Interval Espresso

It's no secret we enjoy roasting on the lighter end of the spectrum. Buying sweet coffees and trying not to get in the way, we're always cautious to add more flavours of the roaster than we feel strictly necessary.

But we've always had the plan to release one final core coffee, completing the set from Lightest, Light, Medium and now, finally, Heavy. This espresso is profiled entirely with classic & easy styles of brewing in mind (and especially for those that like milk in their coffee).

A percentage of all Interval Espresso sales will be donated to the Jerwood Space, a not-for-profit that subsidises rehearsal space for emerging theatre producers, writers, directors, choreographers and companies. By purchasing this espresso, you are directly helping the next generation of theatre practitioners access affordable, dedicated space to create their work.

Brew Guide:

Best Brewed with: Espresso, Moka Pot, French Press

Best rested: Ideally at least 1-2 weeks before brewing as espresso

We profile and quality control this blend to produce a solid shot around 18g of coffee in for 32-36g coffee out, in 25 seconds - easy peasy.
Works great in a french press or Moka Pot too!

We’re tasting:
Big melted chocolate aromatics alongside toasted hazelnuts and smoked almonds. In the cup it's thick and unctuous, with a weighty body, with flavours of toffee, dark chocolate, caramelised hazelnuts; with some hints of dates and dried peel offering complexity. 

In milk: Classic milk chocolate & nutty notes, punchy.

Traceability

Country of Origin:	Costa Rica
Region:	Aserrí, Tarrazú
Producers:	Familia Vasquéz
Farm:	Roble Negro Micromill, Finca Cedral Alto
Variety:	Catuaí
Elevation:	1875 MASL
Process:	Washed: Ripe cherries picked, floated & sorted before de-pulping. Parchment fermented in tanks for 36-40 hours, before washing. Dried on raised beds.
Import Partner:	Skylark Coffee via Ally
Harvest	24/25. New Purchasing Relationship

 

The Story:

We've talked before about the trilemma of green buying: out of cheap, ethical, high quality, you can only pick two. With this range we want to focus on coffees that are affordable for a mainline espresso and put ethics front and centre, without holding them to the same quality bar that defines the rest of the range.

It's always been a bug-bear of ours that speciality roasters will champion impact and social good, then only sweep in for 2 bags of the top microlot while leaving bulk production to the side, literally skimming the cream of the crop. We've been guilty of this at times since we started, and this espresso offers us the chance to make some amends.

We'll be focusing our sourcing on farms completing excellent ecological projects (regenerative agriculture, native forest protection and similar endeavours), alongside impact projects, and buying the bulk production from producers in our network, which is where we can really move the dial. What we're doing here is shifting our emphasis towards the extrinsic value of a coffee, the attributes that exist around it: who grew it, how the land is managed, and what it represents, rather than chasing intrinsic cup quality as the sole measure of what makes a coffee worth buying. To satisfy the trilemma, we're nominally trading quality for ethics, but by leaning into the additive flavours of a heavier roaster influence we can create a final outcome with a quality of its own, letting us buy deeper into the production of the farms with whom we work rather than just the top lots.

Brilliant for milk, easier to extract, and a safe choice for those who want a syrupy bodied, low acidity, more traditional espresso.

We intend this to broadly be a single origin coffee, but future versions may also be blended.

Version 1:

We were hanging out with Micah from Skylark in Ethiopia, where Micah helps as part of the Bette Buna team. We got talking about the sourcing impetus for the Interval espresso project, and who better to have leads than one of the co-founders of a non-profit roastery that requires every supply chain above 10 bags to come from a vetted social or environmental project. We share a lot of the same thinking on how buying power should work in speciality coffee, and we'll look to join forces on some future projects where we can leverage our volumes for good.

Micah's first thought was Roble Negro, a farm in Costa Rica's Tarrazú region where conservation of rainforest and freshwater sources comes before coffee production, which reminded us that we'd met Daniela Vasquéz in London several years back, which was a brilliant bit of serendipity. We've purchased a small allocation of the previous crop from Skylark's position to kick us off with V1, and we're in discussions about the current harvest. This coffee is such a perfect fit for the brief: previous crop, so better suited to a heavier roast, with a cup profile that's all milk chocolate, toasted nuts and an unctuous body, which we've emphasised by stretching both the roast and the development time out far further than we would for a typical Facility component, without going to extreme end temps.