Three years have already passed since the launch of LAB 100, our coffee blend created for coffee shops that want to promote a selection of Specialty Coffees to their customers. This espresso blend has a captivating taste for everyone, is easily understandable even for customers who are not yet aware of a high quality coffee and has a “stable” taste throughout the year.
Even if the first feedbacks of the specialty coffee community were not the brightest, our team has always continued believing in the specialty blend Lab 100, revisiting and improving the recipe and the roasting profiles to express its organoleptic notes in the best and most valuable way.
During the lockdown period caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, but also before that, we already saw an exponential growth in the consumption of LAB 100 in the end consumer market. The first few days of re-opening of coffee shops, not too long ago, our LAB 100 has in fact literally started to take off, reaching a + 45% of sales compared to last year and even becoming the first product in sale volumes on Caffelab.com, our online coffee laboratory!
The success of specialty blends has also been confirmed in recent studies by important associations of the coffee sector that have analyzed the trends in consumption in coffee shops serving Specialty Coffee.
During the lockdown we had the opportunity to participate in several webinars held by world-renowned coffee experts who claimed that Specialty blends were an important tool to make everyone feel at “ease” in Third Wave coffee shops. Not only for experts, but also for the normal customers. These are the customers to whom we have to transmit the message of quality without “intimidating” them or making them feel “out of place”.
We have created our Lab100 with a quite ambitious goal of always maintaining a stable and high quality of taste, although sometimes changing the coffee origin depending on availability (as Specialty Coffees usually come from very small coffee farms). We can definitely say that our LAB 100 has successfully achieved this goal and we are very proud of the results!
Let’s go into more detail:
The Lab100 is made up of only two specialty coffee varieties. After all, when the coffees are of a high quality, only a few are enough to obtain the right balance in the cup.
We have selected:
- One variety is from the Fazenda Rainha, grown at 1500 meters above sea level in the region of Minas Gerais in Brazil. This batch of Yellow Bourbon monovarietal coffee has beautiful and very sweet aromas of yellow fruits.
- The other coffee variety is from Mexico, grown on the volcanic slopes of the border to Guatemala, in the Finca Muxbal, a name that in the local dialect means “surrounded by clouds”.
Two exceptional coffees, which allow us to have a stability of taste as they are usually available throughout the year. Stability is also the reason why we do not indicate the percentage of each variety within the blend, a percentage that can change during the year. Our main focus is on keeping the sensorial profile of the coffee as a reference!
The organoleptic characteristics of this coffee?
We went to ask the experts of our coffee school, Espresso Academy, who tasted this blend according to the SCA parameters. Let’s see the results in our video here below.
LAB 100 is the perfect coffee for those who want to offer a message of true quality in their coffee shop, which is probably even more important in these times, when after the Covid-19 storm, to start again it will be necessary to distinguish ourselves from the competition and be truly extraordinary!
If you have a bar and want to offer Lab 100 and other Specialty Coffees to your customers, contact us at info@caffelab.it, we will find the best solution together with you!
