Solar Roast Coffee
About the Café
Solar Roast Coffee is a hip little café in downtown Colorado Springs offering a variety of coffee drinks, beans, and classic vinyl records. It’s a very colorful space decorated with an eclectic theme of fruits, origami, and their own vinyl themes for their roasts mounted on the walls. They also have a small assortment of food ranging from cinnamon rolls to chicken and carnitas burritos. While the café itself isn’t expansive, it seemed like a comfortable space to work. Another patron was plugged in and dutifully typing away at a corner table. The café provided a nice relaxing spot to enjoy my coffee while a short rain shower soaked downtown Colorado Springs.
About the Coffee
- Origin: Bali, Indonesia
- Roast: Light (2/5)
- Price: $$$ (3/4)
- Drank at: Solar Roast Coffee Company, Colorado Springs, CO
- Aroma notes: Neutral with slight floral aroma
- Tasting notes: Light, balanced, but not weak. Floral notes and fruitiness, some light sugar/toffee taste. Quite pleasant.
- Notes from the bag: 100% USDA ORGANIC🌱 Natural Processed Indonesian light roast coffee. Fruity aroma with blueberry notes. Amazing flavor!
As the name implies, Solar Roasters roasts their beans using an electric solar oven contraption called a Helios. With this machine, they can roast up to 15 pounds of beans in 25 minutes. The process is supposed to result in lower acidity and smoothness in the brew. In the notes on the bag, they liken the process to slow and low temperature cooking for bar-be-que. In fact, they use more space on the bag explaining the roasting process than they do describing the beans themselves. Intrigued, I gave it a shot since I prefer a lower acidity brew anyway. I opted for the Bali light roast.
To my surprise, indeed it does make a rather balanced brew with low acidity. I can’t say for certain if a solar oven is any better than a regular coffee roaster (heat is heat is it not?) but the results do speak for themselves. The fruity blueberry notes come across subtly and, despite being a light roast, it had a medium bodied mouthfeel that gives the coffee a satisfying finish to compliment it’s floral tasting notes. If you’re in the Colorado Springs, I recommend checking out Solar Roast Coffee and the many other roasters in the downtown area.
Rating: 8/10
Coffee By The Mile 