Six Eight Kafe's Coffee Blog

Has Bean roaster Steve Leighton (red t-shirt) and 2011 World Barista Champion Alejandro Mendes to his left with the Viva Espresso (El Salvador) team

My word, do we have a treat for you.

As discussed in a previous post, Alejandro Mendez from El Salvador won the 2011 World Barista Championship using beans roasted by our espresso blend provider, Has Bean.

Well we have been lucky enough to get our hands on a couple of bags of the very same beans used by the champion coffee maker, named Finca La Ilusion from El Salvador.

We will be serving this as a guest espresso on Thursday 30th June and Saturday 2nd July on a limited run. We have a certain amount to use on each day, so get in there fast; once it runs out - it’s gone!

This beautiful coffee will be a shop exclusive and your chance to sip on an espresso recommended by the best in the world.

Alejandro Mendez (middle) after winning the 2011 World Barista Championship

Always looking to refine their blends and adapting due to the availability of coffee, Has Bean has recently changed the espresso blend we use, known by our coffee loving regulars as Jailbreak.

Since we get a lot of questions about our blend, I thought I would bring across the latest write up of the Mark 3 version of Jailbreak that is currently in our grinder.

JAILBREAK ESPRESSO BLEND MK3

Has Bean Premium Blend became so important to Has Bean, but we didn’t like the name. It infers that everything else was not premium, and of course it is.
So I decided it was time for a revamp to make all the blends a little more fun. So now we have ‘Jailbreak’ (a replacement for the Premium and Has Bean Espresso Blends). This is our house blend that we think is perfect for everyone from the home user right through to the best commercial espresso machines. There is a reason for the name, and lots of people I am sure will get it. It has lots to do with how I got into coffee. 
For me a roaster’s espresso blend for home users should be:

1. Good in other brew methods as well as in espresso. This saves customers from needing to have two different blends to hand which is particularly useful for those that do not get through them too quickly.
2. Good in a cheaper home machine as well as a top of the range commercial machine.
3. Good across a range of temperatures and extraction times; it should be forgiving.
4. Just totally tasty.
This blend does all that and more. 
We are very proud of what we do here at Has Bean Coffee. Some roasters will pretend that there is a dark art in blending. We think that good ingredients make a good blend when you think about what you want to achieve. We also don’t keep secrets, our blend contains 100% great quality coffee, from some of the best single estates in the world and we are happy to tell you all about them. Jailbreak consists of:

(40%) Bolivian Laoyza

(30%), Brazil Fazenda Sao Judas

(30%), Peru Café Verde Cusco Organic

These are premium coffees that on their own are amazing single origin coffees, but as a blend bring sweetness, acidity, body and all around deliciousness.

Taken from the Has Bean website.

The house was brought down on May 27th as our friends at Fake Magazine had their Launch Party at our place. Needless to say, there were good times a plenty with live music, drinks (coffee and maybe a little something stronger) and a good old chinwag.

Check out some of the shots taken at the shindig and please support our culture published friends at FAKE MAGAZINE.

For more photos in 6/8 check out our Flickr page.

Take to the Streets is a street photography exhibition going on at Snow Hill Plaza by photographers of the renowned Magnum photography agency.

On Monday 6th June there will be a talk at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery by one of the exhibiting photographers Chris Steele-Perkins.

On the same night, and following directly on from the talk, 6/8 has teamed up with Take to the Streets to open their doors to those of the Birmingham Flickr Group and other photographers. You can come to the coffee shop at 8pm, before heading on to check out the exhibition and go for a wander and some street photography.

Following this, some of the pictures taken that night will be posted on 6/8’s sister photography blog Birmingham Loves Photographers.

We hope to see you there, camera in hand.