Temescal Blend

A 20th Anniversary Homage to our Roots

At the Temescal Farmers Market

Temescal is a neighborhood in Oakland, sure. For us, though, it’s more, in the way a place can sink so deeply into your bones that you’re forever changed.

True, we’re charged up for the future, and not just on coffee. We’re excited to stretch and collaborate and take new risks.

But right now we’re pausing to celebrate our roots. Because it’s our twentieth anniversary this year, and looking back helps us keep our feet on the ground as we dream impossible dreams.

Which is, after all, how we began.

A Small Start: The Potting Shed

To talk about our beginning, we have to talk about a potting shed, tucked away in a courtyard behind a row of restaurants in what was, at the time, a burgeoning Oakland neighborhood.

And to understand how we got to the potting shed, it’s helpful to know that our founder, James Freeman, had roasted coffee experimentally in his home oven for years during breaks from his work as a traveling symphony musician who felt an inkling something else might be calling him.

In 2001, James took a gamble on that “something else.” He rented a 186-square-foot shed in Temescal, an area that was just beginning to bubble with the food-focused energy it’s known for today: the perfect creative incubator for a slightly disaffected clarinet player to experiment with his first industrial machine, a little red Diedrich roaster.

Temescal Blend: Intricate, Poetic, Warming

Even though James had left the symphony circuit behind, he kept his devotion to perfecting his craft. For him, roasting coffee became as much about art as science.

James approached coffee itself with meticulous detail from day one, relentlessly tinkering to perfect each roast. But he also integrated evocative details—like grounding blends in a sense of place—with the intention of turning the act of drinking coffee into a memorable experience.

And since it only makes sense to celebrate our twentieth anniversary with a coffee that represents our beginnings, we’ve reimagined the Temescal blend, originally developed in (and named after) the neighborhood that helped launch his dream.

“If we were to commission a sonnet for one of our blends,” James originally said of this coffee, “the Temescal would be the hands-down choice for this honor.”

Of course, our recreated Temescal blend is a bit different from the original. Thoughtfully sourced coffee blends always shift a little with harvest seasons, different farmers, and countless other variables—which is its own kind of special.

But we rebuilt this homage to our roots with the original flavor profile: soft and sweet, with subtle nuances of jammy raspberries and fresh herbs. Sun-kissed berries greet the palate on your first sip, bursting into juicy brightness as it lingers.

Remembering Market Days: A Worthwhile Wait For Fresh Coffee

For us, though, Temescal is more than a coffee blend, or even a neighborhood. It’s our foundation, literally and figuratively—a symbol of the poetry and sense of place James has pursued since day one.

James started Blue Bottle with the goal of delivering fresh roasted coffee—back then, with his Peugeot wagon, straight to the doorsteps of his first customers—but before long he dreamed of delivering an experience, too, the chance to place perfect cups of painstakingly brewed coffee into outstretched hands.

And while he soon went on to open cafes around the Bay Area, if there’s a singular experience that illustrates that dream-turned-reality, it’s serving coffee outdoors at neighborhood farmers markets like Temescal’s.

Walk into a specialty coffee shop today and you’ll often see pour over on the menu. But twenty years ago, waiting that long for a cup of coffee was novel, even baffling, to a public new to the concept that the finished cup could reward that kind of patience.

So when James and his growing crew showed up to markets with an Astoria lever espresso machine and pour over brew bar—the hot water heated with camp stoves—their coffee cart raised eyebrows even as it attracted a near-constant crowd.

At the bustling Temescal Farmers Market in particular, you could expect to wait in line to order, then wait one more time for the busy baristas to make your drink.

But the reward of winding your way through market tables of colorful produce, sipping a meticulously brewed coffee in the morning air? All part of the low-tech, absorbing experience James was chasing.

That kind of unhurried experience was hard to find, and it seems even more elusive today. Blue Bottle was born as a quiet rebellion of sorts against the 21st century pace. Not a vote for going backwards, but for appreciating the present—and moving forward with intention.

James with Benjamin Brewer, Senior Director of Global Quality and Innovation, who developed the reimagined Temescal Blend

Experiencing Temescal Today

We’ve loved revisiting our past to develop this new version of Temescal. And while James intended the original blend for the moka pot, we’ve found this version tastes delightful with every brew method we’ve tasted, so don’t be afraid to experiment.

After all, Blue Bottle has always been about exploring the experience of coffee, to transform it from a delightful beverage to a considered ritual, grounded in a sense of place.

Consider this your open invitation to indulge in some (delicious) nostalgia with us and incorporate Temescal into your favorite morning routine.

While we’ve grown since the potting shed days, our foundation hasn’t changed. We still source only coffees that inspire awe, deliver freshly roasted coffee straight to your door, brew pour overs for patient coffee enthusiasts at our cafes, and yeah, maybe tend to wax poetic about the experience of coffee. But you get it, right?