Dark chocolate & Hazelnuts, with honeycombe sweetness or a punch of Molasses
Dark Chocolate & Hazelnut are the taste notes I've picked up the most, but this is a particularly versatile coffee in terms of the flavour notes relative to the extraction.
Freshly roasted coffee beans tend to have a small window of extraction in which they taste great, meaning you have to dial in quite precisely for enjoyable espresso.
With Dark Chocolate & Hazelnut Brazil, though, there's an unusually large range in which it's really enjoyable, but for different reasons & for different palates.
As you'll see from our recipes guide, we recommend a 1:1.8 ratio (about 32g of espresso from an 18g dose) with a large shot window of 20-30 seconds, but where you go within that shot window, and also the ratio, can make a big difference to the flavour.
Please note: Different beans require a different resting period from roasting, and with these beans the sweet spot is about 10 days. By the time you receive them, they'll usually be a few days from roast date, so we'd recommend leaving them to rest before cracking them open, for a further 5-7 days, for best results right from the first shot. For more on resting beans, see: Roast dates & resting
When I've deliberately gone into where I'd expect under extraction, instead of the usual sourness, the sweetness is amplified, sweeter chocolate & even a hint of honeycomb in the background!
When I feel like I've got the balance just right, it's dark chocolate and hazelnuts, but not super dark chocolate, more like a 50% dark chocolate than a 70%, for example.
I've found that I can dial up the intensity of the dark chocolate, and the "roast level" of the hazelnuts, towards darker chocolate and darker toasted hazelnuts, by upping the extraction.
When I've deliberately taken it towards over extraction, instead of becoming dull & boring, which is what tends to happen with over extraction, the dark chocolate notes go from very dark chocolate, towards treacle or even molasses - which can make for a satisfyingly intense milky, if that's what you're in the mood for.
So, a flat white for example, made with Dark Chocolate & Hazelnut Brazil, using a shot that appears to be heading on for under extraction, instead of leading to a sour & funky flat white, should lead to a sweet dark chocolate flat white with a nice touch of hazelnuts.
If you're in the mood for something more punchy, though, whack the grind finer, increase the extraction, and enjoy a deeply satisfying bold & punchy flat white, without changing your coffee beans!
How it Tastes
If you're in the mood for a less intense, sweeter coffee, with sweeter dark chocolate notes and very lightly roasted hazelnuts & even a hint of honeycombe, you'll get this from this bean with a slightly coarser grind & a slightly faster shot (1:1.8 Ratio, 20-22 seconds).
If you want a more intense "wake-me-up" with notes of well toasted hazelnuts & taste notes even going towards treacle or molasses, you should find you can achieve this by taking the grind size finer and slowing the shot down for a bigger extraction. (1:1.8 - 1:2, 26-30seconds).
If you're looking for a well rounded, dark chocolate & hazelnut espresso - for a really enjoyable, chuggable flat white, cappuccino, latte or Americano / Long Black, you should find you'll get this with a nice, balanced extraction. (1:1.8, 23-25 seconds.) Please note: Shot times are just examples, dialling in is best done mainly by taste, numbers are just a guide.
Minas Gerais, Brazil
