Coffee news in recent weeks has been dominated by the highly anticipated opening of Handsome Coffee Roasters in Downtown LA. But not to be overshadowed, another noteworthy cafe called Single Origin just opened its doors. This new shop is in the Farmers Market at 3rd and Fairfax, next to the Grove shopping mall, and it’s run by Nikolas Krankl, the 2nd place winner of the 2011 US Barista Championship. He was previously involved with the coffee program at Gelato Bar, a neighborhood treat on Tujunga in Studio City; and before that he ran his own cafe called Taste Coffee House, which was recently acquired by coffee legend George Howell of Terroir Coffee.

Single Origin shares its Farmers Market space with Short Cake, a bakery with an impressive menu of sweet and savory goods. Their coffee is roasted by Verve in Santa Cruz, California, and as the name implies, Single Origin will highlight coffees from single estates, some of which will be exclusives not available at any other Verve accounts.

I asked Nikolas to share a little bit about what they’re offering:

Currently we are using a lot from Latin America. Now playing on the espresso bar is a farm called, “Bola De Oro,” from Guatemala. It’s a wet-process coffee that comes from the region of Chimaltenango and is comprised of bourbon, caturra and catuai varietals. The shot it produces is clean, sweet and round with notes of chocolate/raspberry.

Presently the hand-brew V60 bar = El Porvenir, El Salvador….It’s a wet-process bourbon from the region of Chalatenango. Sugary and sticky reminiscent of pepsi-cola.

Lastly we do a machine brew (Fetco Extractor) using a Guatemalan coffee from the farm, “Puerta Verde.” This is also a bourbon varietal from the region of Antigua. Flavor notes = tropical fruit, refreshing, crisp.

These coffees will change. As you know, coffee is a produce, and our goal is to rotate (our produce) seasonally in order to brew fresh and delicious coffee year round.

It’s great to see LA’s coffee options steadily growing, and especially nice to see a shop like Single Origin open at the busy Farmer’s Market. Give them a visit and let me know how your experience was in the comments below!

All pictures by Dana Maione, courtesy of Single Origin Coffee LA.