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Published on 09/08/1999 All articles from this issue

Breaking new grounds: TC unveils coffee blend

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue

Special to the Town Crier

New ideas are brewing. And thoughts are percolating throughout the Main Street building of the Los Altos Town Crier in downtown Los Altos.

To celebrate its 52th birthday on Sept. 9, the Los Altos Town Crier will offer a new coffee taste, the Town Crier birthday blend, available for the first time that day at Marjolaine bakery.

At an Aug. 17 blind tasting of three different coffee blends, the staff tasted, voted and chose a Tanzania peaberry from San Jose-based Vigál Coffee.

"The aroma grabbed me," said Gail Vanderberg, office coordinator. "That's what caught my attention."

For Monique Schoenfeld, staff photographer, "It was not too light, but just right."

The Tanzania peaberry is a "light roast," said Steve Bass, market manager for Vigál, who set up the tasting for the newspaper staff. It emerged as a clear favorite with the staff, following the voting.

"Before the days of specialty coffee, (that bean) was seen as deformed," Bass said. Peaberry beans are mutations of ordinary arabica beans where an arabica develops only one round bean instead of the usual two hemispherical ones, experts said.

The size and shape make the peaberry attractive to those who display whole beans, but flavor depends on where the bean was grown.

These peaberries grow in Tanzania on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Coffee gurus know the Tanzania peaberry as "rich and mellow with a delicate acidity."

The Town Crier birthday blend will be available beginning Sept. 9, at Marjolaine French Pastries, 134 Main St., Los Altos. A free cup of the Town Crier blend will be offered to visitors on Sept. 9. For more information, call 949-2226.