This blend has been offered for quite a while. It’s normally considered an espresso blend but using any other method of brewing will have equally pleasing results. Here are the tasting notes on its current reincarnation -

The aroma shows off its spicy and earthy appeal with a DARK chocolate complexity, a bit of pine, and smokiness very mildly reminiscent of a fine Islay scotch. This is another one of our fairly low acidity coffees. Big body and a balancing sweetness are very apparent in the long semi-dry finish.

On an cool morning after a late night, I’d crave this one! 

Drink up,

Alex

We’ve had this years long awaited Mexican crop for some time now and it’s time for the tasting notes on it. 

The aroma of this coffee is quite pleasing, I noticed pecan like nuttiness, with some sweet vanilla undertones. The low acid and pleasing dryness is very well paired with its medium-heavy body along side a lingering semi-sweet chocolate finish. 

This years crop is a well balanced crowd pleaser, nothing that reaches out and grabs you, but has a great finish and a simple desert like richness. 

I’m thinking this would be a deadly combo with 222 Artisan Bakery’s Chocolate Croissant. 

Cheers!

Alex

I’m sure some of you have noticed the new crop this year. Which means you’ve also found a new favorite I hope! 

So tasting notes go like this,

The grounds-

Dry- Slightly spicy. Nutmeg? Little bit of Cinnamon?

Wet- Tremendous floral attributes. Jasmine maybe? 

On the palate-

All kinds of milk chocolate here. I couldn’t stop thinking about how creamy this coffee was. Was like a great hot chocolate. 

The Aroma of the brewed coffee was surprisingly devoid of all that floral acidity… not a bad thing for this coffee. All those big, creamy bodied coffee lovers out there need to give this one a run. We’ve only got a few bags left! 

By the way- Every question mark is an invitation for your input!

Alex

We sell a lot of bread… but how are you serving it? Are you making sandwiches or are you sopping up some homemade sauce? Tell us and the 222 Bakery Family how best to serve it. Recipes welcome.

Well, she already has nicknames like Sunkist, Pumpkin, Orange Sunshine, and The Lean Mean Tangerine Machine. That last one has a nice ring to it… Were geeks. And very proud of it! We have been waiting very patiently for our pal over at Riley’s Coffee and Fudge (Barry!) to give her the final bench test and got the call on Monday. We installed Sunkist on Tuesday afternoon and will be giving her a nice easy break in before our big saturday rush. Come in and introduce yourself. Pumpkin is a little shy now but she will come around quickly. She loves attention. Remember that. The Lean Mean Tangerine Machine is what we call a three group La Marzocco Linea which means that she is also a bit larger and more powerful than our last machine so she can handle just about any drink line, which is due to the larger boilers inside. 

When you get here treat yourself to some ‘Spro and make sure you say hi to the lovely lady in orange! 

See you soon

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Well, we had an interesting weekend! As most of the dog lovers out there and those of you who are on our E-mail list know, Bark in the Park (an event put on by the Humane Society of Missouri, benefiting homeless animals and giving them a second chance at getting a good home) was this past saturday in Forest Park near the heart of the Central West End. One of our wholesale coffee customers Companion Bakery was a vendor that volunteered and the Goshen Coffee crew, as animal lovers, wouldn’t be left out of the fun! We had a blast and were happy to see such a great turnout for the animals. Thanks for all the compliments on the coffee folks :) 

Fringe Benefit -  

With all the wonderful pup’s around, how could we not take tons of pictures? Enjoy! And thanks for being such good sports!

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We have just recently received a Nicaraguan and as the title suggests, it’s quite spicy! It is very straightforward.  The grounds smell of sweet ground chocolate and spice which follows through to the cup, but what you will notice first after brewing is the smell of fresh tobacco and leather. The spice comes after a minute (maybe a bit of cucumber-esqe cooling sensation as well?) and the sweet chocolate lingers on your palate for a wonderful medium-long finish. Body is present but not overbearing and only makes sense for this very well balanced coffee. This coffee will be available in quite a few of our retail locations for a short time, so go get some! Just not more than enough for a week or so and grind just before you brew…

Well, on a last minute whim I was sent up to Minneapolis for the 20^th annual Specialty Coffee Association of America Conference. It just so happens I had never had an opportunity to partake in all the coffee fun that happens at conference. So of course I was stoked! The drive up on Friday was pretty intense. The storms in the Midwest area were picking up steam as I was leaving Friday morning, and through Iowa I was tempted more than a couple times to pull over for the crazy rain, but toughed it out. Made it into town at about 7pm, just in time for the Welcome reception. Great food! This year’s theme was “roots” (with a concentration on Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee) so there were all kinds of traditional Ethiopian prepared dishes. Wonderful! The reception was a great time with our good friend from Riley’s Coffee and Fudge, Barry Jarret. As well as providing a place to crash, he showed me around and introduced me to all kinds of cool people. It also gave me an opportunity to catch up with quite a few of the friends I’ve made in the industry. Ever seen an Ethiopian fashion show? That was another very interesting plus of the welcoming party. We headed out of the reception to the Mill City Museum, where Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea hosted a huge after party. Good times, more introductions courtesy of Barry, and maybe, what would have been the makings of a Latte Art throwdown… There were unfortunately technical difficulties with the espresso machine and that squelched all rumors and hope of that. I wanted in there! There is always next year

So the following morning I made it to the actual showroom floor and had a chance to watch the USBC (United States Barista Competition). I watched a few presentations and quickly got frustrated! I wanted to be up there! There were some great competitors and quite a few from the MWRBC (Midwest Regional Barista Competition) that I had the honor of competing alongside of

The showroom was pretty crazy, was like a huge maze of coffee related vendors. Lots of really cool stuff! It took me a good 4 hours to navigate the whole floor. I was finally able to meet some of our vendors like Dave over at Zephyr, one of our green coffee importers. Tricked him out with some of our new T-shirts and our infamous clothes-pins, in return he gave me a toy I haven’t seen in years, Paddle Ball. Zephyr branded and everything! Slick marketing there… Also met Natalie at Bunn. If it weren’t for her I wouldn’t have had access to the showroom floor, Thanks Natalie! The guys over at Franke set me up with a tuff La Marzocco T-shirt as well as a lanyard… That booth was a barista’s dream! They were demo-ing a realllllly cool machine with paddle operated group heads. It was a Linea (lin-A-uh) very similar to ours. I still felt like I hadn’t seen everything so I made my way back around a second time! I made lots of contacts with old friends, and made quite a few new ones. I also had entirely too much espresso! There was tons of great coffee being given away. Who could pass that up? Now for the pictures… and thanks for reading! There’s tons more so when your in the bakery just ask!

Alex

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Roasted and green samples of our new Salvadoran coffee… Beautiful!

We have added a tasty new Salvadoran to our line of Organic Fair Trade coffees. The grounds will make you think of honey and sweet nuts, which follows through to the aroma when it is brewed (think of the Caramelized honey candy), with some very pleasant but subtle citrus/floral notes. Its medium body is just right; the mouth feel is great and the pleasing sweetness ties everything together exceptionally well. It’s incredibly complex as of this writing, but should firm up over the next day or so. It is exclusively available for sale at 222 Artisan Bakery and Local Harvest Grocery.

Also, we hit the Sauce again with an under the radar mention in the Locavore article by April Seager. This girl has good taste, no?

bon vivant (bôn vê vän‘). French. A person devoted to refined sensuous enjoyment, especially fine food and drink. [syn: epicure, gourmet]

Just want to give a shout out to one of our customer’s who sell Goshen Coffee. We geek out periodically and look at our web site traffic statistics. Bon Vivant sends folks our way from their web site. Thanks guys! Just want to let everyone know that if you are down south of e-ville and need some quality beers or wine. These are your folks.

Bon Vivant Wines
123 S. Main
Columbia, IL 62236
618.281.3464
email: bonvivantwines@gmail.com