Brazilian Cup of Excellence 2008

£9.00 - £36.00

Grower: Maria Lúcia Junqueira Pereira
Estate: Serra do Rola Moça

This coffee has always been picked manually because of the farm’s topography, and on cloth for the coffee not to lose its quality. After the beans are picked, they are transported to Fazenda Santa Lucia where they are washed, pulped and spread out to obtain a high quality product. Subsequently the beans are placed in the drier and then to rest in bins. They return to the drier and at 10.5% humidity are transferred to the permanent bins, where they remain for 30 days. Lastly, they undergo their final processing and are deposited in the co-operative where the coffee’s final classification is determined.

The continuous search to improve the beans and the cup standards is a priority of the farm. All coffee lots are cupped and monitored year after year. Traceability is indispensable not only to understand the property and the product but also to arrive at decisions concerning replacing a plantation and the choice of coffee varieties that will be planted.

Property Characteristics
Rank: 20
City: Carmo de Minas
Region: Sul de Minas
Country: Brazil
Farm size: 25 hectares
Coffee growing area: 10 hectares
Altitude: 1150M
Certification: None

Coffee Characteristics
Variety: Yellow Bourbon
Processing System: pulped natural
Lot size: 23 bags
International Jury score: 85.02

Jury Descriptions:

Aroma-Flavor- dark chocolate (14), sugar cane (6), caramel (3)

Mouthfeel- buttery (5), creamy (5), rich (4), silky (3)

Acidity- sweet (6), lime (4), fine (4), elegant (3)

A number in brackets (above) next to a description indicates the number of jurors that agreed with that particular decription.

Londinium comment on preparation as a single origin espresso:

We are fairly cynical, and hesitate to wax lyrical about coffee tasting of honey, molasses, citrus, chocolate, melon, berries, nuts… the superlatives are endless. We try to describe our products accurately, and this coffee is easier than most as it has a very distinct taste; lime.

An ideal coffee to start a summer morning with.

We have spent the last couple of weeks running a battery of test roasts to ‘discover’ this coffee. Our starting point was to roast it in the same manner as the yellow bourbon variety from the Rainha estate. We were shocked by the result. Our taste buds said lime. As we read the CoE judges notes above we feel they misplace the emphasis. To our mind they convey the expectation that this coffee is sweet and chocolatey. To our taste the ‘limeness’ of the acidity is so dominant in the cup that it sweeps aside all else.

From this first roast we were concerned that the coffee would not appeal to all palates, so our response was to roast progressively darker to tone back the acidity and strengthen the presence of the caramelised fructose. Roasting darker did achieve this, but in retrospect it should have been obvious to us a lot sooner that overlaying caramel on lime was never going to be an attractive combination of flavours.

So, we have decided to go right back to the first & lightest roast and let the lime notes take centre stage. It is a unique coffee that has nothing in common with the yellow bourbon from Rainha farm. All we would ask is that you don’t buy it with the expectation of it tasting of dark chocolate and caramel.

If you dont believe you can have an espresso that tastes of lime then you most definitely need to try this coffee. Extraordinary. That is why it is a CoE coffee.

If you want to undertake a little coffee education we suggestion you purchase both the Rainha farm and the CoE yellow bourbon and draw comparisons. To our taste they provide a vivid contrast.

SELECT QUANTITY

£9.00 - L. 250g (espresso)

£36.00 - L. 5 x 250g (espresso)

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