Last year, I did two Excelso coffee reviews. Those reviews were shorter as it was the beginning of my journey diving into the coffee world. By now, I have learned plenty, I even visited Luwak coffee farm and learned about its processing. I also visited different coffee shops, learned about its business, its operation, its design, cupping, tasting notes and many more. Today, after a year of not drinking any product from Excelso, I ordered another product from it, the Brazilian Santos Coffee.

As some of you know, Brazil is one of the countries that produce the best coffee in the world. Even according to a statistic by statista, coffee trade from this country is noted as one of the most prolific industry and also accounted for 40% of the world’s coffee supply. However, since Indonesia is also one of the top producers, nationally, getting Brazilian coffee is quite a challenge in some cities. Many cities and provinces here would rather market their own type of coffee. In addition to that, usually, foreign coffee is either available through online stores, high-end coffee shops and roastery or even from a chain company, like this Brazilian Santos from Excelso.

What Exactly Is Brazilian Santos?

According to espresso coffee guide, Brazilian Santos is named after the port where the coffee is sent to other countries.. At first I thought it was named after where it’s grown just like many coffee’s here. But it’s not. Since this is a relatively new region that I explore, I can’t really say about comparison and contrast with another Brazil coffee. Another thing that I will not know yet, is the major tasting note from Brazilian coffee because I have not sampled this country enough. If I were to compare it to Colombian coffee, it would be unfair because the geographical characteristics will be different though I can see a bit of similarities between the two. Additionally, Brazilian santos is not a coffee variant because the coffee variant of this would be Bourbon. Now, if you want to read about bourbon coffee, you can start with a simple information from the wikipedia Bourbon Coffee.

My Cupping Experience

Like many other good roasters, a coffee product needs to have some basic information about its tasting note, how it is roasted and also the aroma locked. Excelso has some of it except how the coffee was roasted and grinding size. I discovered aroma locked from Excelso a year ago and now many local roasters that I know are also applying aroma locks on their packaging. From the excelso packaging, it is mentioned that aroma locked function is to guarantee the aroma and freshness of the coffee.

As per packaging, it said that it has dried fruit, smoky, & caramel tasting notes with strong body and low acidity. This is exactly just how my coffee generally would be, something with low acidity and caramel tasting notes. When I first opened the packaging, the smell was so good. It has the smoky smell of a medium-fine roast.

This morning, I brewed about a tsp of it with a coffee maker and it produced a somewhat stronger body. The first sip was heavenly. There was an after taste of dried fruit, with a bit of smokey and caramel feeling. I would say, it was just as how it was described. Even after the last drip, I could taste the caramel which was really tasty.

Thus far, this was my first time trying coffee with dried fruit and a smoky tasting note. So, I can't make many comparison as I only often tried something caramel, nutty, and with sour apple notes. In the past, I tried coffee mixing by using 70% arabica and 30% robusta. Those resulted in a burn rubbery smell which now, I can say I notice the difference between smoky aroma and burnt rubber smell, thanks to this Brazilian Santos. Also, back then I used to only enjoy robusta variants but after digging through arabica coffee, I can say that now, it’s my favorite especially this one.

Recommended or not?

I would say yes. This one is highly recommended because again, various sources mentioned that Brazilian Santos is the highest quality of coffee than just the “Brazilian Coffee”. Other than than, the taste is great if you like something earthy, smoky or caramel coffee. As for the price, it varies between one place to another but it’s still relatively cheaper and in the mid-range price. There are better brands than Excelso and if you can get the fresh beans of Brazilian Santos, I would recommend getting that instead of the powdered ones, always.

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Hope You Enjoyed This article!

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