What's New at Clarity
The past 20 months have changed our lives pretty profoundly. We closed the shop for over a month last year, and kept operating to-go-only service for a year after that. Our team has worked tirelessly to keep the coffee flowing, to create a welcoming place for our community, and to even (despite everything that's happened) expand into roasting!
So there's lots to catch up on. Let's start with how we've expanded!
New Coffee
If you have been in the shop, you already know: in March of 2021, we installed a brand new Bellwether Coffee Roaster right in the front window. Let's save what the Bellwether is and why we chose to roast with such a non-traditional machine for another blog post. For today, we want to tell you all about what roasting in house means for Clarity:
1. We get to bring you unique single origin coffees that we think you'll love. By sourcing our coffees ourselves, we get to explore flavors and stories that speak to the way we want your coffee experience to be at Clarity. Stay tuned to find out about our next unique coffee experience, launching on Thanksgiving. (Sign up for the newsletter if you want to be the first to know!)
2. We can further explore coffee sustainability. That means two things: making sure we're being good stewards of our planet and making sure the entire supply chain can make a livable wage. By sourcing and roasting all of our coffee ourselves, we can take a greater role in the decisions that impact sustainability. We'll explore more of this in future blog posts.
3. Extra fresh! We're roasting multiple times each week to make sure the coffee you buy is fresh! Want to make sure you're getting the latest roasts? Check the date on the bottom of the bag or, better yet, ditch the bag completely and bring your own container to refill from the freshest coffee! We'll even knock $3 off if you do it this way.
If you want to check out our current line up of coffees, here's the place to do it.
New Art
The past couple of months, we've had the honor of featuring the art of local OKC Chicano artist Daniel Acuna. The series he's chosen for Clarity is made up of portraits of people, some famous faces and some less recognizable.
"I generally paint portraits of people in my life like friends, family or strangers. The majority of my subjects reflect something inside of me that I relate or wonder. I try to capture their beauty. During my progress in painting, the hypnotic joy of letting go of detail can be so liberating."
Daniel's art won't be around much longer, so we encourage you to come take the opportunity to see his work.
If you're interested in being a featured artist at Clarity, use the contact form here to connect with Steve.
New Teammates
Lots of new faces around here. Five, to be specific. We hope you've gotten to meet and get to know everyone, but if you haven't, here's a quick get-to-know-you. They're all extremely friendly, we promise! Come by and say hi!
New Stuff
Recently, we've added to the offerings for your coffee-at-home needs. Let's catch up.
The Clara French Press -- All-directional pour lid. No lining up the spout before you pour. Easy. Double-walled, vacuum sealed. The temperature of your water matters! By insulating the French Press, you're able to lock in heat, and get more consistent brew temperatures. This is the same idea behind the Stagg XF, which we LOVE. Ultra-fine mesh filter. Easy to press and relatively little sludginess for a quick and clean cup.
Third Wave Water Espresso Profile -- by popular demand, we've brought back TWW's espresso formula for all you home espresso fans. We've carried their Classic Profile since 2018 and written about it multiple times on the blog. I'll leave a few links here if you want to read more about why we love these little mineral packets.
Huskee Cups -- whether or not you'd consider this new, we have brought back the Huskee Cups! We originally had these in 2019, but we were unable to get them back in stock in 2020 due to the pandemic. We originally wrote about them on the blog here.
Reusable to go cups made from coffee parchment (husks), a really cool concept! Not only can you cut down on one use paper cups by using a Huskee Cup, these cups create a use for an otherwise discarded byproduct of coffee processing, and it creates another revenue stream for coffee farmers!
New t-shirts! What more can we say? They're comfortable and you will look cool wearing it.
Tea!
Last, we just want to bring your attention to our new teas from Seven Cups, a purveyor of the best Chinese teas we've ever tasted. Right now, we have three spectacular teas from them:
Yunnan Da Ye Zhong Black Tea, also known as Golden Peacock is described as an excellent everyday tea with full, sweet Yunnan black tea flavor, from a region where peacocks are a symbol of good fortune. Hand-plucked with one bud and two leaves for a balance of both fullness and richness.
Anji Baicha Green Tea, sometimes called Spring Rain Harvest, has a full yet mild and clean flavor and floral aroma. A nutritious high end green tea rich in amino acids made from the second spring harvest. This tea has a mild and gentler flavor profile than most green teas, making it a perfect daily drinker for green tea fans.
Wuyi Qi Dan Oolong Tea is on the Specials menu for the next several months because it feels like a perfect tea for the winter months. Its leaves are light red-purple when young, creating an orchid floral aroma with a sweet finish. Descended from one of the oldest mother bushes in Wuyishan, its subtle character will not shock the palate right away, but the more you drink, the more its unique character will develop.
This catch up is important because we've got a lot more new things happening next week, so stayed ted to the blog here, or Instagram, or if you want to be the first to know, the newsletter.
