Sweet Maria's Green Coffee Blends

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Sweet Maria's Green Coffee Blends

Sweet Maria's offers a few pre-blended coffees for use as espresso and dark roast. There are pros and cons to blending. We feel strongly that good coffee does not need to be blended ... we want to discover the "origin taste" in the cup, the singular essence of the place the coffee is from. This is lost in blending. However, there are reasons to blend. Here are some excerpts from our Blending Article ...
	Our blends are made with our best coffees. We don't treat blends as a way to get rid of older coffees, or ones we need to clear out! In many cases, our blend components are sourced just for the blend, based on test roasts and cupping. They are all comprised of coffees on our green coffee offering list. While some roasters use blends as a way to reduce costs, to promote their name, and enforce customer loyalty, let me also add that many good small roasters are like us ... they are proud of their single farm, single origin offerings and they are proud of their blends! They too use great coffee in their blends. Whether a roaster adheres to the pre-roast or post-roast blend school, the cup cannot acheive excellence if average quality greens are used.
Update! We now have divided our blends into Standards (blends we maintain throughout the year, like our Espresso Monkey Blend, and Espresso Workshop "editions," lot-specific blends that will last only as long as their unique ingredients last. "Espresso Workshop"? We are going to divide our blend offerings into Standards, blends with the same name we maintain and are consistently offered, and new Espresso Workshop editions. The later are blends that are only offered for as long as we have the specific lots of coffee we used to design the blend, and then it's gone. When we maintain an Espresso Standard blend, like Espresso Monkey Blend, we have to find new lots to maintain the flavors of the blend as the coffee crops change. That can be a tough job, to optimize the blend and, at the same time, to maintain the "spirit of the blend" ... it's original intent. There will be shifts in the blend, inevitably. In a sense, Workshop Espresso editions are pure and uncompromising: specific coffees are found that inspire testing, and a new blend idea is born. Instead of maintaining the blend and making ingredient substitutions down the line, the Workshop editions follow the crop cycle of the coffee; they come and go.
Blending Basics Coffees from different origins are blended together for several reasons. Presumably the goal is to make a coffee that is higher in cup quality than any of the ingredients individually. But high quality arabica coffee should be able to stand alone; it should have good clean flavor, good aromatics, body and aftertaste. So one reason coffees are blended in the commercial world might be the use of lower-quality coffee in the blend. Another reason might be to create a proprietary or signature blend that leads consumers to equate a particular coffee profile with a particular brand image; consumers don't often call Starbucks by the origin names used in the coffee but simply as "a cup of Starbucks" as if the dark carbony roast tastes were somehow exclusive to that brand. Coffees are also blended to attain consistency from crop year to year. This is done with major brands that do not want to be dependent on any specific origin flavor so they can source coffee from the least expensive sources. Such blends generally reduce all the coffees included to the lowest common denominator. But let's put aside the less-than-noble reasons that coffee is blended and focus on details that concern the quality-oriented roaster.Before blending any high-quality coffees you should know the flavors of the individual coffees and have some goal for an ideal cup that cannot be attained by a single origin or single degree of roast. It would be a shame to blend a fantastic Estate coffee ...after all, you are supposedly trying to attain a cup that exceeds the components and its not likely you can do this with top coffees. And given that you have both a reason to a blend and a logical process for doing it, there will be little need for more than around 5 coffees in the blend. Blends with more than 5 coffees are considered to be fanciful, or indulgent, or confused by more than a few expert coffee tradespeople I know. *The Case Not* to Blend While blending requires the expert skill of knowing each ingredient coffee, having a clear cup profile as the goal in mind, and knowing how to achieve it, blends should not be considered a "higher" form of coffee by any standard. As indicated above, the opposite case is often true. For me personally there is much more satisfaction in enjoying single-origin and estate coffees roasted to their peak of flavor. In my opinion, even a so-so single-farm coffee is more intriguing than a blended cup ...even if the blend is admittedly superior! Why? Because when I taste an unblended coffee it is the end result of a long road from crop to cup, without any one person deciding what I will be experiencing. While I enjoy that cup, I like to think about that process, and it informs my opinion about that region or that specific farm. I enjoy feeling connected to the origin of the coffee and the process in this way... Blending Before or After Roasting** I get a lot of questions about blending before or after roasting ...which is better? Well, if you have an established blend it certainly is easier to blend the coffee green and roast it together. If you are experimenting with blend ingredients and percentages you will want to pre-roast each separately so you can experiment with variations without having to make a new roast with each change. The case for roasting coffees individually is strong with the Melange type blend (see below) and with a handful of particular coffees, such as Robusta in espresso blends. Some coffees are more dense, or have extreme size variations. These will roast differently than standard wet-processed arabicas. All dry-processed arabicas require roasting to a slightly higher degree of temperature. But in most cases the coffees can be roasted together and I would advise this: roast the coffee together until you encounter a situation where the results are disappointing and for success you must roast them separately. Every coffee roasts a bit differently but there is a great deal of averaging that occurs between coffees in the roast chamber, especially in drum roast systems. And then there's the coffees that do not roast evenly as single origins either: Yemeni, Ethiopian DP coffees, etc. Uneven roast color is not a defect, and only when it occurs in a wet-processed arabica that should roast to an even color (and sometimes not even in this case) is it of any consequence.Please see the reviews of the blends below... we do not tend to rate some blends with cupping numbers, especially with espresso. Espresso must be cupped as espresso and standard terms are undeveloped at this time. More Information: Our Blending Article.

Our Blends: (You will need to read the reference page to interpret terms and numbers used below). Check out the Sweet Maria's Coffee Home Roasting Forum for more conversation about home roasting blends and other coffees.

Espresso Workshop #5 - The Breccia Blend

Once you decide there is some substantial similarity on two processes, the analogies seem to flow ... flow like igneous, pyroclastic magma. Yes, we continue to peddle this geologic theme in naming our 5th Espresso Workshop Blend. Breccia is Italian in origin, meaning breach, but refers to the angular rock fragments, whether from volcanic origin, tectonic, or otherwise, that are often metamorphisized into new rock. Of course, I am thinking of espresso. Grinding whole bean coffee into particles like so much Breccia fragmentary rock, then re-compacting it into the filter basket, like the pressures that form metamorphic rock, then percolating water through it under pressure. It's the rock cycle. It's endlessly geologic, uh, sort of. Anyway, it makes for fun names, and certainly sends a few people to Wikipedia to find out more, including me. Here we have a blend that does not have the scent of any rock I can think of; what it does have is citrus, flowers, light and elegant body, zesty brightness, slightly piney-resinous finish. The recommended roast level is light for espresso (as with most our Workshop blends), Full City to Full City+, stopping the roast before 2nd crack, or just at the verge of it, as you hear the very first snap of 2nd crack. Air roasts can be just a tad darker. Over-roasting makes the blend more bitter than bittersweet, especially in the aftertaste. The dry fragrance in lighter roasts has a lemony scent, cake-like sweetness, a hint of berry, with some plum emerging a tad darker at FC+. The aroma from the freshly extracted shot is sublimely citrusy, with some very nectar-like floral sweetness (honeysuckle). The mouthfeel is quite light, but suits the overall character well; a treble-toned shot, wildly bright and fruited. There is ripe, pink grapefruit, Meyer lemon, and the lightest roasts we tried have a squirt-you-in-the-face citrus peel kick to them. The floral notes turn to hop flowers, and the same resinous tone you get in the finish of a tongue-twisting IPA are found here. Initially you may think this light body indicates a mild flavor experience, but that will change as you live with the aftertaste of this shot for the next 5 or 10 or 25 minutes. You realize that you have been "beaten with a flower" indeed. Expect some sweet tobacco and piney resins notes to emerge long into the aftertaste. A roast note: one coffee we use in this blend is not perfectly prepared, and there can be some light-looking quaker beans in the roast. Cull these very light beans out or any other broken ones. This coffee is key to the blend, and we decided it was worth offering despite it's imperfect preparation.

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Espresso Workshop #5 - The Breccia Blend

$5.85	Limit 1 pound

Our Limted Edition Espresso #5

Country: Blend; a mix of origin countries

Grade: Top grades

Region: Blend (Africa and Indonesia)

Mark: SM Espresso Edition #5

Processing: Wet Process

Crop: April 2009 Arrival

Appearance: .6 d/300gr, 17-18 screen

Varietal: Various

Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium-Bold / Light body but intense brightness, citrus, flowers

Roast: In drum roasting, this blend is best if the roast is stopped just before, or exactly at the very first snap of 2nd crack. In an air roaster it can pass 10 seconds after the first snap of 2nd crack. Yes, it's supposed to be bright! See the note about post-roast culling in the review too.

Compare to: Screaming bright espresso, and, if roasted properly, great citrusy and floral notes.

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Espresso Workshop #7 - La Tessitura

The 7th limited edition, lot-specific espresso blend we are offering goes by the name Tessitura. In music, the Italian term Tessitura (from the Latin word textura) describes the most musically acceptable and comfortable range for a given singer or musical instrument; the range in which a given type of voice presents its best-sounding texture or timbre. I thought that expressed quite well this lot-specific blend, where I feel each coffee is giving it's best, and is perfectly proscribed to the range of flavors they can deliver. We are covering a few continents on this one. We have coffees from Brazil, from El Salvador and Guatemala, and an Ethiopia "grace note" coffee that gives this a dry fruit accent. It's not as bright as our other blends have been as late, but of course the relative brightness has a lot to do with your degree of roast, and the pressure and temperature variables of how you pull your shot. We prefer this edition roasted just to the verge of 2nd crack, but not entering it. The dry fragrance is an interesting mix of austere fruited tones and chocolate alkaloids. There are suggestions of dried banana, plum, and some savory notes as well, even a bit of Tamari sauce. But it is sweet nonetheless, and this comes out in the shot aromatics; dry apricot, dark berry, Swiss chocolate. The cup has an amazing range, from alto to bass notes, with sparkling citrus brightness (especially as it cools and in the aftertaste), but flavors more along the lines of dried fruits and light-roasted cocoa nibs. It's an unusual flavor profile, brightening as it sits on the palate, but initially not biting. Ruby red grapefruit and fresh peach highlight the finish, along with a sustained and balanced bittersweet flavor, and some savory undercurrent. It's a hefty, powerful set of flavors this blend brings to bear, without needing darker roast levels, or the burnt or pungent flavors of darker roast levels. The mouthfeel and weight on the palate is medium, neither thin enough to be noted as a deficit or super thick either.

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Espresso Workshop #7 - La Tessitura

$6.00	$11.40	$26.10	$49.80	$92.40

Our 7th workshop blend, La Tessitura, meaning "range of a voice or instrument."

Country: Blend; a mix of origin countries

Grade: Top grades

Region: A mix of areas

Mark: SM Espresso Edition #7

Processing: Various processes.

Crop: September 2009 Arrival

Appearance: .2 d/300gr, 17-18 screen

Varietal: Various

Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium - Bold / Dried fruits, Swiss chocolate, citrus accents, long aftertaste

Roast: In drum roasting, this blend is best if the roast is stopped just before any sign of 2nd crack. In an air roaster it can pass just a tad into 2nd crack. Yes, it's supposed to be bright!

Compare to: Those who like properly fruited espresso will enjoy this.

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Espresso Workshop #8 - Waw, Bukan Main!

It has been a while since we have integrated a Sumatra component into espresso, for several reasons. Coffees from Aceh in the North can be great in espresso, offering bass note bittersweets, and thick body as a backdrop for other flavors. But finding the right Sumatra, and one with consistent and uniform processing can still be quite a challenge. We have very well-prepared lots from the Toba-Batak area, but much of Aceh is still sold as bulk Mandheling Grade One, with not enough care put into harvest, wet-hull processing (Giling Basah) or drying and final preparation. With this blend, I found a Sumatra I really felt would work, clean yet deep-toned, and consistent from cup to cup. In fact, this coffee had me so excited when I finally honed in on the final recipe and pulled test shots, the expression "Waw, Bukan Main!" came to mind ... that's what I heard an Indo cupper say when he tasted a really nice coffee, back on my last Sumatra trip. So breaking with all our audio-phonic and geologic name schemes, I had to interject "Waw, Bukan Main!" into the orderly (!) progression of our Espresso Workshop lot-specific blend project. And this cup really isn't about Sumatra flavor profile either, that really lays low, as a backdrop for fruited tones in the cup. This coffee works well at lighter and darker roast levels, anywhere from City++ to Full City+ or light Vienna. It is a complex espresso with great bass to tenor range and an overlay of fruited bright notes. The dry fragrance from the grounds is very sweet, with jammy fruit notes, plum, fig, tamarind, raisin. The crema from the shot has a date sugar sweetness, and zesty nutmeg and cinnamon scent, which comes through in the finish as well. It's such a nicely fruited cup, with rich chocolate bittering notes and tannic tightness in the finish, but much sweeter up front. There is an amazing syrupy character and if you nail the degree of roast, just a few snaps into 2nd and no more, it's a blackberry syrup you will extract here (with 8.5 bars pressure, 203 f temp at start of shot). Darker roast deliver a compact flavor with a more tannic edge to it, and an intense chocolate tang in the finish. Lighter roasts, just at the edge of 2nd, can be surprisingly bright, but have great dimension from high fruited berry notes to deep chocolate layers.

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Espresso Workshop #8 - Waw, Bukan Main!

$5.80	$11.02	$25.23	$48.14	$89.32

Our 8th workshop blend; Waw! Bukan Main! An Indo expression for Wow, Impressive!

Country: Blend; a mix of origin countries

Grade: Top grades

Region: A mix of areas

Mark: SM Espresso Edition #8

Processing: Various processes.

Crop: September 2009 Arrival

Appearance: .2 d/300gr, 17-18 screen

Varietal: Various

Intensity/Prime Attribute: Bold Intensity / Syrupy body, blackberry fruited notes, nutmeg, layers of fruit and chocolate, long bittersweet aftertaste.

Roast: This coffee works well at lighter and darker roast levels, anywhere from City++ to Full City+ or light Vienna. I prefer it just a few snaps into 2nd crack, no more. Note that Sumatra component looks lighter in surface color than it truly is at this degree of roast.

Compare to: It is a complex espresso with great bass to tenor range and an overlay of fruited bright notes. If there are light "quaker" beans after roasting, pick them out before grinding.

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Sweet Maria's Decaf Espresso "Donkey" Blend

People have requested that we offer a pre-blended espresso, a decaf counterpart to the Espresso Monkey blend. Working under the codename of the "Donkey Blend" (don't ask how all these ridiculous names started ---I think it was George's fault) we came up with this. It is intended to be used several ways. As an all-decaf espresso blend I wanted it to work well under a wide variety of roasting conditions, in terms of both lighter Northern Italian type espresso roasts (the equivalent of a Full City to Vienna Roast) and the darker Southern Italian type roast (roasted to a French roast). I also wanted a good espresso from both air and drum roasters, and I wanted good crema. This is a lot to ask from a decaf, but I think this blend works very well. While origin tastes are muted in decafs, I think the bittersweet roast tastes from this blend are very good. My second focus was having the blend not have too much character so that it can be used as a base blend for a "low-caf" espresso. This means it should work well as 50-75% of your blend where you add other caffeinated coffees to give more aromatics and flavor: my choice would be a Ethiopian Harar, or a Central American (see our Blending Basics article for more). Why do we call this Donkey Blend? Frankly, I can't remember .. it just is...

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Sweet Maria's Decaf Espresso "Donkey" Blend

$5.60	$10.64	$24.36	$46.48	$86.24

Infamous decaf donkey logo.

Country: Blend, Brazil,Sumatra, Ethiopia + ___

Grade: Top Grade

Region: Variety

Mark: WP Decaf and Natural Decaf

Processing: Wet-processed, Dry-Processed

Crop: All current-new crop

Appearance: 1 d/300gr, 16/17 scr

Varietal: Varies

Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium / Balance, fruit

Roast: As with all decafs, remember they roast faster and have the propensity to get away from you and end up darker than you expected. So attend to the roaster and stop the roast manually if possible to get it just right. Roast preference with espresso is up to you. I personally prefer the lighter N. Italian roast -just a bit mire than a Full City.

Compare to: Good, balanced, clean sweet espresso!

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Sweet Maria's Espresso Monkey Blend

A longtime favorite espresso blend intended solely for pump and piston type espresso extraction. This is a sweet but punchy little cup, and roasted farly light it is a shock to the palette, but has great body and a smooth, sweet, stunning aftertaste. The joke behind the name: I imagine a fancy roaster charming a client in the cupping room, effusing about their "Master Roaster" and "Master Blender" and "Master Cupper", all in the trade for decades of course. Then I imagine the scene in their warehouse where hired apes rip open bags of green coffee and randomly hurl handfulls into the hopper for roasting. In other words, there's a lot of BS in the coffee trade, and blending is NOT really a noble art ...it's done to save cost and disguise coffee defects 80% of the time. The Irony? I have never worked so hard to develop a blend as this one, designed to cup well at a full range of "espresso" roasts, and developed as a pre-blend (all coffees roasted together to same degree of roast). Am I going to tell you exactly what is in it? No! I am feeling a bit snobby today! Espresso Monkey has become our signature blend for some reason or other, perhaps because it is a true standard that we have sought to maintain for so long, and that we put such nice coffees into it. We blend this for body, balanced between high and low tones, chocolate roast flavors, and slightly rustic fruited accent notes. Those are our goals, that is the "spirit" behind the blend, and we check it to make sure it meets those targets. Our roast goal is in the beginning stages of 2nd crack ... we never "let it roll".

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Sweet Maria's Espresso Monkey Blend

$5.00	$9.50	$21.75	$41.50	$77.00

The Monkey

Country: Blend, My secret, mister!

Grade: Top Grades

Region: -

Mark: -

Processing: Dry- and Wet-Process

Crop: All current-new crop

Appearance: 15-17 screen

Varietal: varies

Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium / Balance, complexity, fruit

Roast: I prefer Northern Italian style re: Illy's Normale blend. I like this blend best when the roast is stopped just as second crack becomes rapid, and shows no sign of slowing down. Actually, I like it a lot lighter than that too! I don't like this roasted to a dark, dark roast stage, Full French or Italian. This is because Brazilian coffees become ashy and began to bitter when roasted extremely dark. I believe strongly in a 36+ hour resting period before use for espresso extraction! It wont kill you to use it sooner... but you might notice sharp unpleasant notes.

Compare to: Darn fine espresso. This was cupped exclusively as espresso, not traditional cupping, so cupping numbers are omitted. I dont like it when brewed as filter coffee! Also see our article on Blending for more about espresso

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Sweet Maria's French Roast Blend

This is my favorite blend designed to endure the rigors of dark roasting, and produce excellent pungent tastes, attractive bittersweet/carbony flavors, and great body. Body is so important to a darker roast. Extended roasts incinerate body, and a thin cup of burned water IS NOT what French Roast coffee is about! You do not want to fully burn up all the sugars, you want some degree of bittersweet, overlayed on the carbony charcoal tones of the burned woody structure of the bean itself. You want something still volumnous, and something sharp that stings you a bit down the center of the tongue. Well, at least if you do want these things, then we share common ground, and you might like my blend. Please note that we made changes to improve the blend on 7/20/01. I have changed the percentages and added a new coffee that became available that really enhances the chocolatiness in the Vienna stage, and the pungency in the darker French stage

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Sweet Maria's French Roast Blend

$5.00	$9.50	$21.75	$41.50	$77.00

SM French roast blend

Country: Blend, South American, Indonesian, Ethiopian, East African

Grade:

Region:

Mark:

Processing: Mostly Washed

Crop: All current-new crop

Appearance: 16 to 18 screen

Varietal: varies

Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium to Bold / Balance, Body

Roast: I like this blend best roasted to the point where 2nd crack slows, but has not yet ended. Roast to the absolute end of 2nd crack, and you might as well be drinking roasted radish. I believe strongly in a 24 hour resting period for darker roasts.

Compare to: Watch out Peets, I got your number!. This was cupped as a dark roast, cupping numbers omitted. Also see our article on Blending for more about the subject.

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Sweet Maria's Liquid Amber Espresso Blend

I wanted an espresso blend that was potent, sharp, intense; but without excessive mustiness, fruitiness, or earthy flavors. But I wanted it also to be complex and hint at all of those tastes, and more! Here's the product of a lot of overly-caffeinated days of experimentation: the Liquid Amber Espresso Blend. It is named for the rich color and multitude of crema it produces. The blend was fairly complex to come up with ... after I found the general tastes I wanted, emerging from aroma and first sip through the very long aftertaste (if I don't cleanse my palate with water I will taste this coffee for 20+ minutes) I needed to play with the exact percentages. The specific blend, hey ... it is my secret! But I will tell you that the 5 coffees that really worked toward the flavor goal I imagined ended up surprising even me! I will say that there are Dry-processed, Wet-processed, and Monsooned coffees in here. I will also admit that there is a modicum of quality Robusta. And to keep this a mystery, the blend contains some coffees not on our list. Extracted in a properly-functioning, clean espresso machine the blend produces a lot of crema, making the mouthfeel very thick and creamy. The sharp pungent bite to the blend is not bitter, and fades into a rich tobaccoy-milk chocolate aftertaste. If properly roasted (not scorched) the blend will not be ashy, something I really don't like in espresso. (With any espresso, if the aftertaste turns acrid and bitter after 3 minutes or so, clean the heck out of your machine.) In the Liquid Amber Blend there are hints of fruit, mushrooms, sweet smoke, caramel, and cream in the extended aftertaste. This blend works extremely well in milk drinks, meaning by that a true cappuccino (6-9 oz.) or machiatto. I make no claims for Latte ... is there any coffee that tastes potent mixed down 8:1 in a Slurpee-sized cup of milk?Please note: on 1-05 I changed the type of Monsooned coffee. It is paler, sweeter, and is not a coffee we offer on our list. It's a special purchase for the blend to increase sweetness and reduce mustiness. -Tom

Liquid Amber Note:If the coffee arrives and doesn't appear evenly blended, this is because of the vibration during loading and shipment. I can positively guarantee your that the blend was packed in the exact, correct proportion (we are extremely careful about this), but the difference in size/density of the Monsooned/non-Monsooned can make them separate a bit with vibration. Just give it a stir....

Sweet Maria's Liquid Amber Espresso Blend

$5.30	$10.07	$23.06	$43.99	$81.62

Country: A secret!

Grade: All top grades

Region:

Mark:

Processing: Dry-processed, Wet-processed, Monsooned

Crop:

Appearance: 0 d/300gr, 17-19 Screen

Varietal: Arabica and Robusta

Intensity/Prime Attribute: Bold / Pungency, Power, Aftertaste

Roast: I advocate a Northern Italian style roast (lighter espresso roast, really a Vienna roast, stopped 30-45 seconds into 2nd crack), but the blend works very well at the darker Southern Italian style roast (a full French roast actually, at the peak of a rapid 2nd crack). Either way, get this into 2nd crack and allow proper resting that espresso demands: 48+ hours is best. This blend works great in air and drum roast machines and I developed it testing-roasting on both. If you notice a tingly "baking soda effect" in your mouth, then the coffee could use more rest.

Compare to: Very potent espresso blends … Illy has a blend that is somewhat similar but is not domestically available. Other blends with monsooned have a much higher percentage of monsooned coffees and are lighter in body, and a little more musty in flavor.

Sweet Maria's Moka Kadir Blend

This is a powerful blend of coffees from the Red Sea area, from Yemeni coffees on one side, and Ethiopian coffees on the other. I intended for the exotic espresso shot or filtered coffee. It incorporates three excellent Dry-Processed coffees that contribute to a huge body, strong bittersweet chocolate roast-taste, and intense fruity aromatics. Since all are Dry-Processed and have nearly equivalent denties and moisture contents, this an acceptable pre-roast blend (as opposed to blending coffees after roasting them separately). None these coffees roast to a uniform color individually, which is part of their character and complexity in the cup. My purpose here is to offer a precisely blended coffee I love, and save you from buying the coffees separately. The Yemeni, Sidamo and other coffees we use for our Moka Kadir are stocked just for the blend, which makes it hard (well, impossible) for you to recreate this though; and I feel the coffees need to be pre-blended and equalize moisture content with eachother, something that works well in large batches. ***Rating numbers to the left are for filter-drip or French Press coffee, but this blend is great for espresso too. For espresso, let this coffee rest at least 48 hours ... I think it's best at 3+ days *** PLEASE NOTE: Because this blend has dry processed, hand sorted coffees in it, it is not unusual to get the occasional small rock. Be sure to cull through the green and the roasted carefully - one small dirt clod can really ruin a pot of coffee (and small rocks can get jammed in a grinder).

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Sweet Maria's Moka Kadir Blend

$5.80	$11.02	$25.23	$48.14	$89.32

SM Moka Kadir Blend

Country: Blend, Yemen, Ethiopia, Brazil

Grade: 4,5

Region: Hararghe, Sidamo-Limu, Yemen

Mark: Sweet Maria's

Processing: Dry-Processed

Crop: All current-new crop

Appearance: 1d/300gr,
15 to 18 scr

Varietal: Heirloom Arabica Moka, Mundo Novo

Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium to Bold / Fruity, earthy, winey

Roast: Full City+, or Darker. Like other DP (Dry Process) North Africans, roasts are uneven. Lighter roasts than this can be potent and bright, but the brightness seems a little askew with the overall pungent cup character ---so I prefer a darker roast to tone down brightness and underscore chocolate roast tastes. Let the "vanguard" beans enter 2nd crack, and the lags will be at City stage.

Compare to: Eating a bar of bitterweet chocolate while sniffing flowers, or wild, DP, natural North African/Yemen coffees.

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Sweet Maria's New Classic Espresso

Once there was "Classic Italian," our espresso blend to set the benchmark for traditional European-style espresso. It was a blend based on quality Brazil coffees, with a touch of aromatic Central American coffee to add a grace note to the cup, and it had a small percentage of premium robusta in it for crema, mouthfeel, and to add traditional flavors found on the continent. But times change and tastes change. Espresso culture is much less Euro-centric, and for good reason. While Italy gave us espresso, the general quality of street-level espresso there can be exceptionally poor. Don't even talk about coffee in France. The big brands in Europe are largely run by multi-nationals who keep a close watch on price, and gleefully buy lower quality green coffee if they can save .01 Euro. The privates follow suit, in order to compete. Of course, there are the exceptions, but the darker roast styles, well into 2nd crack, to cover up the use of low quality green coffee ... well, that is NOT something to emulate. For Sweet Maria's, espresso has never been our dumping ground for coffees we can't sell, old lots, or ones with mild defect. It's been a program where we have dedicated much time, focus in cupping, and roast testing. With this in mind, we want to start over again, and offer New Classic, a somewhat silly name, an oxymoron, and overused ... but it says what I want it to say: Here is the new benchmark espresso with sweet-bittersweet balance, body, crema, and finesse, the core definition of the espresso beverage, and defines it in the established West Coast espresso style (clean, bright notes) without the burden of European espresso conventions. In other words, no robusta! No obsessive interest in crema! (You can produce buckets of crema in espresso and still have a very mediocre-tasting cup. What ... do you make espresso just to look at the beautiful crema? No dummy, you make it to drink it!) While this blend is designed primarily for a lighter roast, stopping the roast before 2nd crack, it also works well with a darker roast treatment. It does not have the extreme brightness that have been the trademark of some of our Espresso Workshop blends; it is a bit more restrained in it's overall demeanor. The cup has a balance between sweet and bittersweet flavors, moderate bright accent, soft traces of fruit, body and depth. The lighter roasts have a very sweet aromatic, fruited with plum and a hint of spice (cinnamon stick, cardamom). Darker roasts tend toward chocolate laced with dark fruit tones, in both aroma and cup flavor. Both have a firm, opaque body, with toasted almond roast notes as the espresso cools. In the aftertaste, peach tea flavor (and it light roasts a bit of jasmine tea) are evident. Of course, results vary with how the espresso machine and grinder are set up. We use 8.5 bars of pressure at the head, with 202 degrees water temperature (measured at the head) to start, dropping to about 198. At higher temperatures, it's a more aggressive espresso with a bittersweet edge and well-suited to milk drinks.

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Sweet Maria's New Classic Espresso

$5.00	$9.50	$21.75	$41.50	$77.00

New Classic Espresso Blend

Country: Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala

Grade: Top Grades

Region: -

Mark: -

Processing: Dry-Process and Wet-Process

Crop: All current-new crop

Appearance: 16-17 screen

Varietal: varies

Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium / Balance, complexity, moderate fruit, mouthfeel

Roast: We recommend a range of roasts from FC, FC+ to light Vienna. That means just ending the roast just before 2nd crack (FC), a few snaps into 2nd crack (FC+), or as second crack begins to gain some momentum (Vienna).

Compare to: Not your Italian espresso, no robusta, no old Brazils! This is the new standard for West Coast type espresso extraction. New Classic is blended with some coffees from our Farm Gate program.

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