Bay area roasters - Blue bottle free pulic cupping this Sunday

[jyalpert]

Just throwing this out there - any Bay Area roasters who might be interested, the Blue Bottle roastery on Webster Street in Oakland has free public cuppings every Sunday at 11:30am and 3pm.  I'll be at the 11:30am this Sunday.  I figure it's good palate practice!

[thusband]

Sounds like fun. Their website suggests a ticket to guarantee a spot but it doesn't seem to work.  Can you just show up? 

[jyalpert]

Yeah - I did this about 6mo ago and I just showed up.  I'll probably get there about 10 minutes early just in case.

[kenneroast]

My girlfriend and I attended one of these a couple months ago. It was really cool. The day we went they featured their three Africans blend. Each component was cupped separately, and of course the blend itself. We thought it was a well orchestrated blend. Anyone thinking about it- I suggest going, it's fun.

Some other roasters in the Bay Area that do them too- four barrel and sightglass in SF. I think chromatic does them in San Jose too.

[thusband]

Yeah - I did this about 6mo ago and I just showed up.  I'll probably get there about 10 minutes early just in case.

Great! Maybe we'll see you there.

[georgelin]

It is sound great

[SusanJoM]

Did anyone go?
Did you meet each other?

[thusband]

My wife and I stopped by about a half hour before but the place was packed with people with a line outside the door so we took a pass and went around the corner to Bicycle and had a nice leisurely cup.  I could see through the window at Blue Bottle there must have been fifteen or so cups set up. 

[jyalpert]

I went 2 weeks ago with my wife.  We cupped the components of the current Three Ethiopians and Bella Donovan blends.  They had one blow-you-away Sidamo that was roasted at the edge of underdevelopment, which provided acidity and fruit to the Three Ethiopians blend.  It was not roasted for a standalone brew - it was clearly done as light as possible to provide its flavor in the blend.  That was interesting.  They also had a DP Ethiopia that was pretty classic.  The rest were all kind of burnt, to lend body and roast flavor I believe (a Uganda, a Peru, and a Sumatra).  The Bella Donovan blend in particular I think is Blue Bottle's offering for people who like darker roasts.  I rarely roast that way, so it was interesting to try and pick out nuance among the roasty flavor.

It was super cool to see how the 3 blend components came together to make the flavor profile of the final coffee.

Also, it was definitely packed when I was there, but there weren't that many people actually doing the cupping - only 4 of us.  You enter the cupping area at the back left of the shop through a glass door.