Löfbergs Brazil Coffee Lovers Medium Roast: A Grinder's Guide

The one decision this bag leaves to you is the grind, and it matters more than anything else you do with it. Löfbergs has already chosen the origin and stopped the roast at medium, so the Brazilian character of soft nut, milk chocolate and hardly any sharpness reaches the cup intact.

What a medium roast leaves in a Brazilian bean

Brazil is the easy-going origin. What it brings to the cup is low acidity, a gentle, hazelnut-like sweetness and a milk-chocolate centre, with hardly any of the sharp fruit that divides opinion on other single origins. Löfbergs describes its Brazil coffee as finishing with a butterscotch and hazelnut aftertaste. Stopping the roast at medium keeps that sweetness rather than burning it off, while still building enough body to carry milk.

That is why it is such an easy bag to recommend. Nobody has to learn to like it, and bitterness stays mild because a medium roast never builds much of it. The trade-off is excitement: if you want bright fruit and a coffee that argues back, look to an East African origin instead. This is the weekend-breakfast coffee, the pot that gets refilled without anyone remarking on it.

Setting the grinder for your brewer

Whole beans hold their aroma until they are broken, which is the case for grinding just before you brew. Match the setting to the brewer: coarse, roughly the size of sea salt, for a cafetière; medium, nearer table salt, for a paper filter or filter machine; fine for a moka pot or an espresso machine. Grind size governs how quickly water draws flavour out, so it is the first thing to change when a cup disappoints. Even a modest burr grinder does a better job than a blade grinder.

Use water just off the boil, around 93 to 96°C, so let the kettle rest for a minute after it clicks. Eight grams of coffee suits a 200ml mug as a starting dose, and on that basis the 400g bag gives roughly fifty mugs; that is our own arithmetic from the pack weight, not a figure printed on the bag. Once the grind suits the brewer, the dose is the next thing to adjust if a mug tastes thin or heavy.

Which Löfbergs Brazil to buy

We carry its close relations too. The Brazil Single Origin comes as whole beans in a 1kg bag, for a household that gets through coffee fast or runs a bean-to-cup machine every day, and Löfbergs' Brazil Single Origin beans won a Great Taste Award in 2024. The Brazil Single Origin Ground, at 250g, is the answer for a kitchen without a grinder. This 400g bag sits between the two: whole bean, in a size most homes finish while the beans are still lively.

For a different character from the same Karlstad roastery, the Colombia Single Origin Ground is the brighter cup, which Löfbergs describes as fresh berries and caramel, and the Espresso beans are a dark, slow roast with dark chocolate and roasted almond. As for this bag, its one-way valve lets the beans release their gas without letting air back in, so leave it sealed until you start it, then roll the top down tight and keep it somewhere cool and dark.

The packs we stock

• Löfbergs Brazil Coffee Lovers Medium Roast Whole Bean, 400g (barcode 7310050012483)

What to eat with it

• Border Butterscotch Crunch Organic Biscuits, 135g: Butterscotch in the biscuit picks up the butterscotch aftertaste Löfbergs describes for its Brazil coffee, so the plate and the cup meet in the middle.
• McVitie's Original Hobnobs Biscuits - The Oaty One, 255g: A sturdy, oaty biscuit that takes a quick dip in a milky mug and matches the soft roasted sweetness of the coffee.
• Lotus Biscoff Caramelised Biscuits, 250g: Caramelised sweetness beside a gentle, chocolate-leaning cup, with nothing in either to fight the other.

Elsewhere in the Löfbergs range

• Löfbergs Brazil Single Origin Ground Coffee, 250g
• Löfbergs Brazil Single Origin Whole Coffee Beans, 1kg
• Löfbergs Colombia Single Origin Ground Coffee, 250g
• Löfbergs Espresso Whole Coffee Beans, 1kg
• Löfbergs Organic 100% Arabica Ground Coffee, 250g

The full range is on the Löfbergs brand page.

FAQ

Do I need a grinder for Löfbergs Brazil Coffee Lovers? Yes. These are whole beans, so you need a grinder or a bean-to-cup machine; without either, the Löfbergs Brazil Single Origin Ground is the nearest bag in the range.

How many mugs does the 400g bag make? Around fifty at eight grams for a 200ml mug. That is our own sum from the pack weight rather than a figure Löfbergs prints.

Should I drink it black or with milk? Either suits it. The low acidity and milk-chocolate tone sit comfortably under a splash of milk, which is why we treat the Brazils as the everyday end of the Löfbergs range.

What is the valve on the bag for? Freshly roasted beans keep giving off carbon dioxide. The one-way valve lets that gas escape while keeping air out, which is why an unopened bag of beans keeps so well.

Is it a strong coffee? Not in the bitter sense, because a medium roast builds only mild bitterness. For a heavier cup, use a little more coffee rather than grinding a cafetière dose finer.

Curator's note: Grind it the morning you drink it and leave it at that. Pour it for a table full of people at the weekend with a plate of butterscotch biscuits and it quietly does its job. Lee, teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.

In short: Löfbergs Brazil Coffee Lovers Medium Roast: A Grinder's Guide

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