September came and suddenly it was autumn. It has really become much cooler lately and we aren't too sad about that. It's nice seeing Titlis and the Glacier somewhat covered in white again instead of a melting grey which sadly has been the sight all summer. Although its autumn weather now, the leaves haven't yet turned all golden and red... so those beautiful autumn pictures we'll just have to save until next months journal.
This September we have patiently been waiting for those low season days but they just never seemed to come. Its been a busy September and only this past week it calmed down somewhat and most likely due to the rain more than anything. The rain however gave us some time to prepare for the Herbstmarkt on October 1st and for our pop-up store at Bahnhof Engelberg that we will have until the end of the year.
Since May 2020 the Zentralbahn host local businesses to set up a pop-up store in the newly renovated Bahnhof Engelberg. From May to July 2020 we where the first ones to set up our Pop-up store there and now we are invited back for a second round. Last time it was spring/summer so we launched our Kalte Kafi, sold coffee beans, hiking maps and summer postcards. This time around we are super excited to get the chance to have the pop-up during the winter pre-season and over Christmas. You do not want to miss out on stopping by and checking it out for those last minute gifts. A little hint; its all about "Greetings from Engelberg" in every "Postable" way you can think of.
Another preparation we have done for the winter season is swapping out the cocky Early Bird blend to its winter rival Blue Bird. We aim to make the Blue Bird as similar to the previous year as possible but don't stare us blind on that. With new harvests comes new flavours and although this seasons Blue Bird consists of the same components as last year, lovely Peru and Brazil Arabica beans, it is slightly different in taste (for the better of course). It is still medium roasted which gives it a nice berrylike acidity rounded off with some dark chocolate notes. Doesn't sound too bad right?
For all you Early Bird fans... this blend will be taking a well deserved winter rest and will be back full of freshness and flavour by Easter.
It's sometimes a tough but very fun job finding new high quality coffee. Lately we have been doing a lot of cupping, which is when we test the quality of the samples of coffee beans that we are interested in. We first roast all the samples similar, weigh up same amount, grind at the same level and add the same amount and temperatured water to the cups. Then you smell, taste, gurgle and spit to get the best overall impression of the beans. The spitting is voluntary but highly recommended (even if its delicious) since you kinda want to avoid getting those unpleasant caffeine overdoses after cupping many cups of coffee. We regularly cup new samples of coffee when replacing the last harvest with the new harvest in our consistent blends. But also cup regularly to find fun new beans to use as an exclusive Single Origin coffee or as recently, to find components for our annual Christmas blend. Now that this seasons Blue Bird is set and on the shelves we can start focusing on exploring the exciting beans we ordered for this years Christmas Blend. Let the test roasting begin!!