Novo Coffee is a Heartbreaker; just ask Akron/Family
A Denver-based coffee roaster is the jittery talk of New York City
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The last time Akron/Family was in town, this past March on tour, it had one mission: to find the perfect cup of Colorado joe. The East Coast band (which brings its experimental folk-jam to the Bluebird Theater tonight, July 31) is obsessive about its coffee, and its favorite brew—Heartbreaker Espresso, sold exclusively at Cafe Grumpy in New York City—just happens to be roasted by Denver’s own Novo Coffee.
“The Heartbreaker just has that thing,” says Miles Seaton, multi-instrumentalist for the group. “It’s one of my favorite espressos ever. It becomes a situation where I have to leave the coffee shop or I will keep drinking it until I make myself sick—it’s that good.”
The uniquely addictive espresso blend, incidentally, isn’t available for sale anywhere in this state or anywhere else in the country, save for Grumpy’s. About two years ago, Ed Kaufmann, manager and head barista at Grumpy’s, was looking for a signature flavor profile for his shop, and his search brought him here to Colorado where he met with Novo’s creator and owner, Herb Brodsky. After an intense week of percolating and taste-testing, the Heartbreaker was born.
“We started off with a great bean, as we source ours from all over the world,” Brodsky explains. “We take dramatic care of the bean, roasting it with passion and artistry. Then we package and deliver our coffee straight from the roaster to our clients, in the hopes that they use the blends within a few weeks of delivery for optimal flavor.”
But it doesn’t stop there. Novo’s diligence and work ethic extends all the way to making sure its coffee is always in steady supply to its clients. As the story goes, once upon a time (that is, February last year), FedEx failed to get Grumpy’s weekend coffee shipment to the shop at its scheduled time. After numerous phone calls, tracking numbers, and no help whatsoever from the delivery company, Brodsky himself jumped on a plane and headed east with 40 pounds of fresh-ground Heartbreaker in his backpack. By that Sunday morning, Grumpy’s was stocked with the stuff and its customers didn’t miss a single cup.
So where does a local coffee connoisseur get a shot of Novo espresso without having to travel to Park Slope, Brooklyn, or Chelsea to do so? For starters, Novo runs its own local stand, the Arvada Coffee Bar; also, Novo coffee is served in the Denver Art Museum coffee shop, as well as at Fluid Coffee Bar uptown. The brand can also be found at boutique restaurants all over the city, from South Broadway’s Beatrice & Woodsley to Root Down and Duo in the Highland to Golden Triangle staple Cuba Cuba. Since the Heartbreaker isn’t an option, Brodsky recommends the Amaro Espresso blend, which has a creamy body and notes of honey and citrus, or the Espresso Novo, a faintly nutty and fruity combination with a hint of caramel flavor.
“I’m not a bean expert by any means,” Seaton says. “But Novo’s blend is just the right combination of the right beans roasted for the right length of time to make it perfect.”
