Big beans, big sweetness, big body, big hang time, African Mailman delivers on all.

Do you have trouble choosing between coffee and dessert? And do you have to choose?

Is there such a thing as dessert coffee?

The concept of a dessert coffee was uncertain until the sensory team at Zest introduced the Nicaraguan lot ‘Los Porterillos’ Pacamara beans to our Ethiopian rockstar, Suke Quto.

With the revitalising of our African Mailman blend in mind, the Zest Sensory Team played around with various blend drafts, tasting a whole lot of coffee, before finally settling on African Mailman as a composition of 80% Nicaraguan Los Portrerillos and 20% Ethiopian Suke Quto.

And bam. There it is! A dessert coffee.

If you imagine one exists, what constitutes a dessert coffee?

Sweetness, obviously. Richness, density, big body of flavour? Yes. Something you take with you long after you finish? Most certainly, yes, I always remember dessert.

Sweet, rich and memorable.

Does the new African Mailman blend have dessert qualities?

Let’s break it down…

Sweet.

The Suke Quto brings notes of berry, citrus and a floral complexity to the heavy and chocolatey Nicaraguan but our sensory team also penned notes of golden syrup, plum jam, red grape and a salivating, almost chewy, choc finish.

As a latte, they found notes of chocolate mousse, crème caramel, anzac biscuit, salted caramel, whipped cream, malt and a long butterscotch toffee finish. Dessert much?

Rich.

In coffee lingo (and wine lingo), there is a component of a coffee’s quality that is assessed on the particular way it feels or ‘weighs’ on a taster’s palate. This thickness or viscosity is called the ‘body’ and a big body is perceived as a big positive. The Los Potrerillos washed Pacamara has a body similar to olive oil – which is about as viscous as things get in the world of coffee. Big bodied, thick, rich – yes, yes, yes. Can you feel it in your mouth already?

Memorable.

The fascinating Los Potrerillos lot is a lot made up of Pacamara botanical variety produced on the Nicaraguan coffee farm ‘Agropecuaria El Triunfo’ or ‘The Triumph’.

Pacamara is an exciting botanical. A hybrid varietal composed of the Bourbon mutation Pacas and the Typica mutation Maragogype, otherwise known as ‘Elephant Beans’. Simply put, Pacamara beans are big. And big equals memorable. A very large screen size of coffee bean which, after being roasted and brewed, produces a syrup-like, tactile tasting experience. Tactile equals memorable.

So, has Zest inadvertently created a dessert coffee? Perhaps we have, but I will let you be the decider of that. Regardless of your opinion of the ‘dessertness’ of the African Mailman, coffee aficionados and latte lovers alike will be charmed by the sweet flavour, the syrupy body and the long, delectable finish of the new season African Mailman – probably so much so that you will never bother with dessert again.

And did I mention this revised African Mailman blend won medals in both the milk and the espresso category in last November’s Golden Bean Awards? One of only two coffees that was selected as medal worthy in both categories! So now your big decision isn’t coffee or dessert, it’s black or white African Mailman.

For the month of March we are offering a 20% discount on the new African Mailman. Enter coupon code DESSERTCOFFEE20 to redeem.