The Assembly Espresso — Created Collectively
Independent cafes are the immediate source of insight into the all important end consumer. At Assembly, cafe owners‘pool together’ their experiences to create a blend, which best serves their shared needs.
The essential objective of the Assembly Espresso is to, at all times, maintain a blend which best serves the needs of the independent coffee industry.
This objective is interpreted and fulfilled via direct input from cafes: a collective process where all wholesale partners are invited to offer their insight. With each individual’s experiences forming the basis for their opinions, every additional partner grows the level of insight for the whole.
In short, our wholesale partners are an intrinsic part of a perpetually evolving product. Created by independent cafes, for independent cafes.
Process:
Initial group discussions resulted in the following consensus:
- To best serve the needs of the industry, an espresso must encourage consumers to embrace independent coffee by connecting with prior knowledge and expectations
- To best serve the needs of the industry, this must be achieved without sacrificing the product we find fulfilling to source and serve
- It is likely that there is a distinction between the values of the coffee drinking public and coffee professionals
- To connect with the expectations of the coffee drinking public, the blend must have perceivable body and mouthfeel
- To preserve the values of independent cafes the blend must present a sweet and clean cup
In the second phase of the process, a series of cup tastings were held to select blend components, which best aligned with the objectives of the project. In addition to this, the group collectively developed Assembly Cupping Forms to most efficiently aggregate data. This data was used as a basis to inform green bean selections.
The Assembly Blend consists of:
50% Brazil — Rio Verde — 800 - 1350masl — Pulped Natural
50% Colombia — La Esperanza — Lot 725 — 1750masl — Washed