Relish the smooth, sweet cups of this unique, honey-process Topazio coffee variety.

Hazelnut, Dried Fruits, Velvety Body

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Topazio Honey Tasting Notes

This coffee is a rare gem amongst Brazilian coffee composed exclusively of the Topazio variety. The abundant sweetness in the cup is further pronounced by the low levels of acidity. The combination of high sweetness and low acidity makes for a great espresso shot and pairs well with a touch of cream. Dried fruits and hazelnut notes dominate the flavor profile, while the rich body of this coffee is nothing short of full and velvety.

Producer Notes

The Fazenda Castelhana coffee farm has been in the Neto family for over 40 years. Diogo Neto currently oversees the farm and his innovations have allowed the farm to continue to produce high quality coffee during difficult times for coffee farmers. By closely monitoring the maturity of coffee in each section of the farm, and by first using labor intensive hand harvesting, Neto is able to produce uniform coffee that is at the peak of maturity.

This unique harvesting method provides Neto with the top quality coffee cherry that is necessary to justify more labor intensive processing methods like the honey process that was used on this coffee. These methods can create extraordinarily good coffee that can be sold at steep premiums to quality-oriented roastaries. The farm is rainforest alliance certified.

Honey processed coffee is simply coffee that is dried with some, but not all, of the coffee fruit still attached to the coffee “bean.” Within the Honey Process category, there is a spectrum that runs from the most coffee fruit attached during drying or “Black Honey,” to only a small amount being attached, “Gold Honey,” or “Red Honey” in between with a medium amount of fruit attached.

There is a non-stop race to develop new coffee varieties that possess desirable traits such as cup quality, disease resistance, production volume, drought resistance, and a host of other important agronomic qualities. Out of millions of new hybrid varieties, only a tiny fraction will possess qualities good enough to justify their propagation.

One of these varieties was Topazio, which takes its name from the deep yellow, topaz-like, color of the mature coffee cherry. While Topazio does not possess disease resistance, it does produce high quality coffee and also takes well to drip irrigation, which is becoming increasingly popular with Brazilian coffee farmers as seasonal rainfall becomes increasingly, and potentially devastatingly, sporadic.

Processing Method: Honey

Varieties: Topazio

Altitude: 3600'

Size: 12oz

Roast: Light

How to brew

Cups of this coffee are great either black or with a touch of milk. If brewing for black coffee, we recommend a 1:14 ratio. Increase the brew ratio to 1:12 for consumption with cream. Brew water should be between 200-205°F.

Current Black Oak Tasting Club Coffees