PENROSE ESPRESSO & THE CAFFEINE CRAWL
April 19 (record store day!) marks a very special day for Blueprint. In addition to being a stop along the 3rd Annual Caffeine Crawl, we will be debuting our first espresso-focused coffee, called Penrose (named after the triangle). The aim of Penrose is:
•to be a reliable and consistent offering
•to be delicious as straight espresso and in milk drinks
•to maintain seasonality and farm-to-cup traceability
•to maintain a stable price point so it can be the main espresso on our bar and on the bar of many of our wholesale partners
•to be easy to dial in
The first version of Penrose will consist entirely of the naturally-processed Gerezim lot from the Sitio da Laje Estate in Minas Geras, Brazil. Future versions may be blends, but for now, we’re keeping it simple. To celebrate the release of Penrose, we will be giving out free shots to anyone on the Caffeine Crawl, OR, anyone possessing a receipt from a local record store dated April 19. Our friends at The Mudhouse on Cherokee will also be giving away shots of Penrose to anyone with a record store receipt. Its a convenient stop for a shot and only one block away from the great Dead Wax Records.
VICTOR MOLANO & USCC
Victor Molano, a micro-lot named after its producer, comes from the Tolima region of Colombia. It is now available on our shelves and will start its run on the brew bar (and eventually espresso) on Monday. It is a coffee that is balanced and ‘turnt up:’ lots of dark red and fig acidity, complemented by a thick and malty body. We will be using this coffee in late April at the United States Barista Championship and United States Brewers Cup. Victor Molano comes wrapped in a proud “Stars ‘n’ Stripes” package. We’re hoping it will take home the American championships.
Our own Nora Brady, Mike Marquard, and Kevin Reddy will be competing at the United States Coffee Championships in Seattle at the end of the month. Nora and Mike will compete in the Barista Championship while Kevin will represent in the Brewers Cup.
We have a rare opportunity for a limited number of guests to be able to preview Kevin, Mike, and Nora’s performances, as well as taste their drinks this coming Monday, April 14. The preview will run from 4p-6p. To attend, please sign-up in shop or email [email protected]. Each seat is $25 and includes a complementary bag of Victor Molano.
For more information about the United States Coffee Championships in general, or to watch it live, go to http://www.uscoffeechampionships.org
TOARCO JAYA AA
TOARCO Jaya AA will be our first Indonesian coffee. This complex cup offers herbal starting tones, followed by intense sweetness and a tropical-fruit acidity. The first roast will be next Wednesday, April 16. Look for it available for order online as soon as Monday.
HEARTBLEED
Blueprintcoffee.com was using a version of OpenSSL vulnerable to the Heartbleed bug that was discovered earlier this week. Our developers have updated our certificate and server to rid any vulnerabilities that could further endanger encrypted information. If you have an account at blueprintcoffee.com, we encourage you to log on and change your password if you haven’t since Wednesday afternoon. We have no evidence that any information was stolen from blueprintcoffee.com.
ANDY KOH
Some of you may have already noticed, but we were privledged to have St. Louis artist Andy Koh as our guest photographer on Instagram last week. Some of his photos are below, but be sure to visit our Instagram page to see the rest. In addition to the Instagram photos, Andy collaborated with us on our PENROSE Espresso labels. We’re looking forward to working with him on at least one more upcoming project.
MAY
May is looking good, too….Brazil micro-lot, early Central American arrivals…