A New Espresso Blend is coming to Town

Coffee is, as you all know, a seasonal fruit. I say fruit, because that way it feels even more seasonal. By the way; It's the truth.
This also means that our offer in coffee is changing all the time, as does our most important blend, the Little Green Bag.

Last version (LGB 3.1.) was an 'in between one'. A more classical approach on blending with an equal mixture of the Brazil Daterra and an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. Very stable and solid, but no competition blend.
Of course it is totally out of fashion to use blends at Barista competitions, although the ambition is the same. We want the best possible coffee for our espresso, cappuccino or signature drink.

What do we see in the bar?
The signature drink is something we have on the menu. Not those spectacular ones you see on stage, but still special.

The espresso is the drink we Barista's love drinking. It's gives us instant satisfaction. One small sip can bring in 5 or more flavors and the after taste is mostly very long lasting.

In reality though we notice that the real business is in the milk based drinks.
In this category we focus most on single and double shots cappuccino's and latte's and its especially towards these kind of drinks I build my blend upon.

And that's difficult.
Translating cupping notes towards espresso is difficult. Towards a blend is very difficult. Add milk on top and it's almost impossible.
But of course we have our methods, and bit by bit tonloads of experience. :-)

So, the LGB 3.2. :



The Honduras Montana Verde is a very popular bean. It's a coffee everyone likes, and a real espresso bean.
Going for a single bean blend is asking for problems - I want more stability - and so we had to ask a companion. With preference a coffee with a bit more natural acidity. We can roast it more into the Montana Verde, but then we loose a bit of the creamy mouthfeel at the same time and that's just the strong thing about the M.V.
Don't beat me if I change this 1/3 of the blend again next month, but for the moment we pick back up an old friend of ours, the Dominican Republic Jarabacoa Ramirez Organico.
This coffee gives nice lemon and was my favourite 'cappuccino coffee' last year. Coupled with the Montana Verde it gives us a very juicy espresso with incredible creaminess in the mouthfeel and a liquid candy bar cappuccino.

From today at Hopland and bit by bit all over the Belgium and Holland.

Hope to hear your reactions on it.
Have a nice day.