Our New Signature Menu Explained
At Madcap we have always had something we want to share, a story we want to tell. Whether that be experiences we have at origin, decisions that shape our cafes, or our philosophy as a coffee roaster. We always have something up our sleeve. With a team member of ours now solely dedicated to the growth and development of our cafes, we can begin to tell those stories through the drinks we create for our menus.
In our cafes, our drink menu is intentionally limited, to show how deeply we care about curating each drink to be perfectly balanced while also highlighting our coffee and our baristas' techniques. With this nature being our guiding light as our seasonal menu develops, it took shape in the same intentionally curated way.
Madcap has always aimed to elevate the cafe experience when it comes to seasonal drinks, initially being inspired by the techniques and execution at national barista competitions like the United States Coffee Championships. We showcase seasonal flavors inspired by the stage in our cafes which remains a great way to allow our customers a deeper view into our world, and what is inspiring us seasonally. Using in-house skill to develop these drinks over the years has created opportunities for team members to develop their palates in a new and exciting way, and fosters a sense of honesty as those serving the drinks are also those developing the drinks behind the scenes.
As we move beyond seasonality and begin to focus more on storytelling at the producer level, we want to expand our always-on offerings to accommodate for more intentional and limited signature releases. We are adding permanent items like our Yuzu Mango Matcha, our Espresso Cascara Tonic made with tonic syrup from Eastern Kille Distilleries, and our cascara simple syrup to our menu, and are excited to provide more choices for everyone on a consistent basis.
While we seek to elevate our cafes we want to remain true to who we are and what we have grown from. Keeping this in mind, we will continue to painstakingly develop everything in-house while we strive to achieve the unconventional by utilizing techniques that broaden our team members' skills and our customers' options. Ingredients will remain fresh and as locally sourced as possible, while drinks will still be made up to our high Madcap standards, featuring more advanced practices and new standards, making the creative process even more exciting.
As storytelling remains an integral part of our process going forward, the menu will reflect not just seasonality of flavor, but specifically the stories surrounding the coffee producers we work with, their farms, and what we find inspiring about their coffees in particular. This will allow us to remain centrally focused on the coffees we are selecting and how we can spotlight those coffees even if customers are more interested in a signature beverage.
Pictured: New Madcap Seasonal & Signature Drinks
Kicking off our new Signature Menu is the first drink prepared in this manner: Sherbet and Soda. Choosing Juan Angel as the focal point for this drink allows us to pull from origin trips and personal connections we've gained over our 12 years of being his farm's primary buyer. In doing so, we recall a moment when Juan was making the journey to a new plot at the top of his land sitting at 1850 MASL called La Montana, and upon arrival cracks open a 3L bottle of Coca-Cola and drinks the whole thing. Nodding to his preferred fuel is a cascara soda inspired by the new Geisha variety he is cultivating on La Montana, which prepares the palate for an orange, raspberry, and vanilla flavored cortado inspired by the flavors we experience in Juan Angel's current Bourbon & Pacas selection. This side-by-side pairing allows everyone to enjoy the flavors we find in Juan Angel's harvest whether or not they want the coffee itself or a signature-style beverage.
Our hope is that this menu is exciting and engaging in a new way. Highlighting the producers, their farms, and their stories. This is practiced in other parts of our operations and we are eager to follow suit in our cafe locations.
