MarkPrince Moderator Joined: 19 Dec 2001 Posts: 5,462 Location: Vancouver, BC Expertise: Professional
Espresso: KvdW Speedster Grinder: Compak K10 WBC Vac Pot: A bit too many Drip: Clive Coffee Drip Stand Roaster: Hario Glass Retro Roaster
Posted Sat Jul 26, 2008, 3:13pm Subject: Re: New Black Cat Blend
Great news too!
I also want to just make myself clear in all this low-scale protest about BC... Like others, it's not as much a criticism of the new tastes from the blend over the past few months in of itself - it's not that Black Cat of 2 weeks ago or a month ago was a substandard espresso blend - definitely not!
It was a low-scale protest towards taking a very famous, very influential, and very company-defining blend, and changing its core taste profile, when perhaps a new blend should have been introduced instead with the new taste direction - Black Cat Gold, Bright Cat, or Berry Burst Cat (okay, maybe not lol) - and Black Cat itself remained true to the goal of producing a chocolate / caramel / stout / deep body / low acidity blend that it was born and bred for.
I'm very open minded to this new blend direction, but speaking purely as a consumer that remembers the halcyon days of BC, and BC when it was at its most awesomeness, and even BC when it was good / great (hey all blends have their ups and downs) personally, I'd still like to get back to that BC of choco/caramel/stout/sweet/body that eschewed fruity froo froos (LOL!), and have a new blend, BrightCat or something, that had acidity / fruits introduced, if the company wants that one two punch.
Posted Sat Jul 26, 2008, 3:24pm Subject: Re: New Black Cat Blend
My main issue with Intelligetsia on this was that the blend changed dramatically without any word to the consumers. What that resulted in was people questioning their technique, equipment, brew temperature, water, etc. It was as if they thought people would not notice... "Gee, lets drastically change the flavor profile for the bedrock of many people's espresso... They won't notice..." Well, they did. :)
Dana Leighton - Espresso hack and CoffeeGeek moderator
WilsonHines Senior Member Joined: 4 Jul 2007 Posts: 68 Location: Mount Olive, NC Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Faema 2 Group Grinder: Mazzer Mini, KitchenAid... Vac Pot: Bodum Santos Electric Drip: Saeco Venus Roaster: Intelli, Crema Roaster...
Posted Sat Jul 26, 2008, 3:48pm Subject: Re: New Black Cat Blend
via Twitter as well :)
I ordered my first bag, ever, of BC almost two weeks ago. It was roasted on the 16th if I remember right. It was allot like Mark complained about LOL.
I have another bag, roasted on this past Monday (21st) so I hope that is in the new batch your talking about Matt. I am opening that up on Monday the 28th for a "good time!" :)
SL28ave Senior Member Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 796 Location: Rockville, MD Expertise: I live coffee
Grinder: Baratza Virtuoso Drip: Technivorm
Posted Sat Jul 26, 2008, 9:51pm Subject: Re: New Black Cat Blend
I had a shot at the Millenium Park store, with chewy cherry notes, that made my day today.
A fairly rhetorical side-thought: If espresso is "still in the womb", is a roasting company supposed to have 100 different blends some day because the younger also-successful versions shouldn't be discarded? I hear y'all about liking to know about drastic changes before they happen, but progression is why Intelligentsia doesn't suck like many other companies.
... it's been about a year since I've tried Epic, so will try very, berry soon.
Posted Sat Jul 26, 2008, 10:45pm Subject: Re: New Black Cat Blend
But isn't there an important difference between making a radical change to a blend but still selling it under the old name and making a new blend to replace a discontinued old one?
I'm all for progression, but with new blends lets have new names, or at least a loud and clear indication of changes made and resulting flavor profile.
Intelly changed Black Cat quite a bit and underestimated the need to be more vocal about it and a lot of folks were taken by surprise.
Again I'm not knocking the new Black Cat, I'm just saying it was very different.
WilsonHines Senior Member Joined: 4 Jul 2007 Posts: 68 Location: Mount Olive, NC Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Faema 2 Group Grinder: Mazzer Mini, KitchenAid... Vac Pot: Bodum Santos Electric Drip: Saeco Venus Roaster: Intelli, Crema Roaster...
Posted Sun Jul 27, 2008, 7:57am Subject: Re: New Black Cat Blend
Well, I cheated. I just made several espresso shots, some restretto and some more typical. I just don't know enough about BC to say. As I said in my post yesterday, mine was roasted on last Monday. I don't know what day "earlier this week" actually is. But, Monday is about as early as you can get. Maybe it needs one more day.
Iluvdabean Senior Member Joined: 7 Mar 2005 Posts: 1,058 Location: California Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: La Nuova Era Cuadra/Gaggia... Grinder: Baratza Preciso/K-A Pro... Drip: Capresso MT 500/Pour Over Roaster: Nesco 1010/Behmor 1600
Posted Sat Aug 16, 2008, 7:08pm Subject: Re: New Black Cat Blend
TimEggers Said:
But isn't there an important difference between making a radical change to a blend but still selling it under the old name and making a new blend to replace a discontinued old one?
I'm all for progression, but with new blends lets have new names, or at least a loud and clear indication of changes made and resulting flavor profile.
Intelly changed Black Cat quite a bit and underestimated the need to be more vocal about it and a lot of folks were taken by surprise.
Again I'm not knocking the new Black Cat, I'm just saying it was very different.
I think its unethical and misleading to change a products taste and call it the same name. Period...if you say new and improved Black Cat or Black Cat II then thats different but its not fair to purposely alter something without letting people know. I dont like those tactics myself. Just MHO......
chichi Senior Member Joined: 7 Aug 2008 Posts: 13 Location: Ohio Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Mon Sep 1, 2008, 4:54am Subject: Re: New Black Cat Blend
Agreed - maybe they'll go back to the tried and true sooner or later.
Coca-cola went through the same thing in the 80's with the whole "New Coke"/"Classic Coke" thing... of course they DID call it "NEW Coke". I don't remember, though, if they tried to "sneak" the formula change by people without saying anything at first or not.
I would have liked to have tried the "OLD" Black Cat. I have never had the opportunity since I'm so new to this site and had never heard of it before. Maybe I'll try the new.
Take care!
Edit: Having just read about it, it appears that they didn't try to "sneak" it by anyone. Coca-cola was quite public about it.
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