Espresso blend tasting notes: Dark Chocolate, Nutty, Sweet Caramel
Brewing: This coffee works best as an espresso but can also be brewed for filter if you enjoy rich chocolate notes and lower acidity. For filter we recommend a 1 - 15 brew ratio, and for espresso a 1 - 2.1 brew ratio.
Example:
Filter: 17g - 250ml // Espresso: 18g - 38g
Nova Espresso blend is our new take on a more traditional high-quality Italian-style espresso blend. Based on 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. Although the components are very similar to the Workhorse the roast is longer, highlighting a lower acidity and more chocolate notes. It 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 suggest our Workhorse blend.
For espresso, we suggest a brew ratio 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.
Brazil Daterra 70%
Varietal - Various
Process- Natural
Altitude -1000+ masl
Daterra is a large and well-established Rainforest Alliance-certified coffee farm. The estate covers an area that has 40% of the land dedicated to coffee production and 60% left as a private nature reserve. They focus on producing a wide range of coffees, and we've selected a coffee with a flavour profile that is perfect for espresso.
Harvesting of Brazilian coffee is typically done using a combination of mechanical and manual picking. They use a selective mechanical approach that does a great job of picking ripe cherry and leaving unripe cherry on the trees. After harvesting, the coffee is dried on concrete patios until reaching 30% moisture content. The coffee is then moved to mechanical driers that gently reduce the moisture content down to 12%. This method helps to free up drying space on the concrete patios as it can be challenging to find enough drying room during peak harvest time.
Rwanda Bwishaza - 50% (relationship coffee)
Varietal – Red Bourbon
Preparation – Washed
Altitude – 1600+ masl
Bwishaza co-operative is located north of Kibuye close to lake Kivu. You can view the exact location via the link to google maps. The co-operative produces a wide range of coffees with their main focus on clean, juicy, bright washed coffees. They also produce a range of natural processed coffees specifically for us.
Harvesting and Processing:
Coffee is delivered daily during the harvest period (February to June) by small-hold farmers. Usually, they deliver anything between 10 and 100kg depending on the size of their farm.
After delivery coffee is floated in water. Defects tend to float and the good quality cherry will sink. After flotation coffee is pulped to remove the fruit and then fermented dry in tanks for about 12 hrs
After fermentation, the coffee is washed and graded in channels to remove mucilage and to separate coffee by density. It is then moved to raised tables to dry.
Drying takes place in two stages. The first stage is done undercover to allow hand sorting to take place and gentle drying to avoid parchment cracking. After 48hrs of shade drying the coffee is moved to raised tables to dry in the sun until reaching 12% moisture. Each days processing is kept separate to create separated lots.
After the coffee has dried it is stored in a cool stored room and samples are sent away to be roasted, cupped and graded in Rwanda and also sent to us to be sampled. Once we've selected the lots we'd like to purchase the coffee will be dry milled. This process involves removing the parchment layer and further sorting to remove defects.
- We recommend buying whole bean coffee and grinding it before brewing. We also sell 250g bags pre-ground. 1kg bags are available as whole bean only.
Subscription Terms and conditions:
- The subscription charge will be collected at the period of time specified when ordering (ie every 1,2,3 or 4 weeks)
- Your subscription can be cancelled after the first 3 orders.
Why buy an espresso blend?
At Horsham Coffee Roaster our primary focus is to make sure that we roast all coffee to be suitable for multiple brew methods. This style of Omni roasting coffee tends to mean that light roast single origins will also work for espresso but only with the right equipment. This means you need a really good espresso coffee grinder (like a La Marzocco Lux D) and a great espresso machine. In addition, you also need the time and energy to develop your barista skills to get the best from single-origin espresso coffee.
Our Nova espresso blend has been created to make it much easier and more forgiving on equipment that might not be capable of producing amazing single-origin espresso. We do this by using coffees and a blend ratio that helps to mute acidity making it more forgiving when brewing with typical home espresso equipment. We also tailor the roast to develop this coffee to highlight sweetness and chocolate notes which once again is more suitable for home espresso equipment.
Many of our wholesale customers choose to use Nova as it showcases a more traditional espresso blend flavour profile which means it's great with and without milk.
If you are new to brewing coffee using an espresso blend, then the Nova is a perfect starting point.
