So recently a friend and fellow coffee nut, by the name of Heath Henley stopped in and brought me in some single origin espresso to try. By the way, you can find Heath gallivanting around the country going to coffee workshops, judging USBC competitions, or in El Salvador cupping coffees. Gah, I’m so jealous.  Heath, formally of Portland Brew started working for a company out of Tulsa called Topeca. Topeca is a single family owned farm in El Salvador that handles their coffee from seed to cup. This process is very similar to movements going on in the wine industry. Topeca specifically processes certain coffee varietals that are grown on the farm differently for contrasting flavor profiles. Thus, Topeca blends the differently processed coffees and varietals to come up with a specific espresso blend. Most espresso blends up until recently are made up of different coffees from different countries. This approach to espresso is highly favored for flavor balance, complexity, and mouthfeel. However, this year in the USBC more and more single origin espresso “blends” are showing up in competition. The quality of crops is getting only better and better for this sort of thing. This is coffee that represents quality from one farm, one country, and one family. It’s very sweet, low in acidity, and still very complex. It tastes best slightly overdosed (around 21-22 grams per two ounces of espresso) and extracted in about 27-30 seconds. Check out the video, you will notice less striping (due to one type of coffee and roast level) in the espresso, but a beautiful golden crema. Come in and give it a try. Also, check out Topeca’s feature in Imbibe magazine.

Who’s that musician tickling your ears in the video? That’s the amazing Raphael Saddiq.

We now move to the question you’ve been pondering since childhood, the age old question “What is crema?” Sleep well for we have your answer…

What is Crema? Did we mispell cream? No, it is a real word. Crema is the thick, golden-brown foam that develops in the filter and encrusts the top of an espresso serving. Crema gives espresso its complexity, depth of flavor and texture. Crema is the single most important indicator of espresso quality.

Proper emulsification of water and oil is what produces proper Crema. Dr. Joseph Josuma, a leading espresso expert states, “Crema markedly alters an espresso in terms of its mouth feel, density, viscosity, wetting power, and foam-forming ability, making it the single most important indicator of espresso quality. If there is no crema, it means the oils have not been emulsified, and hence it is not an espresso.”

We chose CREMA as our name because it represents our primary goal, excellence in quality. Our passion for the best quality in coffee, espresso and service is proudly rooted in our Italian heritage. So is our love for pizza we suspect.

We believe that smaller, traditional European sized beverages highlight the taste of espresso. Few Americans have tasted genuine Italian-style espresso, even though specialty coffee purveyors bode high quality, many Baristas are ill trained to craft a truly Italian experience. We want to change that.

At CREMA, we guarantee that every espresso has been properly extracted. Our Baristas have gone through intensive training and continue to grow in their skills. At CREMA we are always looking for ways to perfect our coffee and espresso. We hope you enjoy sharing in this experience, your satisfaction is our delight.

The traveling master of coffee for the Ringling Bros. Circus stopped in! We’d been waiting for his visit for weeks, we just find him fascinating. Read more about Circus Coffee at www.circuscoffee.com.

We’ve added Mocha Brownies to the menu today, just thought you’d want to know, they are yummy!

If you missed the email, just in time for cold weather we’ve begun serving our Signature Mayan Hot Chocolate.

Look for a short article about CREMA in the Tennessean’s Weekend paper by Dana Kopp Franklin. Dana spoke to us about our new extended hours during Titans games (post update: we are not open during Titan’s games, sorry) and more importantly our new exclusive CREMA Espresso blend – created by us in the CREMA Coffee Lab, a secret hidden layer in the belly of Nashvegas. Ok, I made that up, but we did create it and it is hand roasted to perfection by Drew’s Brews so you know it’s good!

Dana writes, “…Lehman who takes a seriously gourmet approach to coffee has added a second variety of espresso brew… now she and her co-workers have designed CREMA Espresso Blend, uniting beans from two different Ethiopian regions with a little Indonesian coffee.”

Our new CREMA Espresso Blend is in addition to our standard Zappia Family Espresso blend, you now have a choice between two great espresso blends for your Cortado, Cuban, or Americano!

Click the picture or here to read the article.

Please note that the CREMA Espresso 101 class this Saturday is all booked. Stay tuned if you’re interested in a follow up, we’re planning a video for those who miss the class. It will be posted as a CREMA College of Coffee video on our YouTube channel.

….if you notice a little bit of change with your next espresso, or a brighter flavor from the Moka Harrar, it’s because the crops are coming in. Most of our coffees are coming in season, which means they have been harvested, washed, and shipped most likely in the last month. If you’re in this week, ask us to take a whiff of the Lost Weekend (a blend of Harrar and Sumatra), and note the bluberry-ish smell. Also, keep a look out for some new coffees. We’re tasting a Tanzanian this week, and hopefully a new Ethiopian Sidamo and El Salvador peaberry next week. Ask us to try some……the only requirement is that you have to let us know what you think.

Stumbled upon this article while perusing Intelligentsia’s website. It is an educated explanation on a complicated discussion.

A study by American economist Caitlin Knowles Myers finds that females wait 20 seconds longer than men to receive their coffee. The study was conducted in the Boston area and involved 8 shops. Read more…

The study can be downloaded here: http://www.middlebury.edu/services/econ/repec/mdl/ancoec/0711.pdf

“Chicagoans… are among the top consumers of energy drinks and coffee… they are also likely to say caffeine is good for you…”

What other cities are most caffeinated? Read the entire article.

NBC Today show correspondent, Joy Bauer, clears up 5 coffee myths in this interesting article. Discover if coffee can help your memory, prevent skin cancer, and enhance your workouts.

Check it out: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20187977/