Heavy Bag (80 Stone Coffee Roasters)

Some people new to espresso brewing are sceptical when they read the list of flavour notes on the label. That scepticism is sometimes justified. I won’t name names, but we all have seen some strange flavours promised by the roasters who mean well, but end up making us look a bit confused. Other times, the notes are easy to imagine, but not so easy to get at.

Heavy Bag from 80 Stone Coffee Roasters is one such espresso, where notes are easy to relate to, but making the beans produce them takes a bit of patience. 18g of it ground at setting 1 or 2 will produce a delicious crema after a bit of a firm tamping, but the body of this espresso will not be well-defined when ground at 1. This is unusual, but grind setting 2 produces the best results. On the other hand, the promised pomegranate note is more noticeable at grind setting 1. So, if you do care for the pomegranate, grind it at 1, if not grind it at 2 and enjoy delicious marzipan, dark chocolate, and nougat.

The aftertaste is pleasant and lingers in the mouth for a good while letting you enjoy the promised pomegranate with a quality dark chocolate note morphing into a high-quality cocoa note. Acidity is mild. Heavy Bag definitely makes you want to drink it again.

MIXING WITH MILK

If you would like to drink it with milk, use grind setting 2 for best results.

WHERE TO BUY

Heavy Bag is available in the UK from the 80 Stone Coffee Roasters’ online shop.

EQUIPMENT

• Coffee grinder: Sage (Breville) Smart Grinder Pro

• Espresso machine: Sage (Breville) Bambino Plus