Part of Homeground Coffee Roasters’ fourth anniversary, the Café Granja La Esperanza varietal box contains a collection of amazing coffees from a farm that we have shared long-standing ties with since the beginning.

As fellow home brewers, this box presents a rare opportunity to taste many varietals grown by a single producer, carefully cultivated and processed to highlight the outstanding characteristics of each varietal.

At the same time, as the coffee roasters ourselves, we underwent extensive trial and error to be able to present the best of each set of green coffees through their roast profiles. To then be able to bring out the best of each coffee in brewing, will undoubtedly also require some iterations to perfect.

Join us as we walk through our preferred approaches to brewing, as well some adjustments that we make to adapt to the extensive range of coffees in the varietal box.

For the most part, we at Homeground Coffee Roasters generally rely on percolation via a ceramic Origami dripper equipped with conical filter papers when we brew our coffee. At times, we might also use the Aeropress for immersion brews.

Practically speaking, any brewing equipment will do, as long as you account for the slight variations for the equipment that you use at home. For example, a plastic dripper might call for lower temperatures than ceramic drippers, while flat-bed filter paper brewers would typically be used with a coarser grind size than conical filter paper brews.

Using a 15g dose with medium grind size (24 clicks on the Comandante / 17 clicks on the Normcore), we brew with a water temperature of 92°C in the following order:

A well-balanced acidity and body of the Tabi and the unique tropical fruits in the Pink Bourbon can be extracted with the conventional percolation approach.

With some adjustments, we enjoy the percolation brews with the Laurina, Gesha, Mandela, Sudan Rume Washed, Yellow Bourbon, Napoleon and GXO.

Using a 15g dose with medium-fine grind size (21 clicks on the Comandante / 15 clicks on the Normcore), we brew with a water temperature of 85°C in the inverted method:

The Colombia presents a good balance and flavour clarity when brewed as an immersion brew.

Immersion brewing also fares well with the San Juan, Sudan Rume Natural and Red Bourbon.

Water Temperature

Changes to the temperatures used for each brewing method can help to vary the extraction of a brew.

A higher temperature is well suited for washed processed coffees like the Sudan Rume Washed and Yellow Bourbon, as well as the complex profiles of the Mokka, Sidra, Napoleon and GXO.

On the other hand, we find that the sweetness of the Gesha, Mandela and San Juan are greatly enjoyable at slightly lower temperatures.

Grind Size

Each coffee varietal differs in density and solubility, and adapting the grind size of the coffee is important to attain consistent levels of extraction.

The coffees that we do recommend to go a notch finer than the usual include the Gesha, Sudan Rume Washed, Yellow Bourbon, Napoleon and GXO.

With the Mokka, Sidra, San Juan and Sudan Rume Natural, the coffees can be ground a notch in the opposite direction, coarser than the usual.

Brew Ratio

An adjustment that frequently relates to the quality of flavor, changes to the brew ratio impacts the mouthfeel and clarity of the flavor profile in a coffee.

A smaller brew ratio brings the distinctive juiciness of the Mokka to the fore, while a larger brew ratio expands and stretches the flavor profile, especially for the Gesha, Laurina, Red Bourbon, Sudan Rume Natural, Sudan Rume Washed, Napoleon and GXO.

While each adjustment above seems to be presented independently, in reality, all of them work in tandem to bring about a perfectly extracted cup of coffee.

Very often, adjustments in grind size often also come with changes to other brew variables. This interconnected relationship between the brew variables can best be shown by a table that summarizes the adjustments that we have made for each of the coffee varietals.

At Homeground Coffee Roasters, we believe that when it comes to brewing coffee, the journey is as important as the product. Every single time we brew a cup of coffee, it is a new exploration of the unknown, and the process of discovering the unique characteristics of each varietal and processing method, or simply improving a cup to bring out even better flavors than before, encapsulates the joy of brewing that we want to share with the home brewing coffee community.

To that end, we conceived the idea of the Café Granja La Esperanza Varietal Box, and what better way to enjoy this experience than to be brewing with Homeground?