Our Workshop #11, Tono Alto, definitely deserves it's name; Tono Alto, high-toned, it is. Of course the final results depend on the roast level, but we target a Full City roast here to maintain the clarity of the bright notes. We don't want to obscure them with roast tastes, so we do not allow the coffee to enter second crack, not even a pop of it. It's a bright and light bodied espresso, and covering it with darker roast notes defeats the original intention of this blend. This espresso really amazed me when I approached the final formulation, and if you treasure citrusy brightness and floral aromatics like me, it might amaze you too! The fragrance from the dry grounds (FC roast) has a caramel sweet scent with floral accent. There's a touch of chocolate bitter-sweetness in there too. In the wet aroma, spices and sweet floral qualities are the first thing that hit the senses, and slight savory/umami hints. The cup, from first sip to last, is astounding. Sweetened pink grapefruit, vividly bright and so fresh, fading quickly from tart citrus to sweet caramel finish. It's a bright espresso, potent in a way but also surprisingly delicate and nuanced in the volatile aromatic scents and flavors. The body is fairly light, and suits this style of espresso quite well; a lively, piquant, effervescent cup. This is either a type of espresso you love, or don't. If you are still reading this description, I would say you should give it a try! But mark my words, this is a light roast espresso, and becomes quite ho-hum if roasted into second crack. Light ... Light, I say!

Consonanza is the quality of harmony in a chord, notes played together, well-knit and compatible. Consonance. I guess it just sounds better in Italian, and I am not above dressing things up a bit! Anyway, it seemed to express my aim in this blend well. It's summer; I want something from espresso that is light, breezy, not brooding. But I also was tired of bright blends that were a bit too thin. I think this strikes a nice balance, still with a floral and citrus accent, but a fairly silky mouthfeel. The coffees here are mostly wet-processed with one exception. The roast should be even, with some slight bean-to-bean color variance. You could get a very occasional quaker - just pick it out. If you see more than one in a roast I would be very surprised, but it is the nature of playing with other processes than just washed coffee.

It's a balanced blend and the aromatics reflect this. The dry fragrance has chocolate-almond roast tones, malt and caramel, with s slight orange fruit note. Wet aroma has a syrupy sweetness, again with the malt, caramel and a bit of maple as well. Espresso is really about the sapid flavor and mouthfeel, and this blend delivers: Silky smooth initially, creamy on the backend. The flavors of sweet and bittersweet are in balance, accented with orange citrus, on the floral side. It has a refreshing finish and long, articulate aftertaste.

People have requested that we offer a pre-blended espresso, a decaf counterpart to the Espresso Monkey blend. Working under the codename of the "Donkey Blend" (don't ask how all these ridiculous names started ---I think it was George's fault) we came up with this. It is intended to be used several ways. As an all-decaf espresso blend I wanted it to work well under a wide variety of roasting conditions, in terms of both lighter Northern Italian type espresso roasts (the equivalent of a Full City to Vienna Roast) and the darker Southern Italian type roast (roasted to a French roast). I also wanted a good espresso from both air and drum roasters, and I wanted good crema. This is a lot to ask from a decaf, but I think this blend works very well. While origin tastes are muted in decafs, I think the bittersweet roast tastes from this blend are very good. My second focus was having the blend not have too much character so that it can be used as a base blend for a "low-caf" espresso. This means it should work well as 50-75% of your blend where you add other caffeinated coffees to give more aromatics and flavor: my choice would be a Ethiopian Harar, or a Central American (see our Blending Basics article for more). Why do we call this Donkey Blend? Frankly, I can't remember .. it just is...

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

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

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....

This is a powerful blend of coffees from the Arabian Peninsula and Horn of Africa, from Yemen on one side, and Ethiopia on the other. I intended this blend for the exotic espresso shot or intense filter drip coffee. It's even better in a French Press, where the slightly gritty intensity suits to boldness of fruit, chocolate, exotic spice and earth notes. It incorporates three excellent natural Dry-Processed coffees from the most ancient arabica origins. Each contributes to a huge body, strong bittersweet chocolate roast-taste, and intense fruited aromatics. Since all are dry-processed and have nearly equivalent densities and moisture contents, this an acceptable pre-roast blend (as opposed to blending coffees after roasting them separately). None these coffees roast to a uniform color individually, which is part of their character and complexity in the cup. My purpose here is to offer a precisely blended coffee I love, and save you from buying the coffees separately. In fact the Yemeni, Sidamo, Harar and Yirga Cheffe coffees we use for our Moka Kadir are stocked just for the blend, which makes it hard (well, impossible) for you to recreate this though. But the blend idea here, using coffees from the same "family of taste" rather than greatly opposite or complimentary coffees marks a difference in blend rationale, as well as in result. Also, I feel the coffees need to be pre-blended and equalize moisture content with each other, something that works well in larger batches.

The dry fragrance has strong rustic sweetness, dried apricot, pear, licorice, pungent chocolate, charred sage. Aromatics include anise, dried black fig, fudge and dark caramel chocolate (think chocolate See's sucker!) The cup is the culmination of all the intense aromatics, and more. Dense, thick body adds to the sense of "brooding" cup character here. Lighter roasts (yes, lighter roasts work here too) have a caramel rustic sweetness, anise and lavender spice/herbal notes, syrupy body. It's the Full City roasts or darker where the beast is unleashed (uh, as they say), and tarry dark molasses sweetness, thick inky body, and pungent spice come together. Hints of chicory root, pepper and truffle accent a dominating bittersweet chocolate taste (a la Scharffen Berger 70% Cacao bar). Moka Kadir is a true dual-use blend, filter-drip (French Press) as well as espresso too. For espresso, let this coffee rest at least 48 hours ... I think it's best at 3+ days. Also consider that because this blend has dry processed, hand sorted coffees in it, it is not unusual for the result to have a varied color after roasting, some slightly lighter beans, some darker, and a range of sizes. And I hate to say it but we find the occasional small rock in this coffee. Be sure to cull through the green and the roasted carefully. The small bean size of Yemeni and other coffees here can be problem in some drum roasters, such as Behmors with the large grid drum (oldest models - all the new ones have small grid drums). But, with the coffee in the drum, you can shake the drum before roasting to remove the few super small beans than might be lurking in the mix.

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.

Puro Scuro is a Moka Java type variant, and a great French Roast type blend replacement. We have been working on this blend for a very long time. It started with a lucky accident about a year ago. I was working with some premium Sumatras and a combination of Yemen and Ethiopian coffees toward a Mohka-Java blend. But I didn't want it to be all bass note, all deep end. It is the problem with some blends intended for darker roast levels - there is a big "hole" in the cup profile, and that hole is located in the medium/bright range of the cup. I stumbled across a combination of coffees (no, I am keeping this one a secret!) that could do all this, and offer some nice aromatics to a darker roasted blend. Another key factor: I also wanted a blend that had a darkly sweet finish, not ashy, not carbony. With this blend I wanted to prove that I am not anti-dark roast! The problem is, too many dark roasts are simply burned. Roast this as intended and I think you will find the cup description and the name to be fitting! Oh, the name? I wanted to call it Barnabas Blend (from my favorite '60s TV show Dark Shadows) but Puro Scuro has a better ring to it, and says a lot about the cup: Pure Dark, in Italian. So the sole remnant of the Dark Shadows theme is our motif for the coffee, a bat. Overall, this blend boasts exceptional depth - yes it is one deep cup ... what we call "good coffee to brood by." The blend leaves a lingering, graceful finish on the palate. The target roast range is from Full City+ with a few snaps of 2nd crack, to a Light French roast. In between those two, is a Vienna roast where this blend excels. My favorite is a roast stopped about 20-30 seconds after the first sound of 2nd crack. (Don't think that roasting it to darker French stage makes it more intense; it is most intense at a Full City+, but don't go lighter because it has odd baked flavors at the City+ stage). There is some variability in the cup results based on how long it is rested, how it is brewed and (mostly) because this blend involves a healthy proportion of dry-processed coffees. If you want every batch to be exactly the same, don't buy this coffee. If you like to taste a range of flavors, and enjoy complex shifts in character, then you will enjoy the Puro Scuro. The cup has intense sage and anise spice notes, with lingering plum and Concord grape notes. Alternately, I get intense spiciness in the cup; clove hints, over a darker sweet tobacco-y flavor. There is a sweet dark caramel-molasses note in the aromatics that reemerges in the finish. I think it makes excellent espresso too; a rare but accurately-named "dual-use blend." We have brought this blend back from the archives because we have some new lots that fit the bill perfect, and really liked the new blend results.