Seeking Excellence
At MadCap we are always in pursuit of the highest product possible. You see, for us good, or even great, is not enough…perfection is the idealistic ambition we strive for. For anyone who has ever strived for greatness in a particular area, they know perfection does not come easily…if at all. With coffee, the idea of trying to peg perfection could not be more difficult as the physical compound of coffee, in and of itself, is always on the move. When you take a look at a coffee that is continually changing in its raw form -following the harvest through the degassing process beginning at the completion of a roast- the same coffee, from the same farm, from the same harvest, and from the same roaster, is never exactly the same coffee. Geoff Watts recently stated this idea quite beautifully writing, “any particular cupping or tasting is really nothing more than a snapshot in time.” So, in our pursuit for excellence at MadCap, not only are we discovering new and better ways to source, store, roast and brew your coffee, we are also working to pinpoint a very tiny, delicate, sensitive and quickly moving target.
Many of you may have noticed that we switched all of our coffee of the day to a fresh, individual brewed cup, rather than pumping it out of an airpot. The truth is, when we opened, our coffee tasted really good. Everything was pressed and filtered into airpots. No one in this area was doing such…but time moves on and after awhile really good was not good enough. Excellence required a bit more attention; it required a fresh, manual brewed-to-order cup highlighting all the intricacies and undertones of each coffee.
Many of you have likely noticed the continually changing blend of espresso or new single origin coffees coming and going so quickly. Just like other natural items, coffee is also perishable and very seasonal. We are committed to using not only fresh roasted coffee, but also fresh harvested coffee. Please note that all of our bags come and are labeled with the particular harvest dates. If you are bummed that the Masha, Burundi or Toarco, Sulawesi are no longer available, cheer up, they’ll be back next year…just like the Michigan blueberries. In the meantime we’ve got some new beautiful coffees in to share with you.
If you notice the subtle changes of the Los Papales, Nicaragua that you tasted today compared to what you tasted 4 weeks ago, we salute you, because that coffee has evolved. Is it incredibly similar? Yes. Have we taken every stride to maintain all of its best characteristics? Yes. But, it has changed and our goal is to keep up with the changes always bringing out the best in each coffee.
As a commitment to our customers and to the coffee, we will be sure to continue seeking excellence. We will continue trying to achieve perfection. Call us crazy. Call us insane. Go ahead and even call us madcap. But, since the beginning we’ve committed to delivering the very best coffee product possible…and what better way to do that than try for perfection? Maybe we’ll catch it someday or maybe we already have. Regardless of whether or not that perfection has been attained, that moment of perfection is nothing more than a snapshot, and we will be back to work looking to deliver more of those moments.
Ryan Knapp
Head Roaster & Barista Trainer
