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The 4 on the front of this pack is Cafédirect's own strength marker, not an industry measure, and it puts this coffee on the stronger side of the brand's range. Behind it is a washed Arabica from the Peruvian Andes that the brand describes as a medium-dark roast led by dark chocolate and roasted hazelnut.
A coffee with a place attached
Machu Picchu is in Peru, and the name tells you where the coffee is from. Cafédirect's ties to the area are long: it has worked since 1994 with the Huadquiña cooperative, based in Santa Teresa in the Cusco region near Machu Picchu. The brand describes this coffee as washed Arabica from the Peruvian Andes, roasted medium-dark, and certified organic and Fairtrade, with the Soil Association among its marks. The ingredient list reads simply: ground coffee.
Those notes of dark chocolate and roasted hazelnut are tasting descriptions rather than ingredients; the published list for this barcode names none of the 14 major allergens. Expect a clean, medium body rather than a heavy one, gentle bitterness and a mild acidity that a much darker roast would have lost. That balance is what makes it such an easy coffee to drink every morning.
Getting the dose and water right
Ground for cafetière and filter, it rewards a measured dose: about 8g of coffee for every 200ml of water, or roughly one well-heaped tablespoon. Put the spoonful on the kitchen scales once and you will know it by eye from then on. Boil the kettle and leave it around twenty seconds, so the water sits at about 95 or 96 degrees; too cool and the cup turns thin and sharp.
With this coffee a weak, rushed brew is a more likely fault than a bitter one, so give the cafetière its full steep before you press. By our own reckoning, not the bag's, that dose gets roughly 25 mugs out of the 200g pack. Once it is open, roll the bag down tight and keep it somewhere cool and dark, because ground coffee gives up its aroma quickly.
Milk, biscuits and the whole-bean option
A roast that stops short of the charred end cannot push through a big mug of milk the way a very dark roast can. It takes a splash well, but if you like your coffee milky, brew toward the strong side of the dose rather than drowning a weak cup. Drunk black, the chocolate and nut notes the brand describes are easiest to find.
That chocolate-led character suits a biscuit with some cocoa or caramel in it, such as a chocolate digestive or a butterscotch crunch, though plain digestives and fruit cake make just as good company. If you drink coffee every day and own a grinder, the same Machu Picchu coffee also comes as whole beans in a 750g bag, which holds its aroma until the moment you grind.
The packs we stock
- Cafédirect 4 Organic Machu Picchu Ground Coffee, 200g (barcode 5060198252754)
What the label says
The published ingredient list for Cafédirect 4 Organic Machu Picchu Ground Coffee, 200g (barcode 5060198252754) names none of the 14 major allergens. Treat this page's allergen notes as provisional; the label on the coffee you actually receive is what applies.
Ingredients, as published: ground coffee.
Ingredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. On this coffee, the bag in your hands has the final say.
What to eat with it
- McVitie's Digestives Dark Chocolate Biscuits, 433g: dark chocolate on the biscuit echoes the dark chocolate note the brand describes in this coffee.
- Border Butterscotch Crunch Organic Biscuits, 135g: butterscotch biscuits whose caramel sweetness picks up the roasted side of a medium-dark cup.
- McVitie's Milk Chocolate Digestives Biscuits, 266g: a milder, sweeter chocolate biscuit for anyone who takes this coffee with milk.
Elsewhere in the Cafédirect range
The full range is on the Cafédirect brand page.
FAQ
What does the 4 on Cafédirect coffee mean? It is the brand's own strength marker and only compares with Cafédirect's other coffees; on that scale, 4 leans to the strong side.
Is Cafédirect Machu Picchu organic and Fairtrade? Organic is in the product name, and the brand says the Machu Picchu coffee carries both organic and Fairtrade certification. Check the marks on the bag you have.
How much ground coffee should I use per mug? About 8g per 200ml of water. At that dose the 200g bag makes roughly 25 mugs.
Which brewing methods does it suit? It is ground for cafetière and filter. If you want to grind for other methods, the whole-bean bag of the same coffee is the better buy.
Who founded Cafédirect? Oxfam, Traidcraft, Equal Exchange and Twin Trading set it up in 1991, when a crash in the coffee market meant farmers were paid less than it cost them to grow their crop.
Curator's note: Weigh the dose the first few times and do not be shy with it. This one is at its best brewed properly strong in a cafetière, with a dark chocolate digestive on the side. Lee, teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.
In short: Cafédirect Machu Picchu Ground Coffee: strength 4 and how to brew it
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Brand | Cafédirect |
| Packs we stock | 200g |
| Category | Ground Coffee |
| Allergens (as published) | Of the 14 major allergens, the ingredient list published for this barcode names not one. |
| Caffeine | caffeinated |
| Method | Cafetière or filter |
| Dose | About 8g per 200ml |
| Best with | A dark chocolate digestive |
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