It's rare that we get to repeat a Red Brick blend that contains the same two components. For this iteration - with a slight twist - we reunited our bespoke 3-farm Brazil Sul de Minas blend and classic Colombia, El Meridiano, from Tolima.

Making the most of the extremely high Colombian coffee prices for the 2022 booking season, we took the opportunity to buy a little more volume in the second year of purchasing our custom Sul de Minas blend. Sourcing from the same three farms as last year, we worked especially hard with Bourbon to ensure consistency and depth, as we knew this component would represent a more significant % of this specific Red Brick blend. Made up of the same three small-to-medium farms - Rosa Branca, Fazenda Recanto, and Sitio Barra, Bourbon's team refined the mix.

Quintessential to Red Brick, we've worked with Caravela on El Meridiano for years. A collective representing the work of 58 members of the Association of Specialty Coffee Growers of Alto Saldana in Tolima; although we ordered a much smaller consignment this year, Caravela constructs a community blend specifically for us by gathering, selecting and merging smaller lots from within the El Meridiano group. A Red Brick blend built on years of collaboration, this one makes us especially proud.

RECIPE:

We recommend the following recipe as a starting point:

Dose: 19 grams

Brew temperature: 201ºF-202ºF/94ºC-94.5ºC

Brew time: 28-32 sec

Brew Ratio: 1:2

Brew weight: 38 grams

This profile and recipe was developed on a Victoria Arduino VA388 Black Eagle with VST 20g baskets – so should be taken as a starting point, and not an absolute as different machines extract in different ways.

The recommended baskets for this espresso recipe are the VST 20g.