 Thursday, Oct. 1st, 2015, marked a special day in history because it was the first International Coffee Day EVER! We were so excited for it that we’ve been celebrating our collection of international coffees for sale all week. Take a look at what we’ve got!  This first coffee, from Ceremony Coffee Roasters up in Annapolis, Maryland, comes from Ocotepeque, Honduras, located right in the center of Central America.  Also called “The Banana Republic,” Honduras is home to some awesome Mayan ruins, shorelines of coral reef, and mountains of tasty coffee. This particular batch carries some sweet notes such as raw sugar, and fig cookie aromatics resulting in a nice mellow cup. Next we head down to Costa Rica where we find our Finca Cirri coffee, coming from our Jacksonville roasters, Bold Bean.  This offering is the fruit of a direct-trade relationship between Bold Bean and the Arrieta family. Growing coffee now for four generations (and counting), the Arrieta family, including Leon and Maricel, grow their coffee in the West Valley region of Costa Rica, where the high altitudes and cool temperatures along with rich volcanic soil are perfect for producing quality coffee. This batch brings to the table notes of orange blossom, peach, and strawberry jam, so if you’re in the mood for a balanced earthy cup with exciting hints of fruit flavor, check out this tico coffee. Just a quick hop over the pond and we find our third coffee for sale. This beauty comes from Ethiopia, where the coffee bean was originally discovered (or so the the tales go). There is evidence of coffee consumption as early as the 10th century, but it didn’t take too long for this wonderful bean to travel through Africa, up to Asia and Europe, and then to the Americas.  Hundreds of years later and this region is still producing coffees with the bright and complex flavor that always stand out when tasted next to coffees from other areas of the world, like this Yiragacheffea coffee.  Do yourself a favor and let us serve you up some coffee from its place of origin. You won’t regret it. Our final retail bag for sale is a blend of coffees from Latin America, perfect for celebrating international coffees! Each bag is 50% Brazilian, 25% Colombian, 25% Guatemalan and 100% delicious. This signature espresso blend from Bold Bean always yields a perfectly sweet and balanced shot of espresso for any size espresso drink. It’s also great brewed via your favorite brewing process (chemex, v60, French Press, etc.)  The bad news is that International Coffee Day is already over, but the good news is that we will have all of these coffees available for sale in our coffeehouse, with even more coffees, behind the bar. Come in and take a quick trip around the world one sip at a time.
We’ll see you soon.
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 We opened a week ago and it has been crazy! We're so thankful for all the community support. For those who are new to the community (and to those who've been a part of our community but have never gotten a sense of who we are), below is a little introduction. Stop by the bar and introduce yourself sometime. We'd love to meet you. We at Pascal’s seek encounters with authentic coffees. We’re always growing in knowledge of the coffee world, tweaking our brewing parameters, and experimenting with various brewing methods so that we can provide our community with coffees that farmers and roasters have cultivated with the greatest care. We love our community and desire to unite folks of all perspectives and backgrounds through the experience of coffees with character. We affirm scholarly inquiry, artistic expression, and thought that is faithful to the complexities of human experience. We view all this as our expression of Christian hospitality and presence. Welcome to Pascal’s.  Hey, Guys,
Join us in wishing farewell to one of our baristas. Allie's graduating at the end of this summer and moving on to some cool things. Come get a drink from her during her last week! Also, keep in mind that we'll close for the two-week break between summer semester and fall semester. We'll reopen Monday, August 24th. Lots of really exciting coffees on the way! See you soon.  The fact that we even get to serve this coffee here at Pascal's is the result of a collaboration between our friends in Jacksonville, Fl, Bold Bean Coffee Roasters, and the Pacas family in El Salvador.
This particular coffee, from the Santa Ana region, is a Red Bourbon and, like all Cafe Pacas's coffees, it was separated at the farm and at the mill according to the lot and the maturation process of each coffee cherry. This intense attention to detail results in consistently robust brewed coffee. When we cupped this coffee, we were amazed that, although tasting subtly fruity, it sat heavily in our mouths with a rich, dark chocolatey body. This coffee is so balanced, we're stoked to offer it to you. We're brewing it by-the-cup and in our airpods. Come get some while we've got it. This is Bold Bean's first year working with the Pacas family, and they hope to continue growing in relationship with the folks at Cafe Pacas.  Pascal's Folks,
We're excited to present to you Ceremony Coffee Roasters. Based out of Annapolis, Maryland, Ceremony represents top-tier quality coffee roasting. They're committed to sourcing and roasting quality coffees through direct relationships with farmers around the world. Read this post from Ceremony's blog to get a sense for who they are and to what they're committed. They are passionate about sharing ideal coffees with their customers. These are coffees that are representative of both the highest quality and reasonable cost to all involved, from the farmer all the way to the drinker. We're stoked to share with you one of their current single-origin offerings: the Ethiopia, Yirgacheffe, Wazzala, a bright, sweet coffee with notes of strawberry marmalade and lemon zest. We'll be doing 20% all Ceremony pour-overs for the rest of the summer. Come get some Wazzala while we've got it, and be on the look out for more Ceremony coffees. See you soon! As many of you may know, we stopped pulling triple espresso shots this summer. In short, these shots were just inconsistent. Our last post went into a lot of detail, if you're curious, take a gander. But, that change and the changes in our processes and in just the overall aesthetic of the place are results of our constant pursuit for better quality. Change is hard, especially when it makes things maybe a little less convenient. We believe in a slight trade off between convenience and quality. We want to meet every possible request, but we also want to serve you something spectacular.
So, let's talk chai. It's a favorite around here...and it's changing, for what we believe to be the good. Originally, we ordered a pre made chai mixture with some not so natural ingredients. So, chai ended up on our list of things to make better. We have come up with a new in house chai mix. We make it ourselves and buy the ingredients locally. I need to repeat, we want our customers to have the very best drinks. We are learning more and more how to do this and are also learning how to be more transparent with you guys. We are on our way out of blended chai and flavored pre made chai, they'll only be here while supplies last. So, be adventurous...try the chai. If you've been into Pascal's this week you've probably noticed a few changes, probably the most obvious being the color on the walls. We believe the change on the outside is a reflection of what we're trying to accomplish behind the bar, with your cup. Pascal's has come a long way and has been led by incredible managers who were on a pursuit to do what we do as best as we can. We've learned a lot from these people and those around us in our little coffee community and they've pushed us to always be better.
So, what does this mean for our beverages now? Well it means change - change we are convinced is for the good. At Pascal's Coffeehouse, we have done away with our triple shots of espresso. We know this is a sad thing to see for some and maybe even a seemingly pointless thing as well. Our triple shots have been pulling to a decent 1.5 ounces, about the same as our doubles. With constant pressure from our machine and only an increase in the volume of coffee going in, we're getting an unbalanced and small shot out. If we are serving 1.5 - 2 ounces of espresso pulling both double and triple shots, we are going to serve you the double because it's a great shot, opposed to our triple which is honestly, decent and inconsistent. If you want more of a kick out of your drink, try just a shot or a macchiato, you may just be surprised at the amount of boldness and deliciousness out of such a small drink! You are our customer and we are here to serve you the best possible product that we are capable of putting on our counters. That being said, we care about you - if you want a larger drink with 3 shots, we will pull two doubles and split one for you. We are here to serve you and serve you well.  Pascal's Patrons,
I want to remind you that this semester's weekly Director's Class, The Narrative of the Fall in Literature and Life, begins this Wednesday. It takes place at the Christian Study Center from 11:45 a.m. to 12:35 p.m. and lunch is provided. This class if for you! On a more personal note, the Director's Class was my first introduction to both Pascal's and the Christian Study Center, and it has proved to be a mighty pillar of my education. Whether or not you adhere to the Christian tradition, I recommend this class to you, for it will provoke serious thought and meaningful engagement with contemporary culture. There is no required reading, only suggested reading, so don't let the idea that you'd be adding more material to your already heavy load deter you from participating. Hope to see you there, Juan  If you've been to Pascal's recently, you may have heard the following: "Sorry, but we're out of our iced coffee. Can we make you an iced americano?"
We owe you an explanation. We've been doing iced brewed coffee for the past few years and have experimented with a couple of different methods. The first method we tried was the cold brew method. Using this method, we never had to heat the coffee. We grind coffee, let it sit in room temperature for 12 hours or in the fridge for 24 hours (we've tried both), and then strain it. This method has its pros and cons. Not heating the coffee reduces that metallic, unpleasant bitter flavor that often results from pouring hot coffee over ice. When we used this method, we started with small batches and usually had enough to last the day. Then more people started ordering iced coffee. Keeping up with the demand was difficult, but we managed. Summer 2013 we learned a new method of brewing iced coffee. The pour over iced coffee method. Also known as Japanese iced coffee, this method exposes and locks in the flavors and aromatics of the coffee that other methods don't. The trick is to brew the hot coffee immediately into ice. The heat releases the flavors and the ice locks them in. In our judgement, this is the best iced coffee we've had. And this is the iced coffee we've been brewing this fall. We usually brew it beforehand and are therefore able to serve it immediately. However, we often run out because the demand has increased so much and our storage capacity is limited. Apparently, people have spread the word about our iced coffee, which is great! Even when we run out of our pre-brewed iced coffee, we can still make it for you. Here's the catch: you may have to wait 5 to 10 minutes. This coffee is best when prepared upon its order. That's why we're a bit reluctant to store large amounts for the sake of speed. We prefer to make it per order. It's best that way. What this means for you is that you may need to wait a bit longer for your iced coffee. It's totally worth it. We'll always have a some pre-brewed iced coffee, but when we run out and we tell you that we'll have to make it for you at that moment, your reaction should be one of joy and not one of disappointment. You're getting the best iced coffee. We're passionate about brewing the best coffee and we're always trying new things. And we love that you all share in that excitement. To good coffee, Pascal's As you may have noticed, we have started serving two new coffees: Sweetwater's Mexico and Freight Train. We want to share a bit of how we selected these coffees and how we select all of our coffees.
As a staff, we come together and cup (a tasting method) different coffees to determine which are the best quality to serve either as brewed coffee (drip, pour over, french press, etc.) or espresso. After our most recent cupping, we fell in love with both the Freight Train and the Mexico. The Freight Train has a complex blend of tartness and sweetness, which makes it a crisp and refreshing brewed coffee. It's full body, along with its complex flavor, makes it a great espresso. Mexico, a slightly darker roast than the Freight Train, has some of the same sweetness with less tart. In has, instead, a smokier sweetness, which makes it a smooth brewed coffee. Come in and enjoy these two coffees while we serve them! |