Banter Blend • 10oz

Low Tide | Banter Blend

Salted almond · Apricot jam · Rainier cherry

Two parts Brazil, one part Colombia. Both natural process. Low Tide is built to hold its shape in milk without going flat as a straight shot: a dense, sweet, nut-and-cocoa base with a red fruit lift sitting on top of it.

What's in the bag

Brazil, Essencia Lot (2 parts)
Importer: OCAFI
Region: Mococa, São Paulo
Varietal: Mixed
Elevation: 900 masl
Process: Natural
Cup: Almond, vanilla, dark chocolate

Grown low and dried on the fruit, which is why it drinks the way it does. Low-elevation Brazils develop less acidity and more soluble sugar, and natural processing pushes that further into vanilla and cocoa. Dense body, quiet acidity, forgiving under pressure. This is the floor the blend stands on.

Colombia, Development Lot (1 part)
Importer: Unblended
Region: Antioquia, Quindío and Huila
Varietal: Castillo and Caturra
Elevation: 1700 masl
Process: Natural
Cup: Red apple, cacao nibs, raspberry

800m higher than the Brazil, which means slower cherry maturation, denser seed, and a much higher acid load. Natural process on top of that gives you the ferment-forward red fruit. On its own it's loud. At a third of the blend, it's the part you notice in the finish.

Why it tastes like this

Blends work best when the components do different jobs instead of the same job twice. Low Tide is built on the classic base-and-accent structure: roughly two-thirds base coffee for body, sweetness and texture, one-third accent coffee for aroma and acidity.

The Brazil is the base. It sets mouthfeel and sugar, and it's the reason the shot doesn't disappear into a twelve-ounce latte. The Colombia is the accent. It contributes almost nothing to body and almost everything to the top end.

The three tasting notes are where those two meet:

• Salted almond comes from the Brazil. Natural Brazils at this elevation land in the roasted-nut register, and the savory edge is a natural-process signature rather than a roast artifact.
• Apricot jam is the interaction note. Colombia's stone and red fruit acidity, buffered by the Brazil's sugar, reads cooked rather than fresh. Jam, not raw fruit.
• Rainier cherry is the Colombia showing through. Solo, that coffee reads raspberry and red apple, sharper and more tart. Diluted to a third and sitting on a sweeter base, it rounds into something softer and more yellow-red.