Poco Java

The Story behind our poco java blend

Poco Java has deep roots and a strange history here at Casa Brasil. Our founder, Joel Shuler, created this legacy blend by sourcing two unique and distinct coffees from Poço Fundo in the south of Minas Gerais. One coffee was fruity and the other earthy, more like an Indonesian than Sul de Minas. Blended together, the contrasting flavors created harmonies of chocolate, red fruit, and earthy notes that reminded Joel and the team of Mocha Java, the world’s oldest blend. Poço Java was thus named by combining Poco from Poço Fundo with Java from Mocha Java. 

Coffee price list from 1774. Note the first two items - Mocha and Java.

In time, our source for the “earthy” bean from Poço Fundo dried up—that unique earthy but clean flavor was not there every harvest—and we were unable to find a similar profile from Brazil. Being among our best sellers, we didn’t want to retire the label, so we decided to switch the earthy component to an actual Indonesian coffee from Sumatra, marking the first and only time in Casa Brasil’s history that we have sold non-Brazilian coffee. 

Unfortunately, In 2020 we removed Poco Java from our store as a result of a floor-to-ceiling re-branding of Casa Brasil. We felt that having a Sumatran coffee in our lineup—even in a blend—didn’t fit with our new “Explore Brazil” concept, with a renewed focus on exploring the diverse coffee regions of Brazil. Looking back, this was a mistake. Aside from the messages we received from our customers who loved and missed the blend, we also realized that Poco Java was the perfect blend to include in our lineup, but only if we went back to using 100 percent Brazilian coffee. At Casa Brasil, we want to introduce coffee lovers to the diversity of Brazil and its coffee regions, and one of the best ways to do that is to offer coffees that our customers might not associate with the traditional flavor profiles of Brazil. Poco Java—alongside many of our favorite regional blends and microlots—is a great way to showcase the surprising diversity of flavors offered by Brazilian coffees. So we’re thrilled to offer you our newly formulated, “modern classic” Poco Java. Once again, it’s wholly Brazilian, and as always, completely delicious.