Retail Beans

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 13:49:02 -0400

Here is what we will be offering on the retail wall this weekend:

Papua New Guinea Kimel Peaberry - light city roast

Ethiopian Queen City Harrar - light medium city

Guatemalan Huethuetenango Finca el Injertal - medium/darker medium city roast

Indian Monsooned Malabar - full city roast (these are the last bags of Malabar for awhile!)

When the Malabar sells out, Sumatra Mandheling GR 1 - full city roast

Dos Orchuideas Espresso Blend - medium/full city

Honduras Santa Barbara SHG/EP - French roast

New Espresso!

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 13:42:00 -0400

We here at the Lamplighter have decided to try to rotate our espresso seasonally, which would mean you get to try four different espressos per year. Although I don’t want to make a complete and wholehearted commitment to this system because sometimes a random and incredible lot might come in that we just have to serve. Spring has (quickly) turned to Summer and the time has come to try something new!

The single origin dry processed Queen City Harrar was looking like a good candidate, and we have had it as a SO espresso before, but truth be told, it is really finicky due to lots and lots of variation in bean size and roast. We decided after a few tastings to go with another Indonesian/ Central American blend. Some of the more traditional lovers of a classic Italian espresso would probably balk at the idea of having that much Indonesian coffee in a spro since the cup is usually pretty wild, but we were getting such great syrupy sweet notes from the Bali Blue Moon that we figured we’d give this new Java a shot. This blend turned out to be completely different from the last one!

I’m calling it the Dos Orchuideas Espresso Blend which means ‘two orchids’ in Spanish. It is a blend of dark medium city to full city Java Estate Jampit and Costa Rican Naranjo Cattleya. These coffees are both extremely good single estate coffees that balance each other wonderfully in the blend. The Naranjo Cattleya farm is named for an orchid unique to that region of Central America, and being that orchids are a fairly rare and difficult to cultivate flower and this blend is of two small estates with limited offerings, I figured the name fit.

IN THE CUP: The Java has a really nice smooth chocolate sweetness with a slight nutty flavor and offers a great backdrop to the Costa’s snap of fruity brightness. These are both wet processed so the cup is cleaner, there is less crema and the flavors are more subtle than the Moonsong Blend (which was the Bali Blue Moon and the Cafe Feminino Mexican Chiapas). These beans both come out of the roaster with little variation which should translate to a blend that is easier to work with and will pull more consistent shots. We’ll have it running tomorrow or Saturday at the latest!

Lamplighter Daily Offerings

Retail Beans

New Espresso!