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.

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 voluminous, 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

A longtime favorite espresso blend intended solely for pump and piston type espresso extraction. This is a sweet but punchy little cup, and roasted fairly 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".

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: in 2005 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 you 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....

Los Tumulos is an espresso blend we designed as our 27th installment for the Workshop. It is made up of some of our new arrivals coffees from Ethiopia, Kenya and Colombia. We put this together looking for brightness as well as maximum sweetness and aromatics. Kenyas in espresso can be tricky, especially at lighter roast levels where the acidity can be overwhelming. But we had this beautiful lot with a mild acidity profile, and thought it would work well in espresso, balanced with aromatic and body-heavy counterparts. The blend is amazingly sweet at lighter roast levels, and remains so even into darker 2nd Crack roasting. (As you know, we like our espresso on the more dynamic, brighter side, not the oily old Italian Roasts of the past). Los Tumolos can have many meanings ... earthen mounds, tombs, ancient burial sites. We see these signs when driving in parts of Central America warning of Tumulos, but it means speed bumps, not such an exotic reference. I was thinking this could mean "slow down, taste the coffee," but it is just an excuse for liking the name a lot!

This is a dynamic and brighter espresso at light roasts as well as darker. The dry fragrance has a distinct plum aspect at the lighter levels, with dark caramel and raisin at Full City roast. There is a divide in the wet aroma as well, with the lighter roasts distinguished by rose-like floral scents, over brown sugar sweetness. The darker roast levels have stewed fruits, dried plum and a hint of hibiscus, with chocolate syrup notes. The cup has complex stone fruits, ranging from peach-apricot in the lighter roast levels to the already-mentioned plum-raisin-prune at Full City roast. In any case, it has intense sweetness, and syrupy viscosity. Caramelized sugars are complex in themselves, with Bourbon vanilla retro-nasal aromatics. The finish is has jam-like fruit, along with fig butter. This isn't the kind of espresso I would normally pick for milk drinks, favoring blends with less acidity and more bittersweets. But the Tumulos interacts with lactose sugars to make a dessert-like concoction, really quite exquisite. This is a blend for people who prefer brightness and sweetness over more traditional Continental espresso blends that have heavier roast levels and more bittering roast taste.

Ethiopiques, an all Ethiopia coffee blend for espresso. It was our our 17th Espresso Workshop blend from last season, but we are bringing it back with a blend of new harvest coffees. This a a vividly BRIGHT espresso blend, complex, high-toned, amazing ... but perhaps not for everyone (especially those who do only milk drinks). The espresso editions are limited, lot-specific blends inspired by the ingredients, rather than imposing a fixed idea on the result, then looking at the coffees to achieve it. This is a blend of wet-process coffees from the West and the South, from Jimma, Sidama and Shakiso specifically, that we sourced for espresso use. They are balanced but nuanced, and while they are moderately bright, the resulting espresso isn't too puckering. In fact there is very intense chocolate roast taste formed by this specific coffee blend, and that is the dominant character of the cup, topped with brightness. What does Teddy Afro, famed and shamed Ethiopia music star have to do with this blend? Not much, but he does have an amazing voice. Millenium song! And you really should check out the Ethiopiques compilation records to appreciate the rich jazz and pop music traditions of that great land.

By standard cupping methods for brewed coffees, these ingredient coffees are mellow enough, but extracting this blend in an espresso machine produces something quite different, and very intense. The dry fragrance has citrus and tropical fruit suggestions, over chocolate notes. The wet aroma follows in the same footsteps, with more clarification of fruited notes, raisin and plum, with slight acacia floral hints. The espresso shot is surprisingly syrupy. The chocolate roast taste is pungent, aggressive, bittersweet, and long-lasting on the palate. But it is also very clean, succinct, not earthy or rustic. On top of this are piney resinous notes, lemon oil and rind, raisiny ripe fruit and lavender flowers. The body seems bolstered by the intense cup flavors, and has the effect of satiny chocolate. It's fantastic! As usual I preferred longer pulls at around 202 initial brew head temperature. We are finding this also makes amazing Americano (espresso + water), as well as brewed coffee. And it can be used as the "bright" component in a blend that tones it down a bit. For example 2/3 Brazil or El Salvador with 1/3 Ethiopiques.