I’ll be honest, until I got a follow from Tiki Tonga Coffee Roasters on Instagram, I’d never heard of them. But I’m always on the lookout for a new roaster to try, and to see what people can come up with.
Tiki Tonga have plenty of roasts available, and honestly, I wish I could have bought them all! Budget permitting, I opted to choose two. One of those was the 232 coffee.
I can’t lie, the big Guinness logo emblazoned on the packaging was a big draw. I like a Guinness, and immediately assumed that the 232 coffee was some Guinness-based gimmick. I was suckered-in regardless, and looked forward to what I expected to be a Guinness flavoured roast.
Flavoured coffee’s aren’t new, so I (wrongly) assumed that the 232 coffee was another.
Not only was I wrong, but I was seriously impressed. The 232 coffee isn’t actually imbued with Guinness flavouing at all. It’s cleverly roasted, briefly matching the temperature in which the barley is roasted for Guinness (232 degrees celsius).
Does it make a difference? Yes, most definitely!
The Process
If you’re unfamiliar with the Ninja Refinery coffee reviewing process, it’s pretty straight-forward, and hopefully thorough enough to justify being a proper review process.
Each coffee goes through 7 different brews. Espresso, V60, Aeropress, Chemex, Moka Pot, Cafetiere and Cold Brew. Each of these methods has been slowly but surely improved upon, to yield the best results possible.
Of course, coffee being coffee, there’s always room for improvement, but as long as I’m happy that it isn’t too sour, too bitter etc. I’m confident that I’m getting a good brew, regardless of the method.
All cups are black coffee only. I never add milk, so it’s purely the coffee and the flavours I can derive from each brew.
Of course, reviewing coffee (and anything!) is subjective and taste/flavours are a personal preference. All I can do is make sure it’s as fair and objective as possible.
It’s probably worth noting that these reviews are intense, and take me a long long time. I’m very much a novice when it comes to proper tasting, and I never want to do a disservice to any roast. So I take my time and genuinely work on these. Games are easy, accessible and pre-built. Coffee is brewed with precision and technique. I’m always learning, adjusting and improving my brews.
My coffee review content output is significantly less than anything else. Not because I don’t want to, but because committing the time isn’t always as straight forward as I would like.
Fragrance
Opening the bag straight after they arrived (one of my favourite things to do!), the Tiki Tonga 232 smells amazing! Recently roasted, chocolatey caramel fragrances, with that touch of almosty nuttiness at the back of it. This is a great start!!
Once brewed, it definitely loses those fragrances, but Tiki Tonga know what they’re doing with the 232, because there’s something almost creamy and smooth that just comes from the cup. Call me a lamen, call me whatever, but each cup was the same. It smells awesome.
Body
The Tiki Tonga 232 has been the easiest cup of coffee I’ve ever tried to determine the body of. As I’ve already put above.
This is silky smooth, creamy and delicious. I can only assume it’s the roasting method that has brought it out in the beans, but it’s bloody superb. Honestly, I get the creaminess and almost the thickness of Guinness, and suddenly it all makes sense.
Each cup, each brew was the same. Although my cold-brew was a little “thin” that was because I was running out of beans and didn’t have enough to give it the full body.
I’ve never had a coffee with such a creamy, smooth body. Not so consistently and so easily noticeable. Tiki Tonga have got their shit together, the 232 is exactly what I want in a cup of coffee.
Acidity
Because there’s this smoother, creamier mouthfeel. You’re not expecting much sweetness or anything in the way of fruit. That’s pretty fair to say. But there’s definitely a sweetness at the tail-end of each mouthful.
Not sugary, not acidic or fruity, just nicely balanced. The best way to describe it, I suppose. Is to say there’s a maltiness. This obviously ties-in nicely to the Guinness side of things. But it’s so much more than some cheap gimmick.
Tiki Tonga have managed to roast a smooth, creamy, slightly-sweet blend and the balance between everything there is nothing short of excellent!
Flavour
The nuttiness, the malt, the creaminess. Each cup of the Tiki Tonga 232 is a delight. Bordering upon sweet, never bitter and with those chocolate notes lingering in the nose, you’re treated to a luxurious cup of coffee, no matter which way you brew it.
I didn’t get much in terms of caramel, after the initial fragrance out of the bag. But I think the sweetness was derived from there, and the malty flavour that came from brewing each cup.
Overall
I think it’s pretty obvious at this point…….I loved the Tiki Tonga 232.
Not having really heard of them before, they have a few diffrent roasts to try. But I’ll be making sure I have a kilo of the 232 to hand instead, for now.
If you love a smooth, consistent and creamy coffee (without milk, remember!). Then this is the coffee for you!
An absolute delight with each brew. I’d suggest that the Chemex killed it’s depth of flavour a little, but the Moka Pot was a real treat. I struggle to get consistent cups from a Moka Pot, and it often comes out a little too bitter. Not this time, the Tiki Tonga really shone through from the Moka Pot!
Delicious in the V60 and a treat as an espresso. You could really do much worse than to give the 232 a go.
Outstanding work!
One of the easiest ninjarefinery.com “exceptional” awards I’ve ever given.
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