As Daily YHZ puts it, Black Cat "had kittens..."

I had read that this was in the works. Looks like Intelligentsia finally got around to expanding the Black Cat lineup with some intriguing new single origin espressos. They're priced by the half-pound and roasted only on Mondays...

http://www.intelligentsiacoffee.c...re/coffee/espresso

Kind of a "soft launch" since I have not seen any blog entries from Geoff, Kyle, etc.

It's interesting to see these having brewing recommendations for each origin.

Ex.
Brewing Recommendations
Dose: 20g
Water Temperature: 199 - 200f
Extraction Time: 30 - 35 seconds
Extraction Volume: 1oz

I too saw this the other day. I have ordered a half pound of the La Maravilla, and it should be here today or tomorrow. Looking forward to pulling some shots with this

-Donovan

This is cool, however it bothers me a bit that they appear to be calling nearly all of their coffees "Black Cat" now. Black Cat used to be the name of one specific blend, so you knew what people meant when they talked about pulling a shot of Black Cat. Now there are several blends, including decaf, plus even the SO's are being pulled into the Black Cat label. It seems a bit confusing to me, but maybe I'm being to nitpicky. But I still wouldn't mind trying some of these coffees.

Unfortunately, it takes several days for coffee to reach California from Chicago, so I rarely order from Intelly anymore. I wish they'd ship the west coast orders from their store in Los Angeles instead of Chicago. They do roast in LA right? If they're already roasting there, maybe they could start shipping from there too. If they did, I suspect they'd get a lot more business from people in California and the rest of the western states. Are you listening Kyle? Hint, hint.

It did seem that in a matter of a few months everything got new bags and labels. I miss black cat being the red bag coffee you knew you wanted when ordering from them. Kid-O even became part of the Black Cat "Project". All this aside I am still quite happy with my plain old Black Cat, they can change the labels all they want.

I've wondered the same thing. It's odd that they roast out of LA but don't ship from there. I realize they may not roast everything in duplicate, but I'd be happy to order what was roasted on the West Coast if it meant 2-3 days faster shipping.

Hey folks,

RE: Roasting in LA - We're working on this. We are currently roasting in LA for our Silver Lake store and all of our West Coast wholesale customers. I am hoping that within a few months, we will have our web site sending orders for West Coast web customers to LA. We've been working up to this point for a while, we just wanted to make sure the logistics were all in order before we dumped (potentially) hundreds of orders on LA each day. Stay tuned. We'll make it very evident which warehouse your order is being shipped from when we make the switch.

RE: Black Cat - Black Cat has always been something we take great pride in, put forth tremendous efforts toward and do our best to make it excellent. To us, that seemed like it deserved more than just being a blend in our lineup. That's why we've expanded the scope of what "Black Cat" is. It's become it's own project...just like "Flor Azul, Nicaragua" or "Zirikana, Rwanda" are to us, so is Black Cat. By expanding the lineup of espressos, we have a greater ability to find flavors and experiences that we've never encountered before. We take that knowledge and apply it back to Black Cat.

Creating a great espresso involves more than just the coffee, it's the machine, the barista, the cup, the tools, etc. The Black Cat Project is looking at all of these things and trying to catch the perfect espresso...

Perhaps Kyle can shed some more light on the mission for everyone.

It looks like Ritual Roasters is doing a "Black Cat Line" of their own. I recently checked their website and noticed that their Sweet Tooth moniker will now feature SO espressos, changing monthly. Perhaps a trend is starting?

Wondering if the Intelligentsia Santa Teresa SO is their Bourbon or Pacamara or a blend? But understand that this may be a secret
farm

You can ID Pacamara visually.
Should be easy to answer this as a result.