Coffee Coffee Blend Breakdown!

Coffee Coffee – the hero of our Classic category. Year round, it reminds us of the flavours of coffees we fell in love with – flavours like toffee, chocolate, and nuts. Our goal with this blend is to roast two coffees in such a way so that we can showcase those flavours consistently. So I bet you’re wondering, how exactly do we do that?

Well roasting is one way, but before the coffees even reach the drum, we have to make sure we’re selecting two coffees that will be very very right. We’d also like to make sure we can source these coffees as sustainably as we can – which means committing to farmers and producers lots in a consistent way. This leads us to the mountains of Bahia, Brazil – the Chapada Diamantina – where the Borré Family run their coffee farm Fazenda Progresso.

Brazilian coffee naturally has lower acidity, high sweetness and lots of chocolatey and nutty flavours. This is thanks to a combination of growing at a lower altitude (than other coffee producing countries), the common coffee varietals, and the lush growing conditions of Brazil. These are precisely the types of flavours we want to showcase in our blend! Above is a photo of Tim in one of the thousands of rows of coffee plants with Fabiano Borré – one of the owners of the farm.

Each year we aim to commit to as much coffee from the Borré family as we can. Maintaining a strong relationship like this in the coffee world is mutually beneficial – we can expect to receive similar, high quality coffee every year, and producers like Progresso can expect us to purchase a high amount of coffee every year. Consistency is key!

We also love their coffee, and we love what they do for the entire region – organising lots and helping develop the skills and processing of other farmers nearby. They’re the kind of people we love working with in the industry and we are so pleased each year by their consistent and delicious lots. Here’s a photo of Tim with the Melbourne Coffee Merchants team at the farm – which is a little smaller than the ACT. Yep – that’s a lot of coffee!

Now, we’ve got our chocolatey and nutty star of the show, what’s missing is something to provide a bit of body and balance. Brazilian coffees, although sweet and low acid, can sometimes not have the same amount of body as other coffees. We pair our lots from Fazenda Progresso with Colombian lots, that have a little more acid and a little more body, to help bring that ‘oomf’ to the blend. The key is to find something that isn’t too distracting – we want our Brazil to be the hero here.

This takes us to Colombia. At the moment, we have sourced a regional lot from importers Cofinet. Cofinet have helped us source some of our favourite Colombian coffees in the past, and just last year (when international travel was still a thing) Sean went with the team to visit some farmers and producers.

This lot is named after El Peñoń de Guatapé, a monolithic rock formation in the centre of Guatapé, Antioquia. This lot consists of processed coffee from farmers and producers in the area. Lots like these can help bring the average price paid to farmers and producers up. The coffee is sweet, with some nice malic acidity (like apples and pears!) and a big body too. This helps add balance to our Brazilian lot, and reinforces the nuts, caramel and chocolate flavours in the blend. Above you can see a photo of El Peñoń de Guatapé!