Thunderbolt’s Blend

Thunderbolt’s Blend features the following super high quality beans:

Colombia San Jose Excelso

A very sweet and balanced caramel-driven espresso with a soft but complex acidity that will brings a combination of citrus and ripe red berries to the blend.

Huila is a beautiful mountainous department situated in the south-west of the country, south of Tolima. The landscape is very diverse- you will encounter windy valleys, lush rainforest and snow peaks all within the same region. Huila is the largest coffee producer in Colombia and is famous around the world for producing high-quality green coffee- it 2013 it was awarded a Denomination of Origin recognizing its unique characteristics.

This lot has been carefully assembled in Neiva to ensure green coffee quality and flavour consistency every year.

“Excelso” is a grading term for exportable coffee from Colombia, not related to variety or cupping profile.

Colombian coffee is graded according to bean size: Supremo and Excelso beans are harvested from the same coffee trees, but they are sorted by size. Excelso coffee beans are large, but slightly smaller than Supremo coffee beans with a 15/16 screen size compared to 17/18 for Supremo.

Excelso accounts for the greatest volume of coffee exported from Colombia.

Brazil Oberon

Soft stone fruit acidity, sweet, and full-bodied. Very smooth, clean and balanced. Brown sugar dominant and milk chocolate. A creamy body and light acidity.

Brazil Oberon is a 100 percent Cerrado blend that consistently captures the qualities this region is celebrated for: a creamy body, sweet chocolate and citric notes, and a light acidity. It’s a profile that has been carefully established over time, thanks to our close relationship with Stockler, the importer’s sister export company in Brazil.

The Cerrado region, in southwestern Minas Gerais, is known for its homogeneous climate and altitude. The average temperature is around 68°F, an average rainfall of 1,600 mm falls reliably from December to March, and the altitude lightly rolls from 900 to 1,250 meters above sea level. Such consistency is a big help to producers—who can focus on quality and production, instead of the weather.

“The main thing in Cerrado is the uniformity,” says Alexandre Ferraz, a Q Grader and Senior Coffee Trader at Stockler. “The weather conditions allow for a lot of control, and the farmers in Cerrado are very professional and very high tech. Their use of harvesting machines, for example, allows them to better control the exact moment to harvest, which also contributes to uniformity.”

Cerrado is home to approximately 140,000 hectares of dedicated coffee production and approximately 3,600 coffee producers, the majority of whom are organised into large cooperatives. Stockler enjoys working with the same farmers, and has strong relationships across the region, but the contributors to Oberon change each year, as the focus in on an absolutely consistent cup profile.

Coffee farms in Cerrado vary in size from roughly 100 hectares to more than 3,000 hectares. And producers tend to be very open to feedback, says Alexandre, if they believe it will improve their cup quality.

“We encourage the producers to trace their best coffees to particular lots, so we can trace not only to the farm but to the specific location on the farm.”

Colombia San Jose Excelso

Q Score: 83.5

Grade: Excelso

Certification: Rainforest Alliance Certified

Region: Huila

Altitude: 1,400–2,000 masl

Process: Washed

Variety: Mixed

Brazil Oberon

Q Score: 82.75

Grade: SC17/18

Region: Cerrado

Altitude: 900–1,250 masl

Process: Natural

Variety: Mixed

Thunderbolt’s Blend is our take on a traditional espresso blend. It’s a darker roast taken to around second crack, but still manages to maintain some complexity and pleasing acidity. The 10% Robusta slightly increases the caffeine and gives it a nice little kick that help it cut through milk based drinks.

Espresso we’re using a deep (25g) basket and extracting 2x 26g shots in 28 seconds.