21st Street Coffee and Tea

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?