This fortnight is b3 Coffee from Blackwood, up the hill from Adelaide. They roast every Tuesday and pour it in their own shop, and they've been part of the Allways rotation since the very start.
The centre of this release is Los Altiplanos, a Java-variety coffee from Nicaragua that b3 roast twice: once for espresso and once for filter. Same farm, same lot, two very different cups, and a rare chance to taste what roasting alone does to a coffee.
Around it: b3's year-round Seasonal Blend and a sugarcane decaf from Colombia.
Seasonal Blend
Brazil · Colombia · Ethiopia
Four coffees in one bag: Tres Meninas and Anahy from Brazil, Apia from Colombia and Haroberdame from Ethiopia. b3 built it to work as a white or a black coffee, with a fruity component so it doesn't go flat without milk.
For the milk drinker who still wants something to notice in a long black.
Los Altiplanos (Espresso Roast)
Nicaragua · Java · Washed · Ricardo Cuadra Fajardo
Ricardo Cuadra Fajardo grows Java on his farm under cedar, coyote and mahogany shade trees. This lot comes off five-year-old trees.
b3 found it wanted more coffee in the basket than usual, so they push the dose up to 22.5g and grind fine to balance it. They say it leans toward black coffee: lighter and livelier than the blend.
Los Altiplanos (Filter Roast)
Nicaragua · Java · Washed · Ricardo Cuadra Fajardo
The same coffee, roasted lighter for filter. b3 describe it as delicate, floral and sweet, with low body and medium acidity. Next to the espresso roast it barely seems related.
If you get both this fortnight, brew them side by side once. It's the clearest lesson in roasting you'll get from two bags.
Apia Decaf
Colombia · 30 smallholder producers · Sugarcane decaf
Grown by 30 smallholder producers in Colombia and decaffeinated with the sugarcane process, which uses ethyl acetate made from fermented sugarcane to lift the caffeine out and leave the flavour alone.
For the after-dinner cup, or anyone who's done with caffeine but not with coffee.
How b3 buy
b3 go back to the same producers year after year rather than chasing a new lot every season. That's how a coffee like Los Altiplanos ends up in the bag: a relationship with one farm, not a one-off.
They also work with partners whose farms are moving toward regenerative growing, and who pay the people picking and processing the coffee a living wage.
The honest caveat: b3's standard bag is 350g, and yours will be our usual 250g. And with one coffee across both single origin slots, there's less variety this fortnight if you get both.
A Blackwood roaster and coffee shop, going since 2016. They roast every Tuesday, buy from the same farms year after year, and back producers working toward regenerative growing.
b3 Coffee is in the rotation now
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