Fleming 3 (FL3) was how old-timers referred to the 353 telephone exchange for Raytown. Now it’s the name of an espresso bean blend at Benetti’s Coffee Experience, 6109 Blue Ridge Blvd. in Raytown (benettiscoffee.com, and on Facebook and Twitter).

The blend is “dialed-in” for home baristas. Owner Ben Helt, who roasts his beans in a facility a block and a half from his coffee shop, wanted a name that had a sense of place but didn’t fall back on the overused references to the town’s namesake, blacksmith William Ray.

Helt gave as much attention to Fleming 3 Espresso’s composition as its name.

“Commercial espresso makers use 22 to 26 grams (of ground coffee) per 2-ounce shot, while home espresso makers can only accommodate 12 to 16 grams per 2-ounce shot. What we were after was a blend that had a wide margin of error and performed well under pressure — pun intended,” Helt says.

To get the desired flexibility for home machines, Helt combined his knowledge of how different coffee beans perform when brewed with good old-fashioned trial and error testing.

“Like with wine, every step in how coffee is grown, processed and brewed affects the flavor and the amount of crema it produces and the amount of oils and gases is produces,” says Helt, who will celebrate his company’s five-year anniversary in May.