On June 3rd we partnered with one of our great customers in Atlanta, West Egg Cafe, for "Cupcakes and Coffees: A Pairing." I was excited to lead the event, pairing a few of our single origin coffees with specially made cupcakes. I was assisted by roaster extraordinaire Aaron Shively, and Director of Business Development, Mike Ferguson. I started off by sharing information on the three coffee growing regions and how coffees will vary in taste, based on where they're grown, the weather, altitude, and processing methods. The first pairing was our Guatemala El Valle with West Egg's famous Coca-Cola Cupcake. The flavors of cocoa and sweet molasses paired really nicely, and most thought they complimented each other well. After that, we enjoyed what I called the "breakfast pairing, our Costa Rica El Indio with a butterscotch bacon cupcake. I asked participants to take a bite of the cupcake with the bacon piece, close their eyes and take a drink of the coffee, thinking of what sensations the pairing created. Most said it reminded them of breakfast with waffles, pancakes, bacon, egg, and orange juice. A flavor explosion of breakfast! From there we moved to our new Ethiopia Sidamo Shoye, paired with a cherry cupcake with chocolate frosting and candied cherries on top. The Sidamo has great flavors of dark fruits, plums, cherries and plums. This coffee showed great balance when combined of the normally stronger flavors of chocolate and cherry. The last pairing course, featured our Rwanda Buremera pulled as the espresso in a traditional eight ounce cappuccino, paired with an Orange Creamsicle cupcake. Our guest barista for the night was Daniel Thompson, the new manager of our Dancing Goats® Coffee Bar in Decatur. The nice, sweet citrus notes of the Rwanda as espresso took everyone off guard, and ended the night of flavors on a great note. This pairing, with its balance of flavors, was a favorite. It was truly great to see many people in attendance who were tasting and thinking about coffee in a new way. This helped establish our true ambition with our coffees: to include them in foodie conversations about flavors, menu planning and the subtle enjoyment of coffee characteristics.