Tag Archive for 'Intelligentsia'

Last Calls

Published
by
Luke
on October 12, 2008
in Coffee
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Intelligentsia has sold through their lot of Esmeralda, and we’re well into our last bag, so get down here and try it while we still have some available.

We’re going to be introducing some new coffees this week, so to make room on the menu we will be taking the Itzamna (Guatemala) and Flecha Roja (Costa Rica) off the menu (for now).  We’ll have them for a few more days.

Kenya has been on the menu for a while, and just as we were considering taking it off Intelli springs a delicious new lot on us- Ndaroini (pronounced Ehn-dahr-oh-ee-nee).  It’s so good we’ll be keeping this one around for a while longer.

Look for the new Flor Azul (Nicaragua) and Kurimi (Ethiopia Yirgacheffe) coffees late next week!

BoingBoingTV-World Coffee Tour Pt 1

Published
by
Luke
on October 9, 2008
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Coming Soon: The Black Cat Project

Published
by
Luke
on October 6, 2008
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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!

The Legend of Esmeralda

Published
by
Luke
on September 17, 2008
in Coffee
. 3 Comments

This time last year we offered the infamous $22 cup of coffee.

We took some flack for charging such a high price, but the reality was at our cost of $198/lb we were only making about a dollar on each sale.  We sold about 1% of the world’s supply of the highest quality lot of the coffee ranked FIRST. IN. THE.  WORLD… 4 years in a row- the Esmeralda Especial.  We did it because we were excited to try it and wanted to share it with our customers.  As a bonus we got a lot of free PR, and customers are still talking about it a year later.

Sure we had some customers that wanted to try it solely for the novelty of it, to say they spent $22 on a cup of joe, but for many it was a unique and rare coffee experience.  The coffee tasted fantastic- everyone drank it black… in for here cups.  Best of all we had many great conversations with customers about coffee VALUE and QUALITY- and what it takes to pull off the stunning flavors in the cup.  This kind of quality does not happen by accident.

Here’s the new stuff.

This year’s crop was vacuum sealed at origin, to best preserve the delicate aroma, flavor, and acidity that make this coffee so unique.  Our roaster Intelligentsia decided not to purchase the top ranked lot, but what this means is that we’ll be able to offer this fantastic varietal brewed fresh to order for $7.  We’re going to do one size only- a 10oz.  No to-go cups please.  Bring a friend, split it, enjoy it.

As a funny aside to all this seriousness- we received our usual coffee shipment today. Next to all the big boxes full of coffee there was this tiny little box… what was inside? Was it the Esmeralda?

Letting the cat out of the bag

Published
by
Luke
on September 13, 2008
in Coffee
. 2 Comments

We’re asked all the time about coffee freshness-we’ve discussed freshness in prior posts but I wanted to say something about espresso.

We get weekly deliveries of Black Cat Espresso from Intelligentsia.  The coffee is roasted and ships out the same day.  Chicago to Pittsburgh is only a two-day trip via UPS Ground.  The coffee is shipped in foil bags with a one-way valve to allow the coffee to degas during it’s journey.   Roasting imparts carbon dioxide to the coffee, and for espresso it is this gas that allows for the wonderful crema that essentially translates the aroma of the coffee to your palette.  A thick, persistent, reddish brown crema is an indication of fresh espresso.  Too little crema… your coffee may be stale (assuming you’re doing everything else right).  When the coffee is just out of the roaster, however, it can be a little “too fresh”.  Too much CO2 leads to a shot of espresso that can turn to gas before your eyes.  What started out as a 2oz double shot can quickly shrink down to an ounce or less.  Where did my coffee go?  Hey I ordered a double… I thought you only served doubles here… sigh.

We’ve found, with the current incarnation of the black cat blend, the coffee actually tastes best after it’s rested for at least 5 or 6 days.  I’ve pulled shots at day 12 that were still pretty great, but I think day 7-9 is the sweet spot for this blend.  The thing is… we have to make sure it tastes awesome every day of the week, no matter if the coffee is three days off roast or 12.   We make use of other variables, such as temperature, dose, and grind, to account for the age of the coffee.  Our Synesso Cyncra gives us half a degree Fahrenheit temperature control over the brew water as it hits the coffee… it’s stable, too.

On Wednesday afternoon we got in our usual coffee shipment (9/8 roast).  We were getting low on 9/3 espresso, so it looked like the 9/8 stuff was going to go in pretty soon.  To sort of accelerate the aging process, we cut open a bag and let it “breathe” most of the day before it went into the grinder hopper.

Since it was under 5 days out of the roaster, we dropped the brew water temperature down a couple clicks to 195F.  We could have taken it lower but it tasted great at 195 and the lower temp really calmed down the “effervescence” of the crema- no more disappearing shots!  Today we were back up to 197F and the shots were tasting even better.  If the coffee is getting “long in the tooth”… 10-12 days off roast, I’ve cranked the temp up to 200F and we’ve been able to coax out some really nice flavor and still get a nice syrupy thick shot.

When I met David Schomer (one of the initial proponents of the Synesso) in Seattle this past spring he told me that 203F was THE TEMPERATURE at which espresso should be brewed.  I bought some of his coffee (@ Espresso Vivace- the Dolce), brewed it at his recommended dose and temperature and it was really great.  The roast appeared to be a shade lighter and the crema had more of a fluffy mouthfeel as compared to the syrupy black cat we were used to.  The guy obviously knows his coffee and for his blend he has “optimal settings”… but they don’t necessarily correlate to my shop with my coffee and my water at my altitude, etc.  It just goes to show that there is never really an absolute best way to prepare espresso.  We gain more control through technology and techniques and apply that to continuously improve what we perceive in the cup.

What does this mean to you?  I guess I’d like to express that each coffee is different.  Play around with all the variables under your control and find what tastes best to you.  Don’t take anything for granted, and don’t drink all your test shots.