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.