Our Casa Espresso Blend has been awarded a UK Great Taste Award in September 2020.
This is what the judging panel said about our coffee: "There are some wonderfully pronounced toasted peanut flavours in here, evocative of Pad Thai. Smooth, well balanced and gentle milk chocolate flavours run into the finish. Clean and pleasant."
60% Brazil: Danilo Dones
40%: El Salvador: El Borbollon
We've worked hard to perfect our iconic blue label Casa. Given that speciality coffee is all about seasonal harvests, we can confidently reproduce our taste profile with Brazilian and Central American Arabica beans.
We use for the base the incredible Catuai Arabica coffee varietal from the Espirito Santo region. This Brazilian bean has an amazing honey sweetness with milk chocolate and macadamia notes, yet the punch needed to cut through milky espresso-machine based drinks. So, its the ideal base for our Casa Espresso blend. It's also ideal as a stand alone single origin, for those of you who like extra body in the cup.
As its bezzy mate, we've chosen the typical chocolatey flavours of an El Salvador Arabica. It's a Bourbon varietal, a favourite of ours and a delight to roast. Honestly, we're spoiling y'all with this unbeliveable house blend. (Don't take my word for it though ... just look at what you're saying on the REVIEWS).
SCA Score - Brazil 86+ / El Salvador 91+
So what's our objective? We want...
- A coffee that's got the boldness through an espresso machine as an unadulturated espresso, yet has the body and punch to compliment all milky drinks
- A blend of 100% single-origin Arabica beans that tastes amazing, without any hint of the astringency you'll find with Robusta coffee
- To remain committed to using farms whose produce is fully traceable. With this provenance, we can rely on an excellent crop from each harvest. And in this way, we can reproduce a consistent roast profile and keep you smiling
- A taste profile that has good balance, a full-mouthfeel, with nutty and dark chocolate notes and a refreshing berry finish
Brew Method: Made to measure for an espresso machine. If you have a home espresso machine, then our "blue label" is an essential companion. It's also absolutely cracking to use with a stove top - see our range of Bialetti - a great way to start the morning that keeps to a tight budget. And because we roast fresh at least once a week, you'll get the very best our of this amazing 100% Arabica blend. As we say in Cumbria: “Champion”.
More info: Casa - Espresso Blend
Component 1 - BRAZIL: Danilo Dones
Country: Brazil
Producer: Danilo Guilherme Dones
Region: Pedra De Garrafao, Santa Maria de Jetiba, Espirito Santo
Elevation: 850-900 MASL
Variety: Red and Yellow Catuai
Process: Washed
Tasting notes: Chocolate, macadamia and caramel
We've sourced a fully washed microlot Brazil for a clean and smooth, yet punchy brew. Working with Danilo, this Catuai varietal has a typically distinctive deep chocolate flavour, paired with notes of macadamia and caramel, giving a low acidity.
This Brazilian coffee is a perfect choice espresso-based drinking, being full-bodied and balanced. Even so, it's also fabulous for a stove top or pour-over, maintaining a fairly complex versatility. It's a delight for us to roast as one of the very best single origin Brazils you'll find.
Component 2 - EL SALVADOR - El Borbollon
Farm: La Reforma & Santa Maria
Varietal(s): 100% Red Bourbon
Processing: Fully washed and sundried on clay patios
Altitude: 1,400 to 1,500 metres above sea level
Owner: The Alvarez Family
Town: Santa Ana
Region: Santa Ana Volcano (Apaneca-Ilamatepec)
Country: El Salvador
Total size of farm: 55 hectares total
Area under coffee: 51 hectares total
Prizes: Reforma: 3rd – El Salvador COE, 2011
Cup Profile: Chocolate, demerara sugar, raisin - Score 91.72
The Alvarez family has been growing coffee in El Salvador for a century and over four generations. Their award-winning farms are located on the lush green hills of Santa Ana, in the west of the country, whose rich volcanic soils and mild climate provide ideal conditions for growing coffee. The beans, which comprise El Borbollon, come from two small neighbouring farms - La Reforma and Santa Maria. They are manually picked and collected in traditional hand-woven baskets from December until March. Only the best, fully mature coffee cherries are selected.
Finca La Reforma and Finca Santa Maria were established by Rafail Alvarez in 1892 on the rich, humid slopes of Santa Ana Volcano. Originally from Colombia, Don Rafael came to the region with some of his best coffee seeds and began a new legacy of coffee production. Four generations later, the Alvarez Diaz brothers manage the farms, which are planted exclusively with red burbon variety coffee trees, despite recent upheavals with leaf rust.
El Borbollon mill is managed by Eduardo Alvarez, whose father passed down his technical skills. Of the 15 high-altitude farms, 10 have won places in the Cup of Excellence and 4, including La Reforma the COE Presidential Award for scores of over 90 points.
Coffee beans are pulped without water and then fermented for 16 - 20 hours until peel fermentation is achieved. The coffee is then washed in clean, fresh water to remove the mucilage. The parchment coffee is then placed onto the expansive patios and dried in the sun and regularly turned by hand.
Clay patios are used as they have superior endothermic properties (absorption of heat) than concrete and thus regulate temperature much better. The coffee beans are dried for 9 to 10 days in this way and the slower drying time seems to improve the cup quality.
The meticulous attention to detail shown at every stage of production - from harvesting to wet milling to cupping - has enabled the family to continue through the struggles of the past 20 years.
