If you’ve stopped in to Stone Creek lately, you may have noticed a new line of coffees for sale at the counter. The packaging is snazzy and silver, with hand-drawn depictions of various coffee processing methods on the front of each label.

Case Studies, a brand new series of specialty coffees, allows coffee lovers to sample how different variables affect the final flavor of coffee.

The inaugural offering, a boxed set called "How Does Processing Affect Flavor?," contains three bags of coffee from the same crop processed using three different methods – washed process, semi-washed process and natural.

The processes vary in how the producer removes the fruit of the coffee bean from the outer hull, as well as how a producer dries the coffee.  Washed process coffees dry with the fruit removed from the bean, resulting in a lighter, more citrusy flavor, while semi-washed coffees leave a bit of the fruit around the bean as it dries. Natural process coffees dry inside of the whole cherry, offering up a very full flavored bean.

During a recent visit to Finca San Sebastian in Antigua, Guatemala, Director of Coffee Christian Ott observed the farm's meticulous processing, which inspired the concept for the new coffee series.

"I just wanted to have this available so I could show our baristas how different processing styles affected the flavor of the coffee," he says. "It kind of evolved from there to the box set which allows everyone the opportunity to taste one coffee, processed three different ways."

A limited number of "Case Study: How Does Processing Affect Flavor" boxed sets are available for sale for $25, with individual one-pound bags on sale for $16 at all 10 Stone Creek Coffee locations, as well as online.  The coffees are also available by the cup at each location.