Tasting notes: Dark Chocolate, Nutty, Sweet Caramel

Nova Espresso blend is our new take on a more tradition high quality Italian style espresso blend. Based around a really good quality coffee from Brazil, this blend is roasted a touch darker than our Workhorse blend. We've developed the blend and roast style to suit espresso extraction and it's easy to work with and fairly forgiving. It also tastes great in milk and the dark chocolate notes really cut through, even in an 8oz latte. If you are looking for a bright, juicy espresso we'd suggestion our Workhorse blend.

For espresso we suggest a brew ration of 1-2. For example, 18 gram dose to 36 grams of espresso. The timing is fairly forgiving with this one but something between 26 and 30 seconds is likely to yield the best results.   

Costa Rica El Higuito Honey 30% 
Varietal: Caturra and Catuai
Process: Honey
Altitude: 1700 masl

This coffee comes from a small family farm that has been producing speciality coffee since 2016. Luis and his wife Rosemary started their micro mill, Montanas de Oro in 2016 to enable them to process small microlots from their 2 hectare farm in the Leon Cortez region of Tarrazu. They grow both Caturra and Catuai and produce a range of different microlots that include washed, honey and naturals.

We selected a honey processed lot from a range of samples sent to us just after the harvest. This one really stood out with great balance and excellent sweetness and fruit character.

The coffee for this microlot was first hand harvested to select only perfectly ripe cherry. After harvesting the cherry is left to rest in large tanks overnight. In the morning the cherry is depulped to remove just a small amount of fruit. The idea is to leave a significant amount of mucilage on the coffee, sometimes referred to as a 'red honey' process. After the pulping stage the coffee was dried on raised beds. To avoid over fermentation the coffee was turned every 30 minutes to ensure even drying and to prevent the build up of mold. The total drying time took approximately 12 days.

Ideal for: Espresso. Works very well in milk based drinks. If you like dark roast filter coffee or cafetiere with lots of body, and tend to use milk, then this will work well too.