Brazil Rancho Sao Benedito

One of the highlights of our trip to Brazil last year was a visit to Rancho Sao Benedito. We toured the farm, tasted a lot of coffee and, after a fantastic home-cooked lunch, were treated to a dressage display by the family’s prized Mangalarga Marchador horses. It was the coffee we were most excited about, though, and as soon as we tasted this beautiful natural processed lot, we made an offer to purchase it.

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Brazil Canaan

New crop Brazil is here! Our latest single origin offering was produced by our friend Sergio Dias on his farm, Finca Canaan, situated in the Mantiqueira de Minas micro-region of Southeastern Brazil.

The Mantiqueira de Minas region has been home to the Cocarive cooperative of coffee farmers since 1961. Cocarive comprises a close knit community of 700 farmers who have rejected industrial scale, low grade coffee production in favor of focusing on developing smaller lots of high quality coffee for export to speciality markets in the US, Europe, and Asia.

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The story of our Espresso Blend

If you’re a regular at one of our cafes, or if you frequent one of our wholesale accounts, then chances are you’re already familiar with our Espresso Blend. Whether you drink it straight or in a milk-based drink, you’ll know what to expect: deep complexity, pie crust sweetness and a long, well balanced finish. Our roasters, trainers and baristas all strive day in, day out to keep it as consistent and perfectly extracted as possible. It’s our showcase product; the cornerstone of what we do.

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New Art Installation at Cafe Besalu

Image courtesy of the Ballard Historical Society

At Cafe Besalu we’re proud to be part of the Ballard community. We wanted to create a permanent art installation that would pay tribute to our neighborhood, so we reached out to our friends at the Ballard Historical Society and the Museum of History and Industry. They helped us to assemble a wonderful collection of photographs that depict Ballard in days gone by. We were even lucky enough to find an early 20th century image of our own storefront , which at that time housed a barber’s shop selling haircuts for a quarter. We’re really excited to have these photographs on our walls, so come on in and browse the fascinating images as you enjoy a pastry and a cup of coffee!

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