Brazil Santos (Rainforest Alliance)

Brazil has been the world’s biggest coffee producer for the last 150 years; they are definitely doing something right with this coffee! Brazilian coffee is grown at a relatively low elevation which means that the beans aren’t as dense as some; this makes a dark roast very difficult as it is very easy to go too far and make the coffee taste burnt. This is a medium roast with low acidity, which has a cocoa taste with a bittersweet edge combined with a sweet and nutty undertones.

Before being exported from its originating country, processors use screens to sort it by size. The beans are sifted through screens, which are metal sheets with specifically sized, round holes punched into them. Screens are numbered 8 through 20, with the number referring to how many 64ths of an inch the holes are. For example, a size 8 screen has holes that are 8/64 inch wide, and a size 20 screen has holes that are 20/64 inch wide.

The size of a selection is determined by passing it through screens until it doesn’t go through the next-smaller size. For instance, if a coffee passes through a size 18 (18/64 inch) screen but not a size 16 (16/64 inch wide), it’s graded as size 18.