Yeah, we can’t believe it either. It’s crazy to think that it was this time last year that NEAT opened its door for the first time. We’ve pulled over 35,000 shots of espresso since then, and 12 months have flown by!
Like you, we’re trying desperately to hang on to the last bit of summer, so we’re planning to scoop up free Van Leeuwen’s ice cream all day on our first birthday, Tuesday, August 31st. Come celebrate with us and enjoy the perfect after school snack (or anytime treat), and soak up the late summer sun in the courtyard while you’re at it!
Although our first year has gone by in a blink, we’ve had a lot of fun with all of you, our wonderful patrons. Thank you for supporting us in these early days. We look forward to serving you lots and lots of delicious coffee for years to come!
In addition to working with acclaimed local chocolatier Fritz Knipschildt, we now have offerings from several outstanding “Bean to Bar” producers of chocolate. These folks process cocoa beans into chocolate versus the traditional making of chocolate into truffles, pralines, and other confectionaries. Our Bean to Bar producers source excellent cacao–often working in direct trade with the cacao farmer–and clean, roast, winnow, grind, refine, conche, temper, mold, and package the chocolate.
In the same way we seek to represent the best the coffee beans can offer in terms of sourcing and preparation, so do Bean to Bar chocolate makers. espresso NEAT is proud to offer chocolate from these acclaimed, high quality artisans along with Knipschildt Chocolatier:
nb: One of the secrets of our Hot Cocoa is that the syrup is hand made from Askinosie Cocoa Powder. Askinosie is the only small-batch chocolate maker in North America making natural cocoa powder directly from the cocoa bean. It is not alkalized or sweetened but is very pure–imparting a rich, complex chocolate flavor to the drink.
Second day of the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe conference and World Barista, Aeropress, and Cupping competitions. Go Mike Phillips (Intelligentsia Coffee) and Ben Kaminsky (Ritual Coffee)! Lori and Anne having many good discussions with the leading lights of US and Scandinavian coffees in order to bring best practices back to espresso NEAT.
A few of us took a road trip up to Boston this past Sunday to watch the finalists compete in the Northeast Regional Barista Competition. Yes, baristas compete; it’s serious business and quite impressive. Check out this short CNN video to get an idea of what it’s like…
We are proud to be adding several new Super Premium teas to our roster of fine loose leaf teas. In addition to our current offerings of extremely rare Dragonwell green tea and high grade limited edition Sencha and Assam, we are now proud to be able to provide our customers with two new Oolongs and a decorative tea. The Oolongs are a competition lot Chin Suan Amber and a High Mountain grown Jade. The decorative is a gorgeous hand-tied Jasmine tea with Chrysanthimum blossoms inside. All are served in our Hario glass pots and offer the possibility of multiple infusions for further enjoyment as the leaves unfold.
This weekend, we went to “Coffee Fest 2010” to check out the Mid-Atlantic Regional Latte Art and Barista Championships, study up on coffee roasting, and consult with noted tea expert James Norwood Pratt. A good time was had by all!
