Löfbergs Brazil Single Origin Whole Beans: The Kilogram Bag

Brazil usually works unseen, as the base a blender builds on; in this bag it is the whole cup. Löfbergs' Brazil Single Origin beans won a Great Taste Award in 2024, and the kilogram bag is built for a kitchen that brews every day.

Why Brazil tastes soft rather than bright

Growing conditions explain most of it. Coffee grown high and cool ripens slowly and builds the organic acids that read as fruit and sparkle. Brazilian coffee is mostly grown at modest elevations, where the cherries ripen faster and put their energy into sugars and body instead. The result is a cup that opens on roasted hazelnut and almond, holds sweet milk chocolate through the middle and finishes on soft cocoa, with an acidity that never bites.

Blenders prize that softness, which is why Brazil so often forms the base of espresso blends, and no country grows more coffee than Brazil. Drinking it alone shows exactly what that base contributes. It will seem gentle, even plain, to anyone used to the citrus snap of an East African coffee, but gentleness is the point. The nut character is a product of roasting the bean, and it is what makes the cup so easy to return to.

One bag, several brewers

For a single origin, this is unusually adaptable. Brewed by pour-over, at around 60g of coffee to the litre, the hazelnut and chocolate come through most distinctly. The cafetière, same ratio and four minutes, makes a heavier, rounder mug that stands up to milk. It also works through an espresso machine, where its softness makes for a mellow shot. That flexibility matters in a kitchen with a filter machine for weekdays and an espresso machine for weekends.

Grind to suit each method: coarse for the cafetière, medium for filter, fine for espresso. A filter machine cannot take whole beans, so the bag assumes a grinder of your own or a bean-to-cup machine that does the grinding. For a kitchen without either, Löfbergs sells its Brazil Single Origin ready ground in a 250g bag, which is the version to choose instead.

Who the kilogram bag is for

At two coffees a day, a kilogram lasts roughly two months, which is the right rhythm for a household that drinks coffee daily and does not want to reorder every fortnight. It also suits anyone running a bean-to-cup machine through the week. If coffee is an occasional pleasure in your house, the Brazil Coffee Lovers Medium Roast in its 400g bag, or the ground Brazil Single Origin at 250g, will be finished while it is fresher.

Keeping a big bag well is simple. Decant about a week of beans into a small airtight jar and keep the main bag sealed, rolled tight and away from heat, light and steam, because every opening lets air at the whole kilogram. Grind only what the next brew needs: ground coffee loses its aroma far faster than beans do, and the smell of a freshly ground dose is most of the pleasure.

The packs we stock

• Löfbergs Brazil Single Origin Whole Coffee Beans, 1kg (barcode 7310050015101)

What to eat with it

• McVitie's Milk Chocolate Digestives Biscuits, 266g: Milk chocolate on the biscuit mirrors the milk-chocolate middle of the cup, a like-for-like pairing that never jars.
• Border Butterscotch Crunch Organic Biscuits, 135g: Löfbergs says its Brazil finishes on butterscotch and hazelnut, so a butterscotch biscuit beside the mug is a pairing the roaster has half-written already.
• Border Classic Biscuit Sharing Pack, 400g: A sharing pack for the Sunday cafetière, when a full pot is going round the table.
• McVitie's Digestives Dark Chocolate Biscuits, 433g: A big pack to keep pace with a big bag, with dark chocolate that picks out the soft cocoa finish.

Elsewhere in the Löfbergs range

• Löfbergs Brazil Coffee Lovers Medium Roast Whole Bean, 400g
• Löfbergs Brazil Single Origin Ground Coffee, 250g
• 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

Did Löfbergs Brazil Single Origin win an award? Yes. Löfbergs' Brazil Single Origin coffee beans won a Great Taste Award in 2024.

Can I use these beans in an espresso machine? Yes. Grind them fine; the soft, low-acid profile makes a mellow shot, and the same bag works just as well in a cafetière or pour-over.

How long will a kilogram last? About two months at two coffees a day, by our own reckoning from the bag weight.

What is the difference between a single origin and a blend? A blend mixes coffees from several countries to taste the same every time. A single origin comes from one country and can shift slightly from crop to crop, which is part of its interest.

What should I eat with it? Something with chocolate or butterscotch, which echo notes already in the cup. A cardamom bun suits it if you want to drink it the Swedish way, as fika.

Curator's note: Brew a full cafetière on a Sunday, cut a cardamom bun and take your time. This is Brazil allowed to speak for itself for once, and it has more to say than you would expect. Lee, teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.

In short: Löfbergs Brazil Single Origin Whole Beans: The Kilogram Bag

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• Tea vs Coffee
• Tea for Coffee Drinkers: Where to Start
• Chai vs Coffee

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