Union Hand-Roasted Coffee Bobolink Brazil Cafetière Grind, 200g
A metal mesh lets the oils through where paper holds them back, and a Brazilian profile keeps its sweetness in the body rather than in the acidity, so what arrives is round and full instead of thin and bright. Cut coarse at the roastery, which is what makes it a cafetiere bag and not an espresso one. Ground coffee loses its lift within a couple of weeks of the seal going, so this is a bag to drink rather than one to keep in the cupboard for best.
Union Hand-Roasted Coffee Bobolink Brazil Cafetière Grind, in brief.
Union Hand-Roasted Coffee Bobolink Brazil Cafetière Grind, 200g is a British speciality roaster's Brazilian coffee, ground coarse at the roastery specifically for a cafetière, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the plunger coffee for a household that wants speciality quality without buying a burr grinder.
A 200g bag at a premium price, about 20 cups at a 10g dose, soft and sweet and full bodied out of the plunger rather than bright or sharp. Bobolink Brazil is the name the roaster prints on the pack; the growing detail behind it is stated there, not by us.
Grind size is the variable that home brewers get wrong most often, and a cafetière is the least forgiving brewer to get it wrong in. Too fine and the fines slip through the mesh, the brew over-extracts while it sits and the last inch of the pot is silty and bitter. Cut correctly, the same coffee plunges cleanly and tastes the way the roaster built it. A factory grinder produces a far more even particle size than a domestic blade grinder ever will, so for a cafetière household without a burr grinder this pack is genuinely the better cup, not the compromise.
Curator notes: the tasting profile is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description. We run same-day UK dispatch on every order placed before 2pm Monday to Friday. Common questions are answered in the detailed Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind Union
Union Hand-Roasted Coffee is a British speciality roaster, and the phrase hand-roasted is the point of the name: small batches, roasted to a profile built for the individual coffee rather than a single house curve applied to everything that comes through the door. That approach is the difference between a speciality roaster and a commodity one, and it is why a 200g bag from a roaster like this costs more than a 200g bag of supermarket ground coffee.
Bobolink Brazil is the name printed on the pack. It points at a named Brazilian farm rather than at a blend, which is the speciality convention: the coffee is identified by where it was grown, not by a marketing adjective. Anything more precise, the altitude, the processing method, the harvest year, is the roaster's to state on the bag and yours to read there.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes. Speciality coffee bags commonly combine a paper or laminate outer with a foil liner and a plastic degassing valve, and those parts rarely go to the same bin.
Our Commitment To The Planet
- Ground coffee goes flat faster than beans do. A 200g bag you will finish inside a fortnight wastes less than a kilo bag you drink the back half of after the aroma has gone. Buying the smaller pack is the better environmental choice here as well as the better cup.
Getting The Best From Union Hand-Roasted Coffee Bobolink Brazil Cafetière Grind, 200g
- Water temperature: 94°C. The single biggest lever left once the grind is decided for you.
- Measure: 60g per litre.
- Steep: Four minutes in the plunger, lid on, then decant everything immediately.
- Milk: Takes a splash comfortably. The body is there to carry it, though the sweetness reads more clearly black.
- Storage: Airtight, cool and dark, never the fridge. Squeeze the air out of the bag before you reseal it.
- Best with: Buttered toast, a plain croissant, or anything that will not shout over a soft, sweet cup.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Union Hand-Roasted Coffee Bobolink Brazil Cafetière Grind, 200g, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind Union
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
Our commitment to the planet
Sourcing and packaging details are printed on the current UK pack; the brand page carries the fuller story.
The taste profile
How does it compare
With the grind fixed at the roastery, the three levers left to you with Union Bobolink Brazil are dose, water temperature and time. A medium-sweet Brazilian coffee shows all three plainly, so small changes are worth making deliberately rather than by accident.
The Cafetière Serve
The Filter Serve
Made with this tea
The Straight Cafetière
How to make The Straight Cafetière with Union Bobolink Brazil.
- 30g Bobolink Brazil, cafetière grind
- 500ml water at 94 degrees
- A warmed three-cup cafetière
- A spoon to break the crust
- Warm the pot with hot water, tip it out, then add the coffee.
- Pour water that has stood off the boil for thirty seconds, wetting every grain in one movement.
- Break the crust at four minutes and skim the foam off the surface, which takes the floating fines with it.
- Plunge slowly and decant the whole pot into a jug or straight into cups.
What you'll end up with: A full-bodied, soft and sweet cup that shows the coffee the way the roaster cut it.
Sixteen Hour Cold Brew
How to make Sixteen Hour Cold Brew with Union Bobolink Brazil.
- 80g Bobolink Brazil, cafetière grind
- 1 litre cold water
- A large jar with a lid
- A paper filter to strain
- Stir the grounds into the cold water until every particle is wet through.
- Refrigerate for sixteen hours. This coarse cut is the right particle size for cold brew, so it takes the full time without going bitter.
- Strain through a paper filter and keep the concentrate in the fridge for up to a week.
What you'll end up with: A rounder, sweeter concentrate that dilutes one to one with water or milk.
Iced Long Black
How to make Iced Long Black with Union Bobolink Brazil.
- 20g Bobolink Brazil, cafetière grind
- 200ml water at 94 degrees
- A tall glass packed with ice
- A strip of lemon peel
- Brew the coffee double strength in a small cafetière for four minutes.
- Pour it over packed ice in one movement rather than a slow trickle, which keeps the dilution even.
- Twist the lemon peel over the surface to release the oil, then drop it in.
What you'll end up with: A long cold coffee where the citrus oil supplies the brightness the roast deliberately does not.
Afternoon Cafetière Flat White
How to make Afternoon Cafetière Flat White with Union Bobolink Brazil.
- 30g Bobolink Brazil, cafetière grind
- 300ml water at 94 degrees
- 200ml whole or oat milk
- A jar with a tight lid, for frothing
- Brew strong in the cafetière, 30g to 300ml, for four minutes, then decant.
- Warm the milk without boiling it, pour it into the jar, seal it and shake hard for twenty seconds.
- Pour the coffee into cups first, then the milk through the foam.
What you'll end up with: A milk coffee with more body behind it than a filter machine would give, and no espresso machine involved.
Coffee and Condensed Milk Pudding Pots
How to make Coffee and Condensed Milk Pudding Pots with Union Bobolink Brazil.
- 300ml strong brewed Bobolink Brazil, cooled
- 200ml condensed milk
- 300ml double cream
- A pinch of salt
- Whisk the cooled coffee into the condensed milk with the salt until smooth.
- Whip the cream to soft peaks and fold it through in two goes, keeping the air in.
- Chill in four small pots for at least three hours before serving.
What you'll end up with: A set coffee pudding where the coffee's own sweetness carries the dish rather than added sugar.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Ingredient | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Roasted coffee, ground coarse | 100% of the pack contents | Everything in the cup. Read as a medium roast: soft sugary sweetness, full body, low acidity and a rounded finish. |
| Grind cut | Coarse, for a cafetière | Fixed at the roastery, so it is the one variable you cannot adjust at home. Too coarse for espresso, slightly coarse for a fast filter machine. |
| Growing detail (farm, altitude, process) | Printed on the current pack | Bobolink Brazil is the name on the bag. The detail behind the name is the roaster's to state and yours to read there. |
Pack: Union Hand-Roasted Coffee Bobolink Brazil Cafetière Grind, 200g; ground coarse for a cafetière. Use within the best-before date on the bag, and within about a fortnight of opening while the aroma holds.
Only the pack contents are shown.
Sourcing & blend. Union Hand-Roasted Coffee Bobolink Brazil Cafetière Grind, 200g is roasted and ground under the Union name, a British speciality hand-roasting business whose packs normally sit in the speciality aisle rather than beside supermarket own-label. Small-batch roasting to a profile built for the individual coffee, rather than one house curve applied to everything, is the difference between a speciality roaster and a commodity one, and it is most of why a 200g speciality bag costs what it does. Grinding is done at the roastery, which is the convenience being sold here and also the reason this pack has a shorter useful life than whole beans would.
What's in Union Hand-Roasted Coffee Bobolink Brazil Cafetière Grind, 200g, and what isn't:
- In: roasted coffee, ground coarse, and nothing else in the bag.
- No added flavouring: this is a plain roast, not a flavoured coffee. Any sweetness in the cup was developed in the roast.
- Not ground for espresso: the cut is for a plunger. An espresso machine will run it through in seconds and the shot will taste thin and sour.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Union Hand-Roasted Coffee Bobolink Brazil Cafetière Grind, 200g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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