Lovely read, and I believe you about the farm. But for my morning flat white I want something darker and rounder. Is that ever going to happen here?
Thank you, Callum. It has already happened, and we should have said so sooner. It is called Grulla, and it is in most of the drinks we pour.
What is in it
Grulla is 60% natural Brazil from a cooperative in the Mantiqueira de Minas and 40% washed coffee from our partners in Huila. The Brazil is dried inside the fruit on raised beds, which gives it a heavy body and a sweetness like brown sugar. The Huila adds a little red apple at the end.
In the cup it tastes of chocolate, hazelnut and red apple. That is about as round as coffee gets while still tasting of where it grew.
We blend after roasting, roasting the Brazil and the Huila separately, because the two coffees behave differently in the drum. The Brazil is denser and likes a gentler start. Roasting them together would leave one of them over- or underdone.
Built for milk
About 70% of what the bar pours has milk in it: flat whites, cappuccinos and oat lattes. A bright filter coffee that is beautiful black can taste sharp and thin under steamed milk. Grulla was chosen for the opposite job, to taste like milk chocolate when the milk goes in.
How it is roasted
Grulla spends about a minute longer in the drum after first crack than our filter coffees. That extra development turns more of the sugars to caramel and softens the acidity. It stops well short of the point where oil comes to the surface and smoke takes over the taste.
At the bar Ade dials it in every morning: 18 g in, about 40 g out, in roughly 28 seconds. The afternoon team checks it again after lunch.
If you take it on its own, we serve it in a warmed cup with a small glass of sparkling water. Most people find it sweeter than they expect from a coffee that is still lighter than what they grew up on.
Why the name
Grulla is Spanish for crane. Inés named it after the birds over Gallocanta, and our decaf carries the Belarusian word for the same bird. Between them, the two names cover both ends of the route.
If you want it richer still, order a ristretto flat white. Same Grulla, shorter shot, thicker and sweeter. Callum, the first one is on us.
Maksim, from the roaster
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