THEORY MONTHLY | MARCH 2024

We hope March was good to you! This is the official second Theory Monthly and we're so excited to bring you in to get a better glimpse into our world and hear from the people that keep us running and keep the coffee flowing!

Updates from our Director of Coffee

Hey there! This is Dom, your friendly neighborhood Director of Coffee.

This month I wanted to talk to you about Theory’s value for quality and a part of our process that helps us make sure that when you come in to buy your drink, you’re getting the absolute best that we have to offer. For us, we can’t just serve good coffee, we can’t just settle for what passes. We absolutely have to raise the bar and prioritize coffees that you’re going to want to write home to mom about. All that to say, we’re really passionate about delicious coffee.

A part of that process of finding the best coffees in the world, is cupping the coffees. Each week on Tuesdays our roastery team, Sam, and myself taste each and every coffee that we have to make sure we love it.

Here’s a fairly simple step by step on what cupping looks like:

1. We put freshly ground coffee in a cup
2. We first start by smelling the coffee to make sure the aromatics (smells) are on point
3. We pour hot water into the cup and repeat step 2, but while it’s brewing
4. Once it’s done brewing we break the crust that forms on top and give it one last good smell
5. Let the coffee cool down to a drinkable temperature
6. We use a specific kind of spoon made for cupping to taste each coffee

That even includes tasting the three components of our fan favorite Tres Feurtes each week to make sure it’s up to our standards. A lot of work goes into making sure coffee is at the highest of quality but each and every week it’s a highlight for me. For us, we think of the generations of work that goes into growing, picking, and processing the coffee beans that come into our shop.

All of that hard work gets paid off when we see y’alls faces light up taking that first sip.

Hope you’ve had a great month and can’t wait to see you in the shops!

Don’t ever hesitate to stop in with any coffee related questions you might have, always down for a good coffee chat!

- Dominick

Updates from our Roaster

Theory fans and friends,

Violet here, writing from the Roastery. Reflecting on March feels like a whirlwind! My highlights from this month largely circulate around the cool cats I get to spend my time with.

At the beginning of the month, Theory celebrated its sixth birthday and released a special blend in honor. Sam, the entire roastery team and our operations manager, Inessa, worked together to make a sweet, delicious blend for you all, which tasted like cookies and caramel. It was fondly dubbed ‘Scout Blend’ in honor of Sam’s legendary International Scout (Read more on the website). I hope you got the chance to try it in our shops or as a brew at home throughout the month.

Other Highlights:

The roastery brought on a new production manager named Eddie. Ed is a retired wildland firefighter, lover of karaoke, and all around great guy to be around. With that, we’re sending our previous production manager, Amelia, on her way to live in Italy and study film. I’m sad to see her go. She brings brilliance and kindness to everything around her, but I’m thrilled to see her move steadily towards her dreams, and grateful to have found her as a friend through our work together. I’m surrounded by some pretty inspiring people, and it makes life and work flow so beautifully.

What I’m looking forward to in April:

We’ve just released a few lovely new single origins for you all, but one I’m really excited about is an El Salvadorian coffee from Finca Santa Maria in the volcanic Apaneca-Ilamatepec Range.

Finca Santa Maria is an heirloom farm that has been in the Alvarez family for generations, and you can taste the pride and lineage in the cup. This coffee is beautifully creamy on the tongue, with a slight liquor essence (I think of Tiramisu). We detected a full body with an almost smoky underpinning, all accented nicely by lively grapefruit zest in the initial sip. It should be available to you all starting next week. I hope you all enjoy it as much as we do in the roastery.

An insight that arises from this month:

We as individuals can be brilliant, creative, and impactful. But problems that are improbable for one person to surmount can be not only solved, but become delightful and interactive brain-games for a group of different minds coming together with resilience, curiosity, and respect for each others’ strengths. I hope this month you are able to make space for new types of collaboration whether in work, play, or art.

That’s all for now!

Cheers,

- Violet