21st Street Coffee and Tea

Black Cat is the espresso blend from our roaster Intelligentsia that we use to make all of our espresso based drinks.  The Black Cat Project is a formal effort by our roaster to continually improve upon and refine their signature blend based on the very best in season coffees they can get their hands on.  It is also an effort to bring delicious single origin coffees to market for espresso brewing.  We had a couple glimpses of what was to come earlier this year, but I’ve been waiting for an update ever since we pulled the last shots of that single origin El Salvador months ago.  Anyway, I just got this email from Intelli regarding the status of the Black Cat Project.  I’m pretty excited about it and wanted to share it…

Hi,

Black Cat will soon become Black Cat Classic, why? Because when the Black Cat Project goes live everything will be Black Cat….Black Cat is essentially becoming a mark like Tres Santos, or Inmortales - and there will be variations of the blend and single origins flown under the Black Cat flag. (Kid O will eventually become Organic Black Cat Blend…)

The bigger and more exciting news is that the Black Cat you’ll get this week is Direct Trade!

Some info from our buyers:

The blend currently consists of two coffees. It is :

- Brazil Fazenda Santa Alina 80% (100% Yellow Bourbon)
- El Salvador Los Inmortales “El Borbollon” 20% (100% Bourbon)

Fazenda Santa Alina

Santa Alina is located in the Grama Valley outside Pocos de Caldas in Minas Gerais. Volcanic soil, good latitude, shade and decent altitude combine to yield consistently very sweet coffees. This coffee is actually grown at 1200m, after which it is pulped and dried on a raised, ventilated bed, a patio and finally a mechanical dryer.

Santa Alina is bordered by numerous other well known coffee farms, including Fazenda Cachoeira, Fazenda Rainha and Fazenda Barreiro  (Map).

As far as flavor notes, you can look for some big cherry sweetness, strong citrus and a syrupy chocolate support. Enjoy!

I’m a big fan of the changes made to the blend over the past year.  Intelligentsia is the kind of company I like working with- always pursuing a better way and never resting on their laurels.  I like the brightness and sweetness we’ve been getting from the Black Cat- it’s just so darned tasty.  I love that all of the coffees are going to the direct trade model and that they’re releasing the components of the blend.  Finally I’m looking forward to the near future when we’ll be able to offer a single origin espresso menu to go along with our brewed coffee menu.  Good stuff indeed!