Sfumato is a blend designed to blur the lines between modern specialty green coffee and traditional Northern Italian roasting. It is for those who love espressos with a creamy texture, low acidity, and powerful aromas. If you brew Sfumato on a lever machine, we adore you.

The name Sfumato comes from a painting technique of blurring lines pioneered and mastered by Leonardo da Vinci (it's Leo, of course he mastered it). You'll notice none of his paintings feature crisp, hard-edged lines.

We want the same for our Sfumato: a gentle, nuanced evocation of the beauty and diversity of coffee flavors and roasting techniques, without ever compromising on green coffee quality or flavor authenticity.

I hope you enjoy it!

Paul Arnephy

62% Brazil
Farm: Baixado
Cooperative: COCARIVE
Indicação de Procedência (IP)
Species: Arabica
Varieties: Yellow Bourbon
Post-harvest process: Natural (whole fruit dried)

17% Brazil
Farm: Daterra
Manager: Luis Pascaol
Species: Arabica
Varieties: Arara, Bourbon, Catiguá MG2, Catuai, Mundo Novo, Paraiso
Post-harvest process: Natural (whole fruit dried)

21% Honduras
Producer: Caballero Family
Species: Arabica
Varieties: Catuai
Post-harvest process: Natural (whole fruit dried)

Here at Tribute, we love exploring the incredible depth of flavours, tastes and textures that can be found in the world of coffee. Most of our work is dedicated to reproducing in the cup the authenticity of the flavours of the coffees we source; be it their terroir, the variety and, of course, the quality of the producer's work.

Sfumato is a little different.

Here, our aim is to produce something faithful to the pioneers of modern espresso, to the Italian coffee culture. No compromise is made on the quality or traceability of the green coffees we use for Sfumato. Which, believe it or not, makes our job even more difficult, especially when it comes to roast profiles and blends to achieve the taste of Sfumato.

This is our attempt to blur the lines between specialty coffee and tradition.

Espresso
Ratio 1:2
16g of ground coffee
32g in the cup (2 x 16g)
20-25 seconds depending on your taste.

If it doesn't drip at first, you need to adjust your recipe!

Automatic machine
40ml in the cup in 20s

DeLonghi Rivella
Intensity: 4
Volume: S
Grind size: 2.5

The simplest way to prepare a good espresso is to use water with moderate to low total hardness (80 to 120 ppm) and to stick to a fixed brewing ratio.

To find the taste that suits you, use the total extraction time as a basic guide. If the coffee tastes acidic, opt for a finer grind and slow down the extraction. If it is astringent or bitter, opt for a coarser grind and speed up the extraction.