writing it at all.
The first reason for this is the fact that Electric Coffee Company (ECC) is my neighbourhood café. Whenever I have the time, I stop by there for their delicious espressos. Both their blends and single origins are fantastic - especially if you appreciate heavier bodied espressos. Even their cold brews are exceptionally tasty (at first I thought they were simply cold filter coffees) and I’d go as far as to say that their Ethiopian cold brew was the best one I’ve tried, ever (sorry Cogito). The second one is that they are genuinely cool, farm-to-cup small producers, trying to make it in London’s rough and ever-growing competition. All of that whilst ethically sourcing all of their coffee and building a small community of coffee lovers in Ealing. But in the end, I figured I would share my experience. Mostly because I hope that reading this makes you at the very least want to try their coffee and stop by their shop to chat and grab a lovely espresso. At best you'd be proving me wrong in the comments :)
ECC reopened their doors post covid a day before my move to Ealing.
After sampling 4 bags of various origins, and trying most techniques in my arsenal (high and low temp, different brewing methods, various brew methods and grind size settings) I could never get what I think is good filter coffee out of them. My first inclination is to believe that their roasting profile has been more developed for espresso. This would be somewhat supported by the fact that in fine-ground AeroPress the coffee tasted good. Of course, there is also a fact that I’m not the world’s best coffee connoisseur nor even a competent barista, so this also might just be down to my own ineptitude.
So in the end, would I recommend ECC?
Yes, absolutely. If you’re looking for coffee you’re going to be brewing in a v60, I’d be careful to pick fresh ones and ask the staff what recipe to use. If you have an espresso machine or are willing to experiment with the original-style AeroPress recipes, ECC might have some gems for you.
Just a quick note, I’ve picked up all of my bags in-store, and haven’t tested their online platform. It seems like a new thing, and I really hope it works well.