Brazil Alta Mogiana

Brazil is the world’s leading grower of coffee, and a lot of it is “cheap” coffee that is used as fillers, blends, and flavored coffees. It's excellent as an espresso base. We use it as the base to our Bigfoot Espresso, but we don't sell it in our other coffees. However, if you like the nutty mildly acidic flavor of traditional coffees, but want something with lingering aftertaste and complexity on the tongue, this is your cup of joe. Usually you would still blend it with something -- maybe Colombia or Guatemala -- for a breakfast blend coffee. We buy the Natural or Pulped Natural Brazils because they make the best espressos. This one is Natural, and it is of the largest 17/18 screensize beans which are harder to find this year, but make the most complex espresso.

For espresso, try taking it 10-20 seconds into the 2nd cracks -- just enough to get a spotty oil. Use it anywhere from 40%-100% in your espresso blend. You can take it as far as 40 seconds into 2nd cracks for a stronger espresso in flavored latte beverages.

As a coffee blend, you still want it on the darker side -- maybe 30 seconds of 2nd cracks would be a good starting place to give your blend some nuttiness and boldness. At a medium roast level, it is boring but can act as a filler to save money.