Brazil Santos – medium roast

Brazil Santos – mild, round and nutty coffee

Brazil Santos is a coffee for you who prefer a mild, round and pleasant cup of coffee rather than a coffee with very distinct fruitiness or acidity.

At Brændeholm Risteri, we roast this coffee medium, because the roast level fits the character we perceive in the bean very well. The result is a soft and balanced coffee, where the nutty side stands out clearly without becoming heavy or very dark roasted.

The tasting notes are milk chocolate, fig and hazelnut.

The milk chocolate and hazelnut support the coffee's round and classic profile, while fig adds a subtle fruity sweetness without making the coffee sharp or citrusy.

It is especially the combination of mildness, roundness and nutty character that characterizes Brazil Santos for us.

If you want to know more about why we choose different roast levels for different coffee beans, you can read about our light, medium and dark roast profiles.

Coffee profile

• Origin: Brazil
• Coffee: Brazil Santos Fine Cup
• Roast level: Medium roast
• Growing altitude: Approx. 600–1,200 m.a.s.l.
• Bean sizing: Screen 17/18
• Processing: Natural
• Harvest period: May–September
• Tasting notes: Milk chocolate, fig and hazelnut
• Character: Mild, round, soft and nutty

A classic and soft Brazilian coffee

Not all coffees need to be very floral, acidic or exotic to be interesting.

Brazil Santos goes in a different direction.

It is a coffee where we especially appreciate the balance and the round taste. The nutty character and milk chocolate provide a familiar and pleasant coffee expression, while fig contributes with a more subdued fruity sweetness.

The supplier's profile describes Brazil Fine Cup as balanced and soft with typical characteristics leaning towards chocolate and nuts as well as mild acidity.

This aligns well with our own experience of this coffee.

If you usually find that very light and fruity coffees get a bit too acidic or intense, Brazil Santos is therefore a really good place to look.

Why do we roast Brazil Santos medium?

The medium roast allows us to highlight the coffee's roundness, sweetness and nutty profile without letting a strong dark roast flavor take over.

We experience the medium roast as a good match for Santos, because the coffee retains its soft character while gaining sufficient body.

In the cup, we especially look for:

• Mild and pleasant taste
• Round mouthfeel
• Distinct nutty character
• Sweetness leaning towards milk chocolate
• Mild acidity
• Good balance between green coffee and roast

Therefore, it is not a coffee we roast medium just to place it in the middle of a scale.

The roast profile is chosen based on the character we want to bring out in this particular coffee.

Natural-processed coffee

Brazil Santos is naturally processed.

In the natural process, the coffee cherry is dried with the fruit around the coffee bean before the dried fruit is subsequently removed.

The processing is one of several factors that help shape the final taste of the coffee. Origin, growing conditions, roasting, grind size and brewing also play a significant role.

The supplier's current data sheet specifically lists this coffee as Natural.

If you want to know more about the difference between natural, washed and other methods, you can read our guide to coffee processing.

What does Screen 17/18 mean?

The supplier lists the coffee as Screen 17/18.

The screen size describes the size sorting of the green coffee beans before roasting.

It is therefore primarily a physical sorting of the beans and not an independent flavor characteristic or quality guarantee.

We therefore use Screen 17/18 as concrete product information, but not as a marketing claim that bigger is automatically better.

Which brewing methods does Brazil Santos suit?

The mild and round profile makes Brazil Santos a very versatile medium-roasted coffee.

Filter coffee

For filter coffee, you get a soft and balanced cup, where hazelnut and milk chocolate fit very well with the clean filter expression.

It is especially a good choice if you prefer classic filter coffee with mild acidity and round taste rather than very light and fruity coffee.

If you want to optimize your brewing, you can use our guide to better filter coffee on a coffee machine.

French press

Brazil Santos also fits very well for French press.

Here, the coffee's round mouthfeel and nutty profile can get a slightly fuller expression than with paper-filtered coffee.

You will find our recommended procedure in the guide to better French press coffee.

AeroPress

In an AeroPress, you can work with different strengths and extractions without losing the coffee's basic soft profile.

This makes Santos interesting for you who want an accessible coffee, but still want to experiment with the brewing.

See our guide to better coffee on an AeroPress.

Espresso

Brazil Santos is also a very interesting choice for espresso.

The medium-roasted profile provides both sweetness and body, while the coffee's nut and chocolate character fits naturally with a more classic espresso expression.

It is therefore also part of our selection of coffee beans for espresso.

If you prefer espresso with a round and mild profile rather than very distinct fruitiness and acidity, Brazil Santos is an obvious choice.

If you need help with setting the grinder, dosage and extraction, you can also see our guide to better espresso.

Brazil Santos for you who are not looking for an acidic coffee

Acidity is a natural part of coffee, but how clearly it is perceived varies greatly.

Brazil Santos is, in our experience, mild and round, and the supplier also describes the Brazil Fine Cup profile as having mild acidity.

This makes it interesting for you who want flavor nuances in the coffee, but who are not necessarily looking for the very clear citrus, floral or berry profiles that one can find, for example, in some light-roasted African coffees.

Here the focus is to a greater extent on:

hazelnut · milk chocolate · roundness · mildness · balance

This is also one of the reasons why the coffee works so naturally as medium-roasted.

Whole coffee beans or ground coffee

Brazil Santos is available in:

• 250 g
• 500 g
• 1,000 g

You can choose between whole coffee beans and the grind levels shown on the product page.

If you have a coffee grinder, we recommend whole coffee beans and to grind as close to brewing as possible. This also gives you the opportunity to adjust the grind level yourself to the brewing method.

For espresso, we especially recommend whole beans, because the espresso grinder usually needs to be adjusted according to both coffee, dose and desired extraction.

Do you want to roast Brazil Santos yourself?

We also sell the same type of coffee as raw coffee beans for home roasting.

This gives you the opportunity to work with how the roasting affects the mild, sweet and nutty profile yourself.

If you roast coffee yourself, you can see Brazil Santos – raw coffee beans.

Here you can experiment with other roast profiles and compare the result with the medium roast we have chosen ourselves.

Brazil Santos roasted on Funen

Brazil Santos is roasted at Brændeholm Risteri on Funen.

For us, it is not a coffee that should impress by being extreme.

What we like about it is precisely its mild, round and nutty character.

The medium roast is our way of preserving that balance while bringing out sufficient sweetness and body in the cup.

If that is the type of coffee you prefer, you can also see our other medium-roasted coffee beans.