From Milan to Manhattan, folks tell us our espresso is the best they’ve had in America. Probably what they like are our old-school practices.
Our beans are from some of the finest small coffee farms in the world, and we pay more for their fruit—fostering a better life for farming families helps us secure access to great coffee.
Barrington Coffee, from the rural, western edge of Massachusetts, is our elite micro-roaster. They transform green beans into gold. We order and reorder our beans in small freshly-roasted batches, and store them in foil bags with one-way valves that keep flavor-robbing air out.
But it takes more than gourmet espresso beans to produce gourmet espresso. On bar, we grind only upon your order. The result is velvety espresso with intense coffee flavor that is free of bitterness.
Like a Formula One car, our brew gear is technically masterful—and requires a properly trained operator—the Barista. For grinding, we use Italian-made grinders with high performance conical burrs. For brewing, we use Tuscany’s famously unsurpassed dual-boiler La Marzocco espresso machine.
The Barista must be trained to an exacting standard. Starbucks started with La Marzocco, then moved to “push button” machines—buy a Coke! We train each Beetlebung Barista and require each to pass written and on-bar tests to make drinks at the Coffee House. In this way, we ensure gourmet espresso goes into any version of latte (or cappuccino) that you can concoct.