Sambalatte Brazil Sitio Cantagalo

Sambalatte, a specialty roaster in Las Vegas, NV, blew up my biases and lack of expectations about coffee from this city of show and glitz with their Ethiopia Guji Hambela, so I’m happy to be sharing today’s coffee, their Brazil Sitio Cantagalo, with you! Let’s check it out!

Sambalatte website

Sambalatte Coffee Club

Sambalatte Guji Hambela review


SAMBALATTE BRAZIL SITIO CANTAGALO

Sambalatte owner and founder, Luiz Oliveira, is originally from Brazil, so I can only imagine Brazilian coffees hold a special place in his heart. Sambalatte holds multiple accolades as Las Vegas’ best coffee roaster and today’s coffee is part of their Coffee Club subscription, I think, because I can’t find any coffee sale links on Sambalatte’s website. I think if you want these bags of coffee you need to be a subscriber!

Today’s coffee is their Brazil Sitio Cantagalo from Sao Goncalo do Sapucai, a town in the Minas Gerais coffee growing region of southeast Brazil. This coffee is grown by Mario Henrique Carvalho above 1000masl and it’s a Yellow Catuai. It’s not listed as a natural or washed on the bag, but this light roast has very smooth beans, so I think that makes it more likely that it’s a natural. I always forget that rule of thumb, but I’m pretty sure wrinkly beans after roasting are washed and smooth ones tend to be naturals. I’m probably backward on that so don’t quote me! In any case, Sambalatte gives us tasting notes of, “mild fruits and chocolate, nutty” for this coffee.

I used my standard pourover method of a 1:16 ratio of 28g of coffee to 450g of water in a notNeutral Gino dripper with Kalita filters. My Handground grinder was set to 3 and I used Third Wave Water in my preparations of this coffee. This made for a medium-bodied, creamy mouthfeel with lots of brightness in the cup. There is a lot of crisp apple-like sweetness in the cup and I think the acidity leans toward green apple, too. I also get a tropical, slightly pineapple-y vibe from the acidity and sweetness in the cup, and I get a little bit of tropical fruit tartness in there, too. There is a roasted nuttiness toward the second half of the sip and into the finish. Not peanut, walnut or almond… maybe more along the lines of pecan? Like most Brazilian cups this isn’t going to blow anyone out of the water with its complexity, but that being said, this Sitio Cantagalo has a really nice, fresh, balanced presence and it’s a great drinker. It’s far from a “boring” or “one-dimensional” coffee, for sure, and for a Brazilian coffee the roast really brings out a lot of high notes. I enjoyed it a lot!