Our house espresso is a custom formulation that we develop 2-3 times per year using coffee exclusively from Blanchards Coffee. They’re a great partner in enabling us to invade their roasting space to try different permutations of the coffee that they have available at that time.
Coffee is seasonal, coming to fruit 1 time per year, so it’s only natural that supply of a certain coffee runs out. There are 2 ways to approach this constraint: try to hide it by swapping it out for other similar coffees, sometimes roasting it darker to erase unique notes, or, you can embrace the seasonality and highlight the distinct notes. We choose the latter and use it as an educational platform, raising awareness for how coffee is grown and sourced.
We’re in the process of developing our latest blend, starting with 6-8 different bases (single-origin coffees), sampling them first on their own, and then deciding how to put them together. We typically put 2-3 different coffees into our espresso blend (not uncommon). Following today’s sampling, we will bring back 4 versions to The Lab and serve 2 at a time, blind, to customers (meaning if you order 1 espresso, we’ll serve you 2) and solicit their feedback. For our house coffee, we want it to be well-balanced, something you’d be happy drinking everyday, both on its own or with milk.
Swing by over the next couple weeks to provide your input, or wait on the sidelines and enjoy the ‘fruits’ of our labor. This version should last us 3-4 months.