It's spooky season which means the return of our fall-exclusive coffee, Oathbreaker. This is a very unique roast that we do and I wanted to talk about what makes our most nefarious coffee so special.

A Paladin Fallen From Grace

So for those who don't know, the term "Oathbreaker" comes from when a Paladin has broken the sacred oath they have sworn and thus have abandoned their code, leading to a downward spiral into darkness...sometimes at least. When we set out to create a Halloween exclusive coffee, I wanted to play upon the theme of what an Oathbreaker would be in coffee form. The idea came to me quickly with the concept being, "what sins can we commit with coffee?" and the answer was to add flavoring.

To a lesser degree there is also a belief within the coffee community that darker roasts have to inherently be poorer quality coffee and that just isn't always true. There are many roasters who do use a darker roast to hide cheaper qualities but roasting something darker doesn't always have to detract from a coffees characteristics and can in fact often amplify them. Take our Necromancer for instance, we use a bit of a darker roast to bring out the deeper chocolate notes that are naturally present within the Sumatran coffee we use. Darker doesn't always mean "worse" and this is something that the Oathbreaker has sworn to with their new code.

Committing Coffee Sins

There is a major stigma when it comes to adding flavoring to coffee and I wanted to help break some of these misconceptions with a higher quality version of a flavored coffee. It is an unfortunate truth that most people use flavoring additives as a way to mask poor quality beans since the added flavors will cover up the original origin to some degree, the more flavoring added will cover up the coffees natural characteristics. I wanted to show people that you can take GOOD quality beans, the amazing Peruvian coffee we already use for Paladin, and use the flavoring to enhance the natural characteristics of the coffee rather than mask them.

While many people love flavored coffee, there are just as many who dislike it. I knew this when I made the roast but the goal was always to try and show that coffee can be flavored and still awesome! The controversy around the creation of this coffee is exactly why it makes for the perfect "Oathbreaker" in my eyes. Flavored coffees have a very tainted history and this has made our quest much more difficult. 

Can Darkness Become Permanent?

There are many challenges that come with Oathbreaker, beyond  the stigma surrounding flavored coffees that I have mentioned, which is why it launched as a fall exclusive roast. The first major challenge is that it is much more labor intensive to create. It takes more work to create a bag of Oathbreaker since it has additional steps needed to properly flavor it without it being overwhelming.

Another struggle is that for ground coffee orders, we actually needed to purchase a separate coffee grinder that we use only for the flavored beans. When you grind coffee that has been flavored, some of that essence stays behind and can then lead to other beans you grind tasting like the flavored beans as well.

The last major challenge is that the alchemical supplies needed to create the apple pie flavoring add extra cost and need to be used in a relatively short amount of time after we acquire them. Once the beans are flavored and sealed in their bags they wont "go bad" but the flavor will degrade faster than unflavored beans. We try and only purchase enough flavoring to last the Halloween season, so we can ensure it stays fresh and delicious,

When we originally launched Oathbreaker, it was designed as a fall exclusive roast. However, I always said that if the demand for it was strong enough we would keep it around all year. 

I stand by this promise again, vowing to add it to our ranks if Oathbreaker gains enough followers. On it's first launch, there wasn't enough love for the roast and keeping it around with how much extra time and work it takes just didn't make sense. 

I leave Oathbreaker's fate in your hands adventurers! If you want to see it become a permanent part of our party, you must be the ones to spread his influence and share the teachings of this profane roast!