Plum, Red Berries, Caramel
A natural process decaf from the Mantiqueira mountains of south-eastern Brazil - round and creamy, with plum, red berries, caramel and milk chocolate running through it, and a gentle citrus note at the finish. Decaffeinated using the sugarcane process, it holds onto everything you'd want from a good evening brew: warm, sweet and quietly satisfying.
Soft, fruit-sweet and quietly dark
The Mantiqueira mountains sit at altitude in south-eastern Brazil, and the smallholders who grow this coffee are quality-focused in the way that shows up in the cup rather than on the label. It's a natural process coffee, decaffeinated using the sugarcane method - which keeps things gentle and preserves the fruit character you'd otherwise lose. The result is round and creamy, with plum and red berries giving it a soft, jammy warmth, caramel and milk chocolate lending a familiar sweetness, and a quiet citrus note at the finish that stops it feeling heavy.
This is the kind of coffee that makes a late evening brew feel like a reasonable idea. It drinks well black, holds up with milk, and has enough going on to be interesting without demanding your full attention. Andrew at Fountain Rock roasts between light and medium to let the bean's natural character come through, and that approach suits this one well - the sweetness is there without being pushed, and the decaf process leaves no trace of itself behind.
About the Roaster
Fountain Rock is a Dorset-based roastery founded by Andrew Hall, whose background in science and technology led him to study sensory analysis, brewing and roasting with the Speciality Coffee Association before ever selling a single bag. That grounding shows in how they work - from the electric roaster with its integrated profiling software to the relationships they've built with farmers they pay well above fair trade rates, because good coffee starts long before the roast.
