This fortnight’s Pact Coffee delivery is Santa Ines Natural, from Brazil.

They say:

Flavour: Cocoa Powder, Baked Apple, Toffee
Sweetness: Baked Fruit
Acidity: Malic (Apple)
Mouthfeel: Creamy

We say:

Smells like burnt wood in the bag, tastes a bit bitter when brewed (with an Aeropress).

Let’s look at their list: I got none of those flavours, not the cocoa, not the apple, and certainly not the toffee. The sweetness was only accurate if the baked fruit was lemon. I have no idea what a malic acidity feels like, but for me it was keener than the apple they claim. And there was no way the ‘mouthfeel’ was creamy. It was thin, maybe watery. If that’s a valid mouthfeel. Which it probably is, given that everyone just seems to be making shit up left, right, and centre.

One point of note is that this batch was noticeably more difficult to Aeropress – the resistance of the plunger whilst plunging was much greater than previous Pact coffees, despite me consistently specifying ‘Aeropress’ as the required grind setting. Maybe they accidentally turned the grinder dial round a notch too far and ground the beans too fine, and I’m now paying for that with a slightly bitter, difficult-to-plunge coffee. Who knows.