Blue State Coffee

So Mondays start the first cold brew of the week. I had a new batch of single origins in so I have a few new variations to try. Today I used a light roast from Costa Rica. The Finca Los Mangos is a really nice subtle coffee. A little bit uncharacteristic for a Costa Rican coffee, less spice than usual. It has some really neat dryness to it. Its overall fruity flavors really add to its appeal as an iced coffee. The other bean is a favorite of mine, a full city roast Sumatra Mandheling. As a single origin espresso this bean really shines. Really well rounded, deep fruit notes like plum or date with a really awesome cinnamon like finish, almost like cinnamon toast crunch! The layers are set up with with the Costa on the bottom and top layers. Hopefully this will allow me to avoid the cinnamon on the finish and really highlight the great fruit notes. But only the first taste will really tell so I'll be following up tomorrow.

In the mean time, I'd like to a minute to highlight the shop I work at. Blue State Coffee is committed to sustainability in many of its incarnations. I have been with the company since the day we opened doors at the Wall St. location in New Haven. I've had the pleasure of helping develop blends, different menu items, develop training and hire a really amazing staff. We have some really talented barista working for us. In addition to amazing coffee, we also have a great community outreach program. In each location we donate 5% of sales quarterly to 4 different local non-profit organizations. The total amount donated to each organization is decided based on voting by the customers we are earning sales from. As a company we have donated well over $100,000! We are also committed to environmental sustainability. We compost all of our grounds, filters, and tea bags. We also carry all corn based plastic cups and lids, potato starch based plastic utensils, and compostable paper products and straws. And we actually send our products to an industrial composting facility so it doesn't go to a fill to rot in the sun for decades. If it's not compostable it better be recyclable. While we can't catch everything, we do our best. I think one bag of trash a day is pretty fucking good. So if you're in Providence or New Haven check out one of our shops and have a latte.