#espresso blend

[nosamyrag]

[josumacoffee]

Reverse Engineering the Italian Espresso Blend

Although few, if any, Italian roasters disclose the recipes for their espresso blends, there is a way to reverse engineer the typical Italian espresso blend. Since Italians consume very little brewed coffee, all green coffee imported into Italy is effectively going into espresso blends. 

Using this data. we’ve compiled the mix of origins that the typical Italian roaster uses. While many US roasters may know that Brazil supplies a lot of beans to Italy, most may be surprised to learn that India is the #2 origin for Arabica beans.  

This is one reason that Josuma focuses so much on espresso.  

[a-cup-of-wednesday]

[coffee-culture]

Green Bike Espresso - Stone Creek Coffee -- UPDATE POST

Around two years ago, when I first started to explore the coffee culture in Milwaukee I blogged around Stone Creek’s signature espresso blend Green Bike. To be honest, it was not a pleasant experience as the beans were over roasted or burnt, covered in oil, and had a flat flavor profile. It was this negative experience that tuned me off to Stone Creek.

Little did I know that the crew at Stone Creek read my post and not only agreed with my review, but were already actively working on changing it.

This week I met with Christian Ott at Stone Creek Coffee for a tour of their roasting factory, taste testing, and an interview. Along the way, Christian challenged me to try their new and improved Green Bike Espresso Blend.

WOW!!! What a radical change this blend has gone through in the past two years. Not only is is roasted lighter, but also they changed the elements in the blend. The result is yet another espresso blend in the Midwest that is MUCH BETTER than the Intelligentsia Coffee’s Black Cat Espresso, which for many years has been viewed as one of the best in the North American market.

The more I talked with Christian and sampled a wide range of Stone Creek’s single origins and blend, the more my eyes were open to some of the incredible changes that have been and are now taking place in their sourcing, roasting, and blending philosophy. I will be sharing a bit more about these positive changes at Stone Creek in my next few posts as I am excited about the transformation taking place there.

[coffee-culture]

Espresso Dolce - Valentine Coffee Roasters, MKE (more photos)

It is rare these days to find an American coffee roaster producing a high quality classic Northern Italian espresso blend, as most either burn the beans or leave them too green (see Espresso Types). However, Valentine Coffee Roasters in Milwaukee has not only found the right balance in roasting and blending, but has also managed to produce an espresso blend of such quality that I feel it can compete with some of the best roasters in the nation. The Espresso Dolce has a bold body and is low in acidity with no hints of either spice or citrus. This espresso blend has been roasted to the Full City or Full City+ level, with almost no signs of oil on the beans. The result is a rich silky smooth sweetness from start to finish, with a milky mahogany flavor and an ever so slight almond aftertaste.  Valentine's Dolce makes an ideal straight espresso shot any time of day, but also tastes great as a morning Aeropress, or Bonavita steep-and-release. My guess is that this would taste great in milk drinks as well, although I have not tried that yet. I love this classic espresso blend so much that I now rank it as my second favorite, just under Metropolis Coffee's Red Line Espresso and just above Intelligentsia's Black Cat Espresso. Looking forward to taste testing more of Valentine Coffee's blends and single origins in the near future, as this is one of the finest micro roasters that I have discovered in the Midwest.