Have you been enjoying citrus season? It’s upon us. Walk into any grocery store this time of year and you’ll find the produce section dominated by meticulously-assembled pyramids of orange and yellow. That’s because we are at peak citrus right now. The other day I found no fewer than eight different varieties of grapefruit at New Seasons. And that’s just grapefruit. Not even talking oranges here.
We are very lucky to have access to so much variety. I love citrus season because there’s always something I’ve never tried before. One variety has a different color of pulp, another has the freshest fragrance. This year I tried a Mellowgold grapefruit for the first time, and it blew me away with its sugary juice—much sweeter than any orange I’ve ever had. Variety is amazing like that. It can shake our expectations and change how we think about something as familiar as grapefruit. Variety is why I look forward to citrus season every year.
Variety is a big part of coffee enjoyment as well. Like any produce, coffee is grown in many different varieties. More varieties than we know. More than we’ve been able to identify. And varieties have a big impact on what we taste and experience in coffee. But often it can be hard to tell what that impact is. If I love a coffee for its beautiful citrus notes, can I say that this particular variety has beautiful citrus notes? Or maybe it tastes this way because of the soil in which it grew, or because of the way the farmers handled it, or because of the good rain this year, or this, or that. And we may say that we prefer Colombian coffees, but maybe we actually prefer a particular variety of coffee commonly grown in Colombia, and would love it just as much if it were grown in Peru.
Even by just scratching the surface we can see that variety in coffee is fascinating, but also tough to pin down. Which is why it’s a thrill to be announcing our next showcase event, which we’re calling “Fresh Variety.” If you’ve been watching our shelves this past week you’ve noticed that we have begun to feature two varieties of coffee from a single coffee farm. This means two different types of plants grown on the same soil with the same conditions and the same hands caring for them. We are excited by these coffees, and excited to have the remarkable opportunity to taste them next to each other. So plan to join us for this tasting on Saturday, March 14th, where we will be building some remarkable drinks that show off what makes these two varieties unique. Put it on your calendar, and stay tuned to our Instagram feed for details as the event approaches.
Saturday, March 14th, 1-5pm
Case Study Alberta
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