News
Queen! Coffee Cold!
Sunday night: The fit. The make-up. You're looking fierce and those chicken cutlets in your dress are serving eye-popping décolletage. But girl you're all dressed up with nowhere to go! Where can someone see and be seen by the upper echelons of fabulosity like yourself? Baby, you need to sashay that ass to Smart Bar's weekly Sunday service drag party, Queen! Tonight DMC and the Queen! resident party people will save your life.
Smart Bar, for the uninitiated, is the nightclub located under Metro and one of the United States' most important nightclubs featuring cutting-edge DJs from around the world. For the last 10 years, Queen! has been hosted by legendary drag queens Lucy Stoole, Jojo Baby, and Nico serving the looks with music selections by resident DJs Derrick Carter, Michael Serafini, and Garrett David. Consider it your weekly gospel to underground House and Disco.
For the coffee, we wanted to create a juicy, rich coffee cold, strong enough to keep you moving through the 4am crowd. Using a natural processed Pacas from Las Marias as the base with its red fruit notes, we paired this with a honey processed Sarchimor from Finca San Jeronimo Miramar to bring in the sweetness of brown sugar.
Together these create a balanced, smooth coffee cold and phantom disco balls clouding your vision.
Another Side with Leo Nocentelli
'At just fourteen, LEO NOCENTELLI was backing up Otis Redding. Soon after, he was playing on hits for Lee Dorsey, The Supremes, and The Temptations...
For the blend, we've decided to pair two sides of a washed Guatemalan coffee (get it?), roasting one side to our typical light roast parameters and for the other side a bit heavier, caramelizing more of the sugars present in the bean. This darker component also matches the roastiness of the chicory, to further enhance that profile when brewing the two together.
As an homage to his hometown of New Orleans and their coffee traditions, we have built this blend to pair well with roasted chicory root, a first for us. During times of economic crisis and coffee shortages, chicory root was roasted and blended with coffee to stretch the supply and has since become a staple in the coffee culture in Nola.
This blend is a combination of two roast profiles on the following coffee:
Farm: San Jeronimo Miramar
Cultivar: Sarchimor
Process: Washed
Notes: Cocoa, Toasted Almonds, Dried Fig
Situation Chicago Volume II
Initially put together to support venues during the height of the pandemic, the first Situation Chicago LP successfully raised 35k for more than 25 stages. We're back for round two, and this time around, proceeds from the follow-up record go to the CIVL SAVE Emergency Relief Fund, powered by The Giving Back Fund, giving need-based grants to furloughed staff, local artists, and venues via need-based grants in the Chicagoland area. Volume 2 features tracks from Jeff Parker, Umphrey's McGee, and Fess Grandiose.
For this coffee cold can, we chose to highlight a fun, fruity coffee from El Salvador that went through a unique fermentation process. The Pacamara cultivar is a cross between Pacas and Maragogype, a spontaneous mutation of Typica with especially large cherries. Immediately after the cherries were picked, they were collected in an enclosed vessel using carbon dioxide to purge out any oxygen remaining. The intact cherries were left to ferment in this closed system, allowing the natural microbes and yeasts present to ferment the mucilage on the bean without introducing any outside factors. After a few days, the cherries were removed and dried in their skins on raised beds, further developing the acidity and complexity of the coffee.
Country: El Salvador
Farm: Santa Petrona
Cultivar: Pacamara
Process: Carbonic Maceration
Notes: Mulled Wine, Tangerine, Dried Cranberries

Soul Summit (Limited Blend)
Chicago has a long and storied history with Soul music - it's part of what makes this city's heart beat. Soulis also the communicational connection that helps everyday people with whatever ails them.
Being big fans of both the music and the event, DMC & Soul Summit teamed up to bring the Soul Summit blend and mixtape CDs. This blend is no jive friends, just straight to the point with it's black gold brew - using two of our washed coffees from El Salvador, El Condor and San Eduardo. El Condor is a tasty, straight-forward coffee, while the Eduardo washed has classic Salvadoran flavors. Notes of melon, cocoa and lemon make this a dance floor filler that will put the soul back in your day with every sip.
There are 3 mix cds, one from each Soul Summit resident: Dave Mata, Duke Grip & Sloppy White, that will be given out for FREE, while supplies last, with each bag purchased. We will also be giving out a batch of these heaters at Soul Summit on Saturday, June 21st at the Double Door. Along with the three resident DJs, Soul Suffers, from Russia, will be the featured band and admission is also FREE !! What could be better than sweatin' to some classic Soul music on a Saturday night?
To grab a bag of this classic brew just click here. To hear a mini mix of all three mixtapes combined, hop on over to our mixcloud.
Open Windows (Limited Blend)
Open Windows
"Jim Karr had a desire to engage with people. He set out manifesting this action through boundless friendships and through tireless work in the coffee community. He made no designation between the two. In creating Steam Volt there were regular discussions about the responsibility of business, and how great collaborative efforts must be driven by the hard-fought personal convictions. After all of the noise settles down the good ideas come in through the open windows. Jim was that open window for a lot of us, a sounding board and encouraging voice amidst a complicated work/life scenario. His memory will always be a guiding force. Seems appropriate then, with this bag of coffee in his honor, to let some light in and see what can be seen."
From Metropolis:
12oz