The cup exhibits - Very fat rich tasting espresso - toffee, chocolate, and berry fruit acidity - great straight and wonderful with milk where the toffee and chocolate notes shine through.
9 pilots, 80 engineers, 46 year history, 4,300 Aerobatic displays and 1 espresso blend.
Earlier this year we were asked to design an espresso blend for the officers that fly those red Hawk T1 jets to be served in the officers crew room and corporate facilities at - RAF Scampton.
Designing an espresso blend for these high flyers is like designing any other espresso blend – it is no more special, it takes just as much work, just as much testing, adjusting and tasting and retasting - but it has to be said we were very honoured to be asked and very pleased with the end result.
The blend was named in honour of a dynamic Red Arrows manoeuvre.
We would like to think that if this blend could sing, it would be singing Jerusalem at the top of its voice, and if it could drive, it would be screaming round a corner in a Mini - you see it thinks it's British, but it's not:
40% - El Salvador - El Manzano -: this coffee punches out toffee and chocolate, and a fat mouth-feel.
35% - India - Sethuraman Estate -: SL9 Pulp Natural – gives the blend a huge body along with nuts, and dark chocolate.
25 % - Ethiopian - Limu - washed -: provides the acidity and berry fruit.
The blend itself started out as quite complex, but ended up rather simple, but effective.
Brewing Notes:
The espresso brewing system used, the number brewing parameters and methods employed pulling an espresso shot will have an influence on the coffee's flavour and mouthfeel.
We provide brewing benchmarks or brewing range indicators to all of our espresso blends to provide as much data as possible to gain the highest degree of consistency from the roastrey cupped shot to the baristas shot. These benchmarks and/or brewing range indicators are just that – all they do is suggest what to be looking for to get near to the roastery cupping shot as possible.
Where a brewing temperature and/or a shot time is not indicated in the notes it will be our standard set-up: - we use La Marzocco GB5 set at a temperture of 93.33C (200f) with a shot time of 20-23 seconds as from the first drop appearing from the portafilter. We dose our portafilters by levelling which is usually 18g of coffee per double shot.
We place espresso quality before convenience – our espresso blends are never pre-blended before roasting thus ensuring the ideal roast profile is reached for each varietal used in a blend.
Other Brewing Notes:
Filtered: Yes
Espresso: Yes
Product Reviews
Average Rating (3 Reviews)
Michael Mazour | 05/02/2012I would like to update my earlier review, which originated as a tweet and somewhat lacks detail. I am pulling this as a short shot, about 19-21s to get perhaps ~3/4 oz (from 18-18.5g) of sweet, rich, velvety crema with almost no liquid beneath it. It is so utterly marvelous as this sort of ristretto that I haven't been able to break away from it to try making more conventional shots. One day no doubt I will. In the meantime, for my own tastes this is simply a five-star espresso, and likely to be my 'house blend' whenever I'm not indulging my hobby of trying as many different coffees as I can.
mmazour | 03/02/2012Vertial Break is really quite exceptionally delicious
Dennis Wagstaff | 06/12/2011Drinking the blend is a joy - we love most if not all your blends and love the way you roast, but this new blend is an education. The flavours so in your face it is not true.
Excellent stuff - what!
