Sparrows Dirty Bird

Sparrows Coffee, Grand Rapids. Colombia Cauca, Cafinorte, washed Bourbon. $16 for 12 oz.

A dark roast that doesn't taste like an apology for being one. Dark chocolate, currant, smoke, and enough body to carry all of it.

How I brew it

Pour-over, not drip, and that's the whole recommendation. The cone curbs the darkness slightly and the particular character of the coffee comes through, where a drip basket flattens it into generic dark roast. V60 for the cleanest version, Chemex if you want it rounder.

Grind a tick coarser than you would for a medium roast. Dark roasts are more soluble and give up their solubles faster, so the same setting pulls out everything bitter in them.

Roaster's notes

Dark chocolate, currant, roasty, smoky, rich.

What I taste

All of that, and the currant is real rather than a tasting-note flourish. There's fruit under the smoke if you look for it.

When I reach for it

A morning that needs some punch. This is not a subtle coffee and it isn't trying to be, which is the appeal.