Alpha Dominche is in the business of selling high-end, commercial grade coffee and tea machines. It’s new Extraction Lab opened one week ago inside a large warehouse in Brooklyn.
The company’s CEO Thomas Perez said the café offers a full menu of coffees and teas at all price ranges – with most cups of coffee selling for $3 and $4 a cup.
But for coffee lovers who want to experience something other than the daily grind, the shop offers more expensive coffees selling for $10, $14 and $18 per cup.
Perez explained why the Ethiopian Gesha is so expensive during an interview with Reuters on Friday (February 17).
“That is our unique, top line coffee we have in the cafe. This specific coffee is from Ethiopia and it’s from a farmer called Ninety Plus and it’s a very rare Gesha coffee that grows only in Ethiopia and some in Panama as well,” he said.
“It’s just rare, it’s hard to get. It’s a very, very small production. The way Ninety Plus is managing the farms is they pay very well to the farmers. They have a special picking philosophy where they only pick very ripe berries. So they will go back to the same tree two or three times in order to only pick the right berries every the time. So all these kind of processes and sustainability and paying the farmers well is obviously driving the cost of coffee, plus the coffee is very high quality as well.”
What does an $18 cup of coffee taste like?
Perez said, “Personally, I think it’s very good. I think it’s very interesting. I think it’s a very complex coffee. I like coffee a lot. I drink all kinds of coffee and I think this coffee has just a lot of mystery. It has a lot of super interesting flavor notes. It’s the kind of coffee, if you drink it very hot, it tastes one way. As soon as it cools down, you have different flavors coming out. I think it’s a mystery coffee that has so many interesting things going on when I drink it.”
Similar to many wine sellers, the café plans to offer coffee tastings for groups.
The Extraction Lab serves a variety of coffees and teas and to help customers choose the right brew, an iPad app offers details about the different coffees, roasters, regions, tasting notes and other information.
“The whole thing here about having all those coffees, all those varieties, all those origins and different roasters, is just to showcase what coffee is,” Perez said.
“If you like coffee and you want to try different coffees, this is the place to come. It’s a tasting room for coffee and tea. And course, you don’t have to buy an 18 dollar cup of coffee or 10 dollar or 8 dollar. That’s obvious, but you have the option to do it. And if you are really interested to see what the world of coffee can offer, then you can speak to the barista, you can read about the coffee in the store and you can taste it if you want,” he said.
Perez added, “When we have a coffee for 18 dollars, it’s because we’ve been out. We have been sourcing something really unique, something very special. We buy very small quantities and one who wants to try, they have the opportunity to come here and test it out.”
Perez point out, just like inexpensive coffee, it is okay to add sugar and milk to the expensive coffee too.
(Reuters)
