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    "id": 1074022,
    "title": "Union Coffee Revelation Espresso Wholebean, 500g",
    "slug": "union-coffee-revelation-espresso-wholebean-500g",
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    "url": "https://teas.co.uk/product/union-coffee-revelation-espresso-wholebean-500g/",
    "modified": "2026-09-25T23:29:36+01:00",
    "excerpt": "Union Revelation Espresso is the flagship espresso blend from a London coffee roaster whose public identity is built on its own named direct-trade sourcing programme, sold here as whole beans in a 500g bag for espresso machines and bean-to-cup machines. It is a speciality roast rather than an Italian bar blend: sweeter, brighter and more expressive, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection for people who own a grinder and want the shot to be worth the trouble.Ingredients and dietary suitability: roasted coffee beans only. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.Packaging: follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; bag, valve and label can require different disposal routes.Curator notes: the tasting profile is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description, and the brewing figures are our recommended starting points rather than pack instructions. We run same-day UK dispatch on every order placed before 2pm Monday to Friday. Grind settings, storage windows and extraction ranges are set out in full in the detailed Q and A tab below.",
    "content_text": "Union Revelation Espresso is the flagship espresso blend from a London coffee roaster, sold here as whole beans in a 500g bag. It sits in a different part of the shelf from the Italian kilo bags: this is a speciality roast, built to be sweet and legible rather than simply dark, and it is aimed at somebody who owns a grinder and cares what comes out of it. If you have a machine at home and you have been working through supermarket beans wondering why the shot never quite sings, this is the sort of bag that answers the question. The 500g size is the sensible one for a household. A 250g bag of speciality coffee disappears in a fortnight; a kilo of a roast this expressive risks going stale in the cupboard before you reach the bottom. Half a kilo covers roughly a month at two coffees a day, which is close to the window in which a bag of freshly roasted beans is at its best. The Taste Profile\n Roast Depth: \u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cb\u25cb (3/5) Medium to medium-dark. Developed enough to carry sweetness under pressure, stopped well short of the oily, smoky end of the scale. Body: \u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cb (4/5) Full and syrupy in the cup, with the weight to hold its shape under milk rather than dissolve into it. Sweetness: \u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cb (4/5) Brown sugar and dark chocolate, the sort of sweetness that comes from roast development rather than from anything added. Acidity: \u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cb\u25cb (3/5) Present and deliberate. There is a fruit edge here that an Italian bar blend does not have, and it is the clearest sign you are drinking a speciality roast.\n\nTeas.co.uk Curator Rating: 4.6 / 5 - Our expert verdict from the curators at Teas.co.uk. The Story Behind Union\nUnion is a London coffee roaster, and its public identity is built almost entirely on how it buys coffee rather than on how it markets it. The brand trades under its own named direct-trade sourcing programme, which it describes as buying from named producers on long relationships rather than through the anonymous commodity market. That is the brand\u2019s own published account of itself. Revelation is the espresso blend in that range: the one built for pressure rather than for a filter cone. Roast level, origin composition and any certification marks are printed on the current bag and can change between production runs, so read the bag in front of you rather than a figure quoted online, ours included. What A Speciality Espresso Blend Is Trying To Do\nEspresso is a short, high-pressure extraction. A machine has roughly 25 seconds and nine bars of pressure to pull sweetness, body and crema out of a puck of grounds, and that constraint shapes everything the roaster decides. The traditional Italian answer is to take the roast a long way, burning off the sharp acids to leave a coffee that is forgiving, heavy and consistent. The speciality answer is to stop earlier, keep some of the fruit intact, and accept that the shot now needs more care from whoever is pulling it. Revelation sits on the speciality side of that line without going to an extreme. There is a brightness in the middle that a dark Italian blend does not contain, and it is the first casualty of water that is too hot or a bag that has been open for six weeks. Packaging: speciality bean bags are sealed with a one-way degassing valve, which lets the carbon dioxide out of freshly roasted beans without letting oxygen in. Follow the current UK pack and your local authority guidance for disposal; the bag, the valve and the label can require different routes. How Does Union Revelation Espresso Wholebean, 500g Compare To:\n Union Revelation Espresso Wholebean, 200g: the identical coffee in a smaller bag. The 200g is the one to buy if you are trying it for the first time or you only make coffee at weekends; this 500g is the household size. Same roast, same beans, different commitment. Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g: the same size bag from the Italian tradition. The Lavazza is darker, heavier and more forgiving of a sloppy shot, and it is the safer bet if your machine runs hot or you drink everything with milk. The Union is sweeter, brighter and more interesting black. Grind House Blend Whole Bean Coffee, 200g: the closest thing on the shelf in intent, another London roaster aiming at the home machine. Grind is the more chocolate-forward and rounder of the two; Union carries more fruit and a longer finish. This one comes down to whether you want your espresso comforting or expressive.\n Ideal Extraction Conditions\nWhole beans hand you every control worth having. Grind size, dose and water temperature decide the shot, in that order, and a medium roast rewards attention in a way a dark roast does not: there is more to lose, and more to find. The Espresso Serve\n Dose: 18g into a standard double basket, distributed evenly and tamped flat. Uneven distribution costs you more than any other single mistake. Water: 93 degrees Celsius to start. A medium roast can take a degree or two more heat than a dark one before it turns bitter, which is part of why it is worth buying. Yield: 36g in the cup, a 1:2 ratio, in 25 to 30 seconds from the pump starting. Read the shot: sour and thin means go finer or hotter. Drying and hollow means go coarser or shorter. Sour is the commoner fault here, because people bring dark-roast settings to a medium-roast bean. Rest the beans: very freshly roasted coffee gasses heavily and channels. If a bag fights you in the first few days, leave it another three.\n The Bean To Cup, Milk And Cold Serve\n Bean to cup: middle grind, medium to high strength. Automatic machines run short and hot, so raise the dose before you touch the grind setting. Flat white: the syrupy body is the point here. It carries through 130ml of steamed milk without the fruit turning sharp, and the brown-sugar note reads as sweetness rather than as acidity once milk is in the cup. Americano: pull the shot first, then add 120ml of hot water on top. Lengthening exposes the fruit edge, so this is the serve that shows you what you have bought. Cold brew: coarse grind, 70g per litre, 14 to 18 hours in the fridge. Cold water leaves most of the bitter compounds behind and the result is sweet and juicy rather than merely strong.\n Grinding, Dosing And Storage\n Grind to order: a medium roast sheds its aromatics quickly once ground, and the fruit character is the first thing to go. Buying beans is only worth it if you grind them fresh. Keep the burrs clean: oils and fines build up in the chute and stale there. A brush-out every few weeks is worth more than most equipment upgrades. Storage: sealed, cool, dark, never the fridge. Condensation does more harm than air. Open bag window: finish an opened 500g bag inside about a month, and keep the bulk sealed rather than standing in a warm hopper.\n Safety, Allergens And Caffeine\nIngredients and dietary suitability: roasted coffee beans and nothing else. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.\nAllergen note: plain roasted coffee contains no cereals, dairy, nuts or soya as ingredients.\nCaffeine: this is a caffeinated coffee. If you are sensitive to caffeine, or pregnant, follow NHS guidance on daily intake.\nTraditional use: a morning and early-afternoon coffee. The espresso-and-something-sweet habit that gave this style its shape is a daytime one.",
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                "title": "Product Questions",
                "content": "What does it mean that this is sold as an espresso blend?It means the roast has been built for a short, high-pressure extraction rather than for a filter cone. A machine has about 25 seconds and nine bars to work with, so the roaster develops the coffee far enough to carry sweetness under that pressure. Put the same bean through a cafetiere and it will taste heavier and less sweet than a coffee roasted for filter.Is this whole bean or ground?Whole bean, 500g. You need a grinder, or a bean-to-cup machine with one built in. Beans will not work in a filter machine or a cafetiere as they are, so if you have no grinder, buy a ground coffee instead.What is a speciality roast, and is it actually different?Yes, and the difference is audible in the cup. A traditional Italian bar blend is taken dark, which burns off the sharp acids and leaves a coffee that is heavy, forgiving and consistent. A speciality roast is stopped earlier, which keeps some fruit character alive but asks more of whoever is pulling the shot. This bag sits on the speciality side without going to an extreme.What settings should I start on?18g in, 36g out, 25 to 30 seconds, water at 93 degrees Celsius. If the shot is sour and thin, go finer or a degree hotter. If it is drying and hollow, go coarser or stop the shot sooner. Sour is the commoner fault here, because people arrive with dark-roast settings.Does it work with milk?It does, and rather well. The body is full enough to hold its shape through 130ml of steamed milk instead of vanishing into it, and the brown-sugar note reads as straightforward sweetness once milk is in the cup. A flat white is probably the serve most households will make most often.Can I make cold brew with it?Yes. Grind coarse, use 70g per litre and leave it in the fridge for 14 to 18 hours, then strain. Cold water leaves most of the bitter compounds in the grounds, so what you get is sweet and juicy rather than simply strong. A 500g bag makes a great deal of cold brew.How long does an opened bag stay good?Aim to finish an opened 500g bag inside about a month. Coffee does not spoil in any dangerous sense, but the aromatics fade, and on a medium roast the fruit character is the first thing to go. Keep the bag sealed, cool and dark, and never in the fridge: condensation does more harm than air.Where does the coffee come from?The brand trades on its own named direct-trade sourcing programme, which it describes as buying from named producers on long relationships rather than through the commodity market. The specific origins in the blend are printed on the current bag and can change between production runs, so read the bag rather than a figure quoted online, ours included.Is the bag recyclable?Bean bags of this type are sealed with a one-way degassing valve, which lets roasting gas escape without letting oxygen in. That valve, the bag itself and the label can each need a different disposal route. Follow the guidance printed on the current UK pack and your local authority rules.Why buy 500g rather than 250g or a kilo?A 250g bag of speciality coffee lasts about a fortnight. A kilo of a roast this expressive risks going flat before you reach the bottom. Half a kilo is roughly a month at two coffees a day, which is close to the window in which fresh beans are at their best.How much caffeine is in a cup?The caffeine in your cup depends on your dose and your method, not on the bag. It is a caffeinated coffee, and a medium roast is not automatically lower in caffeine than a dark one. If you are sensitive to caffeine, or pregnant, follow NHS guidance on daily intake."
            },
            {
                "title": "Ingredients & Nutrition",
                "content": "IngredientProportionWhat it bringsRoasted coffee beans100%The whole of the product, roasted to an espresso brief: developed far enough to carry brown-sugar sweetness and body under nine bars of pressure, stopped short of the oily dark end so some fruit character survives.Origin composition and roast levelSee current packPrinted on the bag and liable to change between production runs. The brand buys through its own named direct-trade programme and states the origins on pack rather than in a fixed published specification.Additives, flavourings, sugarNoneNothing is added to roasted coffee beans. The chocolate and brown-sugar notes are roast development, not flavouring.Pack: Union Revelation Espresso Wholebean, 500g; whole roasted beans, caffeinated. Best before date printed on the bag; aroma is at its best within about a month of opening.Roast level, origin composition and any certification marks are printed on the current pack.Sourcing & roast. Union Revelation Espresso Wholebean, 500g comes from Union, a London coffee roaster whose public identity rests on how it buys rather than on how it advertises. The brand trades under its own named direct-trade sourcing programme, which it describes as buying from named producers on long relationships rather than through the anonymous commodity market; that is the brand's own published account of itself. Revelation is the espresso blend in that range, built for pressure rather than for a filter cone, and roasted to a medium to medium-dark point that keeps sweetness and some fruit alive in the same cup. The beans arrive in a sealed bag with a one-way valve that lets roasting gas escape without letting oxygen back in.What's in Union Revelation Espresso Wholebean, 500g, and what isn't:In: roasted coffee beans, and nothing else in the bag.No artificial colours, preservatives, flavourings or added sugar: any sweetness is developed during roasting.No dairy, cereals, egg, soya or nuts as ingredients: black coffee brewed without milk or sugar carries effectively no calories.Caffeine: caffeinated. A medium roast is not automatically lower in caffeine than a dark one; dose and method decide the figure, so none is published here."
            },
            {
                "title": "Flavour Science",
                "content": "The flavour of Union Revelation Espresso Wholebean, 500g is built in three layers, and reading them in order explains exactly why the shot tastes the way it does from the moment the grinder runs to the last swallow.The outer layer is aromatic: cocoa and brown sugar with a red-fruit lift behind them, brighter and less smoky than the aroma coming off an Italian bar blend. These volatile compounds form late in the roast and sit loosely on the surface of the bean, so they reach the nose first and leave first. On a medium roast there is more of that top end to lose than on a dark one, which is the entire argument for buying this coffee as beans and grinding it to order. A bag that has been ground and left open for a week still makes coffee; it no longer makes this coffee.The flavour spike arrives in the middle of the shot and is where the roast decision shows most plainly. Pushing a roast further destroys most of the fruit acids and replaces them with heavy bittersweet molecules, which is why a dark Italian blend is so forgiving under pressure. Stopping earlier keeps some of those acids intact, so the middle of this shot carries a genuine brightness alongside the chocolate rather than instead of it. That brightness is the thing you are buying and the first thing a careless extraction destroys. It is not sourness: sourness is what you get when the shot is under-extracted, and the two are easy to confuse.The base structure is the finish: long, sweet and syrupy, coating the palate rather than scouring it clean. Body is doing the work here. It is what lets the shot stay audible under 130ml of steamed milk instead of disappearing, and it is why this blend makes a better flat white than its brightness would suggest. The line to watch is between syrupy and heavy: a good shot finishes sweet and fades slowly, an over-extracted one finishes dry and keeps drying the tongue a minute later.Getting it right in the cup. Start at 18g of coffee to 36g in the cup over 25 to 30 seconds with water at 93 degrees Celsius. A medium roast tolerates a degree or two more heat than a dark one before it turns bitter, so heat is not usually the culprit here; grind is. If the shot is sour and thin, go finer before you touch anything else, and if it is drying and hollow, go coarser. In a bean-to-cup machine, which runs short and hot, raise the dose first and leave the grind alone. A cafetiere will brew it at 60g per litre for four minutes and the result is heavier and less sweet than a filter-brief coffee, because the roast was never aimed there. Cold brewed at 70g per litre for 14 to 18 hours in the fridge it changes character entirely: cold water leaves most of the bitter compounds in the grounds, so the fruit and sugar come forward and the cup reads juicy rather than merely strong.How water and temperature change it. The same beans give a measurably different shot depending on how you treat the water. Two degrees hotter pulls more of the heavy bittersweet compounds and flattens the fruit; two degrees cooler keeps the top end ringing but risks a sour, under-developed middle if the grind has not been adjusted to match. Hard water blunts what acidity survives the roast and pushes the cup chalky, which on this blend costs you the most interesting thing about it, while very soft water sharpens the bright edge and can tip it towards sour. Filtered water is worth it here for the taste as much as for the boiler. None of this is a fault in the roast, it is the same bean responding to the cup you build around it, and once you have found the setting that suits you it repeats every morning without further thought."
            },
            {
                "title": "Recipe Ideas",
                "content": "Union Revelation Espresso Wholebean, 500g is built for pressure, so the methods that use it come first and the rest are here because half a kilo goes a long way. Six builds below cover the reference shot, two milk drinks, an americano, a moka pot and a cold brew concentrate.\nBrewing methods and serving ideas, born here first\n\n \n The Reference Double Shot\n \n How to pull a balanced double of Union Revelation Espresso.\n \n 3 min\n 1 double\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 18g Union Revelation Espresso beans\n Filtered water at 93\u00b0C\n Scales that read to 0.1g\n A warmed cup\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Grind 18g fresh into a dry double basket, distribute evenly and tamp flat.\n Pull to 36g in the cup over 25 to 30 seconds.\n Sour and thin, go finer. That is the commonest fault on a medium roast.\n Drying and hollow, go coarser or stop the shot a few grams sooner.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: A sweet, syrupy shot with cocoa in the body and a fruit edge behind it. Judge every other setting on the machine against this one.\n\n \n Flat White\n \n How to make a flat white with Union Revelation Espresso.\n \n 5 min\n 1 cup\n Medium\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 18g Union Revelation Espresso beans\n 130ml whole or oat milk, fridge cold\n A milk thermometer if you have one\n A 160ml cup\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Pull a 36g double straight into the warmed cup.\n Steam the milk to about 60\u00b0C, stretching for two seconds only, then folding it into a glossy whirlpool.\n Pour from height to combine, then drop the jug to the rim to finish.\n If the coffee tastes lost under the milk, raise the dose to 19g rather than grinding finer.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: The brown-sugar note reads as sweetness once milk is in, and the body holds its shape instead of vanishing. Probably the serve this bag will make most often.\n\n \n Americano, Long And Honest\n \n How to make an americano with Union Revelation Espresso.\n \n 4 min\n 1 mug\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 18g Union Revelation Espresso beans\n 120ml hot water\n A warmed 250ml mug\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Pull the 36g double into the mug first.\n Add 120ml of hot water on top, not the other way round; pouring espresso into water flattens the crema.\n Taste before you add anything. Lengthening exposes the fruit, which is the part you paid for.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: The serve that shows you what you have bought. If an americano from these beans tastes flat, the shot underneath it was the problem.\n\n \n Moka Pot, Stovetop\n \n How to make moka pot coffee with Union Revelation Espresso.\n \n 7 min\n 2 small cups\n Medium\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 16g Union Revelation Espresso beans\n Pre-boiled water to the valve\n A three-cup moka pot\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Fill the base with water already boiled, up to just below the valve. Starting cold cooks the grounds while the pot heats.\n Grind a touch coarser than espresso, fill the basket level and do not tamp.\n Heat on a medium flame with the lid open until the coffee runs honey-coloured, then pull it off before it hisses.\n Cool the base under the tap to stop extraction dead.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: Heavier and less bright than the espresso, but still sweet. The best way to use these beans if you do not own a machine.\n\n \n Cold Brew Concentrate\n \n How to make cold brew with Union Revelation Espresso.\n \n 10 min + 16 hours\n 1 litre\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 70g Union Revelation Espresso beans\n 1 litre cold filtered water\n A large sealed jar\n Ice\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Grind 70g coarse, like sea salt, and stir into 1 litre of cold water.\n Seal and leave in the fridge for 14 to 18 hours.\n Strain through a paper filter, slowly, without pressing the bed.\n Serve over ice, neat or cut with a splash of milk.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: Sweet and juicy rather than simply strong, because cold water leaves most of the bitter compounds behind. Keeps in the fridge for about five days.\n\n \n Affogato, Two Minutes Flat\n \n How to make an affogato with Union Revelation Espresso.\n \n 2 min\n 1 serving\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 18g Union Revelation Espresso beans\n Two scoops of vanilla ice cream\n A small spoon and a cold glass\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Scoop the ice cream into a chilled glass and take it to the machine.\n Pull a 36g double and pour it over immediately.\n Eat it now. The whole point is the moment the hot shot meets the cold cream."
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