Little Green Bag : The Restart

Almost 15 months ago we had our first bag of 'Little Green Bag'. A bag with 2 or 3 organically processed beans.
Most of the people really liked the blend and saw it as an improvement over our classic House Blend.
Click here for the post and the Thuisbarista forum review.

IDEA : At the first day of the start of the Roastery we had plans to create a (new) state of the art blend. Not to replace the House Blend. I think this one remains our more 'commercial' and number 1 blend value wise. 'No better cup for the money' is the House Blend idea and at €14,80 a kilo we think of achieving this goal.
No interesting new blend name was found and so we relaunch the Little Green Bag.

With the LGB we aim higher and go for a clean quality blend. Of course this has a certain price tag, but the 'real' espresso fan is focused on quality, isn't it?

SEASONAL : The Little Green Bag espresso blend is, just like comparable blends as the Square Mile and Tim Wendelboe one, constantly changing throughout the year. This is because green coffee is a seasonal fresh product and different producing countries have different seasons and harvesting periods. We try to buy smaller lots of coffee and not store them for too long in order to keep the coffee as fresh as possible. Therefore we change our blend from time to time to highlight the coffees we currently have in house. In addition we strive to improve ourselves and make a better product every day because our knowledge, habits and preferences are constantly developing.

TASTE : Our first LGB of 2010 has a medium body, refreshing acidity with lemon upfront. We notice a good sweet middle and a lovely finish with dark chocolate flavors.
On a regular (2,5cl) espresso the acidity is modest. On the double ristrettos (3cl) we notice a peak in acidity in the beginning and a longer aftertaste. This last one is our favourite way to experience the Little Green Bag.

Although it's an espresso blend, one of the reasons we have the Dominican Republic in it at 50%, it's because of the, oh so important cappuccino. At the bar the cappuccino and latte's are the most popular drinks and the taste of this LGB cappuccino is best comparable to a warm chocolote drink with cream. Delicious.

CONTENT : We couple the Dominican Republic Jarabacoa Ramirez Washed Organico here with the Brazil Carmo De Minas Pereira Estate Pulped Natural. The last one doesn't have an organic label, but is sustainable.

For the future we hope to keep the organic part as high as possible, but forgive us if this isn't always the case. Very hard for us to find the perfect organically certified bean in Europe.
We expect a new LGB by the last week of the year.

PRICE : To launch this LGB we have it on the shelf at €4,50/250 grams or €18/kilo. With the price increases of the last weeks I'm afraid the next one is going to hit the €20 marker, but even then I think it's fully worth the price.

ROASTING & PURPOSES : The roasting on this blend is lighter than the House Blend. This way we enhance the natural sweetness of the Bean and create a refined acidity. This also means the LGB is a stellar filter or press coffee.
For those who are on the look out for a stronger and/or big bodied cup we have to direct you back to the House Blend or eventual Week Roast coffee's.


Here a (flat) preview of the upcoming bags (probably more for 2011) :