21st Street Coffee and Tea

We received a nice surprise today when a trailer pulled up outside the shop and said they had a “coffee machine from Seattle” to deliver. That meant one of two things- either the Clover or the Synesso was here (that’s right… our brewers are made in the good ol’ US of A). I asked how heavy it was and when the answer was under 100lbs I knew it was the Clover. The Clover 1s is a commercial grade single cup coffee brewer. This is not the automatic machine brewing “hazelnut coffee” from a pod in your office break room.

Clover is going to revolutionize our coffee business. Essentially our coffee menu in the Strip will no longer feature “Coffee of the Day”. In it’s place will be the “Clover Brew Bar” menu. What does this mean for our coffee customers? Here’s what we’re thinking:

• Variety: We will likely feature 6-10 different (Intelligentsia) coffees at a time, for example award winning reserve coffees, single origins from Bolivia, El Salvador, favorite blends like the El Diablo Dark Roast, more than one decaf, etc. Also, you’ll actually be able to sample a coffee and see how it tastes before you buy a pound.
• Speed of service: Each coffee will be brewed to order in about the time it takes us to pull a double espresso (under 2 minutes). Also, no more waiting for us to re-brew an airpot because we either sold out or it’s time was up.
• Freshness: All of our coffees will be within two weeks of the roast date (as they are today) and will be ground fresh for each cup of coffee seconds before it is brewed. Your coffee will not be sitting in an airpot waiting to be sold.
• Quality: We’ve tried coffee brewed on the Clover- it simply tastes better than our current brewer (that’s why we got it). Each coffee will be custom brewed with the precise temperature and time. The best way to describe it is a perfectly executed french press without the sediment. It tastes cleaner than a press pot.
• Repeatability: We’ll choose our lineup of coffees and feature them for several weeks at a time, so customers will get a chance to enjoy all of them side by side. Since we can program the time/temperature settings for each coffee, it will taste the way it should every single time.
• In-Store Experience: This thing is just flat out fun to watch, smell, etc. It used to be that all the excitement in the preparation of a drink was reserved for the espresso customer- not anymore…

Can’t wait to hook it up!