Irving Farm

2012 is a big year that’s already full of new developments at Irving Farm. Perhaps the biggest is the new cafe we’re building on the Upper West Side.

The design, courtesy of our friends at LEVENBETTS, is going to be the perfect setting for our coffee program and a great cafe menu.

We’re really excited about this project, and we’ll be bringing you more details on the progress through the winter months. For now, have a look at this shot from our demolition and a couple of views of the design for the space.

Introducing Angel Antonio:

We’ve got an exciting lineup of new coffees that we’ve started releasing just this month! If you think the first coffee we introduced from Capucas was good, then you’d better stay tuned for more details on what other coffees the town is producing!

Earlier this year, a competition was held to select the best microlots from producers in the Capucas coffee producers cooperative. Our very own Director of Coffee, Dan Streetman, was there for the action. And, even better, he was lucky enough to bring us back all five of the winning coffees. All of them. These Capucas microlots will be roasted and offered exclusively by Irving Farm Coffee.

Right now, we’re offering the fifth place winning coffee from the competition, which was produced by Angel Antonio Serrano Deras on his farm, Finca Los Angeles. This year he submitted only 365 pounds of coffee from his 2.5-manzana (4.33-acre) farm. Angel picks this coffee by hand, and is especially careful to select only the ripe cherries. He then processes the coffee in a micro-mill on his farm, using a hand-crank de-pulper to remove the fruit from the bean, and ferments the coffee beans in water for 12-24 hours before washing them with clean water. The coffee is then taken to a “solar-dryer,” which looks like a plastic greenhouse with raised beds inside for drying.

If you’d like to taste the deliciousness for yourself, you can find this coffee at IrvingFarm.com and at our two cafes in lower Manhattan: 71 Irving Place and 56 Seventh Avenue. In early November, we’ll also be opening the doors of our barista training lab for a public tasting and discussion of the five winning coffees from this year’s Capucas microlot competition.

In the coming months, we’ll continue the countdown and offer the other winning microlots. So, stay tuned.

And, as always, let us know what you think of the coffee!

-Ugo

It’s been a busy fall for us at Irving Farm so far. We’ve already participated in a couple of big harvest festivals with our friends from the Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture and the Union Square Partnership. After four years participating in the Stone Barns Harvest Fest and more than a decade at the Harvest in the Square, the events just keep getting better! We’re looking forward to next year’s events already!

If you missed us at the Stone Barns Harvest Fest at the beginning of the month, you might not have heard the news: aside from serving up some delicious El Salvador Everest, we also gave a sneak peek of our new holiday gift boxes. Take a look at the goods for yourselves in the slideshow above, and look out for the November 01 release date at irvingfarm.com.

We’ve also got an exciting lineup of new coffees that we’ve started releasing just this month! If you think the first coffee we introduced from Capucas was good, then you’d better stay tuned for more details on what else the town has to offer! These are choice coffees from the individuals producers in the cooperative who won top spots in the annual Capucas microlots competition. The first of five winning coffees is now available at irvingfarm.com and at our cafes in Manhattan. Try it, and let us know what you think!