Sunday, January 27, 2008

Brazil Inglaterra Special Fazenda Toca da Onca

Where else then at Hasbean we can pick up great American Coffee Beans?
There's a great story behind this coffee with the most incredible name ever, but more important it tastes great.

Before getting into cupping details, i have to tell you how difficult it feels for me to transpond the cupping notes into the espresso story. Most of these fruity and complex beans do really well on press, filter, chemex, eva solo and for the professionals on Clover, but the espresso story always seems to be a totally different one. And it's the acidity that's troubling me. Where we find perfect balance in the cupping, the acidity takes over and ruins it in our espresso. Of course no machine or Barista is perfect and probably someone, somewhere is able to get more out of it, but we are so often disappointed with the lack of balance...
What we tasted on espresso was nice mouthfeel (why Stephen thinks it's FANTASTIC?), raisins, a bit of caramel and lots of roasted nuts, but too much of their skin taste. Like the skin of Walnuts that's overpowering and ruin the sweet oily deep taste of what's laying underneath.

At the cupping table we had an incredible cup of coffee, with great balance and a palate comparable with the Colombia Esperanza.

To finish i would strongly recommend this coffee to all of you, but i guess it's overpriced for espresso, unless you're fond of the more acidic ones.
More info on the Hasbean website.


We offer as our espresso of the week the Ethiopian Djimmah. This bean is known for their wild and strong taste and that's what it gives. Very closeby Robusta is this one. We often notice the Djimmah is not very stable one bag or crop compared to another, but we found a good one. We had better before though and keep on searching that perfect Djimmah, meanwhile enjoying this one, a bit comparable with the better Sumatra's.

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