Coffee of the Month – Café Francais

Since we created our Café Francais Blend in 2018, it has been our Unofficial House blend. But not a house blend in the sense of sitting in a restaurant and wanting to get the cheapest wine on the menu, but in the sense that this is an all-round people pleaser which can be enjoyed at any time of day, brewed using any method.

When creating the Café Francais blend, we had several aims in mind. We wanted a sustainably grown blend of high quality beans. A blend in which was traceable down to the farms the cherries were grown on. And finally, a superior taste, designed for almost any palate, with flavours of chocolate and nut, a rounded body and with a light and sweet acidity.

Café Francais is a blend of two Single origins:

50% Honduras Santa Rosa

50% Brazil Fazenda Cachoiera

The Farms

Honduras Santa Rosa

Santa Rosa is grown in the south of Honduras, bordering Nicaragua. The region of El Paraiso. Farmed by Mario Segura, the farm is now 360 hectares and employs some 800 local people. The farm is also proud of its state of the art wet mill which is extremely water efficient with minimal wastage and can process coffees with or without fermentation.

Mario’s farm is supported by a quality control technician all the way through the production process, from choosing which plots to plant certain coffee varietals to harvesting and on to drying the coffee. This help in quality control ensures that the coffee meets Speciality Coffee Association standards. The most recent cupping score was 84.

Further to the help in quality control, the technician ensures that the farm conforms to sustainable, social and environmental practices. All production is completely organic. Large parts of the farm are dedicated entirely too local wildlife, improving biodiversity in the region. All profits are shared fairly throughout the employees of the farm, with a fairer than fair price being paid by us, the coffee roasters.

Brazil Fazenda Cachoiera

Fazenda Cachoiera is located in Minas Gerais, in the Cerrado region of Brazil. The word Cachoiera actually translates to ‘Waterfall’. The farm is surrounded by small waterfalls which not only add to the beauty of the landscape, but actually aid in the cultivation process by purifying the water from the river leading to healthier soils.

Danillo Barbosa, the farm owner and manager, truly does have coffee production in his blood. Cachoiera was initially founded by his Great-grandparents and ownership has been passed down the family since. Danilo’s first harvest was in 1980 and it was a wildly successful yield. This success then led to his push for growth. He introduced new harvest technologies to the farm and acquirement more land surrounding. Now, Barbosa Farms is an enormous 490 hectare coffee plantation. Danillo still manages all of this along with his son and quality control team.

In recent years the coffee quality produced on the farm has only improved. With lots cupping at SCA scores of 84-88 and winning awards such as the cup of excellence.

Danilo has always shown concern for the environment and has always taken care of nature, today he adds more than 186 hectares of the nature reserve. At the present, plans are been executed in order to certify the properties, to learn more on how to preserve the environment and to produce a 100% sustainable coffee.

The Coffee

The flavours produced by these two single origins even surprise us! Upon our first cupping it felt a little bit like accidentally stumbling across the Holy Grail. Every target we had set in making this blend had been met and the flavours were just the cherry on the cake!

Café Francais is an immensely well balanced coffee. With a smooth yet lingering body, pleasantly mild acidity and all round very sweet cup. Earthy and dark chocolate-like aromas with strong flavours of Milk Chocolate, almond and hazelnut to give a creamy mouthfeel.

Our Café Francais is used in the majority of the Coffee Shop and Restaurants we provide and the feedback from all has always been overwhelmingly positive.

Best Brew:

Recommended brew types: Espresso Machine, Bean to cup Machine, Moka Pot, Aeropress, Dripper, Cafetiere

We do not have a favourite brew type for Café Francais since we have found it works brilliantly with all methods.

Recommended filter recipe (V60)

Temp: 93c

Coffee Amount: 14gms

Water amount: 250ml

Directions:

1. Place V60 over cup with filter paper inserted
2. Pour boiled water over filter paper to wash paper and then remove excess water from cup this step also warms your cup so you don’t lose temperature from a cold cup!)
3. Grind 14gms of Café Francais and place into filter paper
4. Boil water to 93c (if kettle does not have temperature control, leave for 45 seconds after boil)
5. Pour 80ml water in circles ensuring all grinds are wet and leave for 1 minute to bloom
6. After a long minute has passed pour in the remaining 170ml
7. Remove dripper and enjoy!

Recommended Espresso recipe (20g baskets, high pressure espresso machine):

Temp: 93c

Coffee Amount: 17gms

Water amount: 40ml

Brew time: 20-25 Seconds

Sourcing responsibilities

Direct trade is an important part of the coffee supply line and with modern day technologies and communications it is becoming easier to begin direct relationships with producers. With direct trade comes so many essential benefits. With more traceability we can ensure that producers we work are being treated ethically and receiving a better than fair price for their labours. We also know that sustainable growing practices are in place and that we are improving our environmental footprint.

We currently have several direct trade relationships with different farms around the world and we are constantly try to grow the relationships we do have and look forward to new ones being formed.

Try our Café Francais today and see why we have so much faith in this blend as we do!