Coffee of the Week: Shadow Play
Happy Friday All!
As we sent out the last of the Yulissa Chambi from Bolivia this week, we are excited to be featuring an incredibly sweet version of Shadow Play as coffee of the week to close out June.
As I mentioned back when we featured this coffee in early February, Shadow Play is named in homage to the Joy Division song from the album Unknown Pleasures. To over-explain the euphemism here, this blend is the first in our line up (from light to dark) that really tries to capture an essence of roastiness in the flavor profile. Enough to bring out more chocolate heft, but not so much that we're yet introducing any smokiness.
We're offering this coffee as a second 'house' blend, in connection/juxtaposition with Tightrope. Both of these blends should be excellent entry points to our coffee menu. If you're looking from something lighter and brighter, go for Tightrope. If you want something more focused on chocolate and roast, Shadow Play is your choice.
The current blend is primarily from the community of San Jose Paoquil in the Chimaltenango department of Guatemala. At this roast level, this coffee really opens up in flavor, trading some of sparkling higher-end notes for a structured, chocolate body.
We are supplementing the San Jose Paoquil with coffee from Santa Maria de Dota, a coffee produced by members of the Coopedota cooperative in Costa Rica.
You'll perhaps recognize these names from other places in our blending menu, and for good reason. Both of these coffees are incredibly versatile, expressing different flavors at different roast levels, and they are all good. For this version of Shadow Play, we're getting a tremendous, syrupy sweetness that's bolstered by the chocolatey-ness of the roast. When we cupped it earlier in the week, our Production lead and long time roaster, Cubby made a joke that it tasted like someone had dosed the cup with maple syrup, it was just that sweet!
Speaking of sweetness, all of the stores should be transitioning into the newest Costa Rican/Ethiopian version of The Core. Please keep submitting those dial-ins!
As posted earlier, we roasted and shipped the last of the Yulissa Chambi bags today, so get it while you can. We'll be sending out the first of the Costa Rican coffee from Santa Maria de Dota as a Single Origin toward the end of next week ahead of that coffee being featured in the first week of July!
Thanks all, have a great weekend.