Collection Biologique coffee beans by Café Touché
Café Touché, a Montreal-based coffee roaster, bridges the gap between Montreal-based coffee lovers and artisan roasters. They imagine, create and offer the “best” coffee in new and interesting combinations and blends. The Collection Biologique caught our eye because they are organic and inspired by different milestones in Montreal’s history.
Café Touché’s Collection Biologique includes five different blends of coffee beans. Each blend is dedicated to an important year, from the Montreal Expo in 1967 to the year Montreal became a UNESCO City of Design (2006). An iconic image adorns the sleek black packaging and the organic coffee beans are sourced sustainably from around the world.
Without further ado, here are the tasting notes.
1967 Intense & Complex
This blend is inspired by Montreal Expo 67, the event that brought the world’s many cultures to the city and gave us the iconic Montreal Biosphere. The idea is that Montreal opened up to intense and complex tastes, hence the intense and complex flavour profile.
The beans, sourced from Colombia and Honduras, smell sharply of wood and grass – like a campfire. This charred wood, grass and campfire-y nose is a bit more subtle in the brewed coffee. The scents seem to blend together more in the brew to create a lovely, warm nose. There’s strong flavour in the mug. Bitter and sharp right off the bat, it settles down in the mid-palate. That bitterness lingers in the end, making this a good coffee to sip with something sweet.
1969 Light and Delicate
This is a breakfast coffee blend that pays homage to John and Yoko’s “bed-in for peace”. They had two “bed-in” events: one in Amsterdam in March of 1969 and another in Montreal at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in May of 1969.
Sourced from Guatemala and Peru, the brewed coffee has an earthy nose with a hint of dark chocolate… and of course, the predominate coffee smell. Not unpleasant; smells sharp enough to wake you up when you’re drowsy but comforting enough to sip while you drowse in bed. Light and delicate would definitely fit the taste profile. In the mug, it starts off subtle then mid-palate gives you a kick of coffee flavour – earthy almost gritty, but in a pleasant way – with dark chocolate undertones. Bitter finish lingers. It’s a coffee that follows everyone’s morning pattern – slowly waking up and then that kick of energy to get you out of bed.
1976 Rich and Balanced
Named for the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics, this blend embodied the raised bar of excellence that ignited the metropolis and revived the pride of Montrealers. The beans come from Indonesia, Central America and South America.
Opening the bag fills the nose with grass, hay and/or straw, reminiscent of walking a farmer’s field after harvest. These smells carry into the brew, melding together to create a subtle, smooth hint of the field with notes of nuts. Smooth, definitely rich and balanced as the packaging says. Some nutty flavour and dark chocolate notes appear on the palate. Finishes with a very (very) subtle bitterness on the finish. Nice lingering flavour.
1980 Smooth
Montreal’s Jazz Fest is the epitome of smooth, which is what inspired this blend of Costa Rican and Guatemalan beans. It brews with a rich, slightly nutty and chocolate nose that predominantly smells of, well, coffee. The taste profile lives up to its name – it is very, very smooth. The rich flavours slide right through from the front of the palate to the end. Soft lingering bitterness ensures you remember that this is coffee and not a warm hug.