Bird Rock Coffee - Flash

Date of Visit: 12/22/2011
Price: $2-7.50 per cup of coffee
Location: 5267 La Jolla Blvd, La Jolla, CA 92037
website


The Quick Bit:
+ High Quality single origin specialty coffee
+ Coffee Roasted In-House
+ Chemex brewing system
Δ Location could be more freeway accessible

Although Bird Rock Coffee was popularized by recently being named Roast Magazine's Micro-Roaster of the Year for 2012, one of my friend cgfan actually put Bird Rock on my radar prior to the award. Unfortunately, I never made the visit to the shop before Bird Rock received the accolade, so I'm not sure how much has changed in the intervening time.

What I do know about Bird Rock is that they source all their coffee beans directly from the farmers and pay above fair trade value to ensure they get the finest quality beans. The beans are also organic and are roasted on site fresh daily to ensure the highest quality cup of coffee.

Further, while Bird Rock does have high quality single-origin coffees, they also have a series of "reserve" coffees that are even higher in quality. These set of reserve coffees are sold at "market price" and brewed on one of two special brewing platforms: chemex or v60.

Having heard about chemex being the best coffee brewing system, I decided to see what it was all about.

Bird Rock Chemex System

weighing the beans

Everything about the Chemex brewing system is meticulously measured. The weight of the coffee beans, the amount and temperature of the water, and the exact brewing time are all crucial elements to crafting the perfect cup

barrista smooths out the beans in the filter prior to brewing

flow of water is carefully controlled

the entire brewing process is timed to take an exact amount of time

the end result

While the entire process does seem overly complicated, the resulting cup of coffee was phenomenal. It was easily among the best and most flavorful cups of coffee I have ever had. The taste of the coffee was decidedly more floral, and the oils and acidity in the beans meshed to create a much more complex taste.

While I recommend a visit to Bird Rock in general for their high quality coffees, I especially recommend trying the chemex system if you are a coffee connoisseur. While Bird Rock does sell a variety of espresso drinks, skip those and take the opportunity to try the high quality single origin brewed coffees.