New season means new harvest means new beans means MORE GREAT COFFEE! We just placed an order for two new beans which should be available in store within a couple of days. Papua New Guinea Kimel Peaberry straight off the boat from Asia and Nicaraguan SHG Rio Coco from Latin America (to replace our wildly popular Honduran SHG Macala).

The Papua New Guinea Kimel Peaberry is grown in volcanic soil in the 5000 foot range of the Kimel Estate, in the Waghi Valley in the Western Highlands Province of PNG. The farm is cooperatively owned by the Opais, the original inhabitants of the region, who maintain a traditional organic process. Kimel Estate peaberry exhibits extraordinary balance, well-rounded and smooth with hints of cocoa, caramel, butter and spices like thyme/oregano. the brightness hints of currant and the spices contribute heavily to an exceptional aftertaste.

Nicaraguan SHG Rio Coco is an Organic Co-op Fair Trade grown in some of the most rural elevations of the Madriz area. Grown in remote areas with no roads it is carried to wet mill by mule or on the shoulders of their members. At a true City roast, the aromatics on this cup are sweet and delicate, with honey and strawberry hints. In the cup, the sweetness follows through with a maple syrup quality. The fruits suggest raspberry and red apple, and as the cup cools it brightens considerably. At the darker level of roast, the cup really changes character picking up a very nice milk chocolate bittersweet with pungent roasty/nutty notes as secondary flavors- very nice!

By nature we love to experiment. I personally think it's a precursor for someone who enjoys the hands on process of micro-roasting. Recently we've been toying around with mixing fresh roast grinds into chocolate bars. This has Uganda Bugisu mixed into it for a crazy yummy kick. And yes, that's Hans Solo frozen in carbonite. We be geeks too.

There's still a lot of refining we need to do before it meets our standard of quality but in anticipation of getting the perfect espresso bar we've added a section to our shop for it. Get ready. This summer is going to be a blast.

As you can see we've been rather busy recently totally overhauling the website. We've been meaning to put together something that feels more like a natural extention of the storefront, kind of like you could actually be in the store looking at this.

Well we didn't stop there! We've started redoing the interior of the shop to make it more 'ergonomically correct'. Our goal is to create a full 360 degree experience that starts with the amazing beans but goes way beyond just "wow, that's great coffee" to "someone call Stephen Hawkings, I just discovered a wormhole back in time".

We now carry in the store Kcup filters that allow you to use your machine as you normally would have, but without having to buy those overpriced pods, and more importantly without creating a messload of plastic waste evertime you want to make 1 cup of brew. These cool little devices have a lid that pops open allowing you to fill it with our own real-roasted, just ground, exotic single origin arabic beans! And we especially love that it's turned a high waste machine into the ultimate in green efficiency.

*not compatible with model B30, B130, B150, or B155. (We're looking for something that would work for those machines too!)

To celebrate the opening of the new store we did what any roaster would do - we got new beans to add to our offerings. It's always tough to pick a new bean since there are so many awesome farms to buy from. We wanted to try out a second farm from Costa Rica and then were looking for something a little 'different'.

Costa Rica Naranjo Cattleya Especial - This coffee is grown in Heredia in the Central Valley region of Costa Rica. Naranjo Cattleya is the name of the co-op that this coffee comes from; Naranjo is the district that it is located in and Cattleya is a type of Orchid native to Costa Rica. The Poas, Irazu and Barva volcanoes dominate the landscape in this traditional growing area.

El Salvador Cerro Las Ranas - Cerro Las Ranas means ‘hill of frogs’ in Spanish and the farm is so named for a nearby lagoon that is famously populated with thousands of frogs. The estate is located between the Apenaca and Ateno mountain ranges in the shadow of the Santa Ana volcano, and is grown at altitudes above 4,700 feet.

Visit the single origins page to learn a more about unique cups of coffee each of these beans creates.

To celebrate the opening of our new store front on 124 N. Main St, Hightstown, NJ, in December we're having a contest. Anyone who makes a purchase from either this website or from our retail store from now until New Year's Eve is automagically entered to WIN FREE COFFEE FOR ALL OF 2012! It's that simple! We'll be keeping track of people from the retail store and online purchases and holding the drawing on New Year's Day. 

Read more...