Legend has it, the Sermon blend is named after the 1959 jazz album The Sermon! released by electric organ ace and all around cool cat, Jimmy Smith.
In a good shot of the Sermon, I swear you can taste that exclamation point. The title track is twenty minutes of ambling, breezy instrumental jazz at its best. It reminds me of my first summer working at Verve between rushes downtown, I’d throw back a ‘Sermon on the Mount,’ a syrupy shot pulled over ice (the name never caught on). The components of the Sermon play together like music. The vibrant strawberry notes of the Lalo Natural ring through with the clarity of a tenor sax while Fazenda Aurea, a dry-processed Brazilian, backs everything up like Jimmy’s organ. A coffee from Cauca,
Colombia complexifies the blend with pops of dark chocolate, reminiscent of deep red berries. The Sermon doesn’t put on any airs. Like its namesake album, the Sermon is a testament to what people can create when they come together.
"...I’d serve a cup to my grandparents just as soon as I’d drink one myself...."
