Pioneer - Brazil - Medium - Single Origin - Natural photo 1
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Pioneer - Brazil - Medium - Single Origin - Natural

$20.00

ABOUT OUR PIONEER MEDIUM ROAST COFFEE BEANS

This was our first roast. The beginning. The perfect medium roast coffee that set everything in motion—and still remains our most popular. We named it Pioneer to honor the street where Function Coffee Co. launched, and the coffee that paved the way for everything that followed.

TASTING PALLETTE

Crowd-pleasing and approachable, with notes of milk chocolate, raisin, cane sugar, and roasted peanuts.

Note: This is not a flavored medium roast coffee. The description is a representation of the tasting notes that can be picked up in the coffee.

MEDIUM ROAST COFFEE BEAN ORIGIN

Our “Pioneer” roast features a natural process Brazilian coffee from the Cerrado region, grown by smallholder producers and selected for its chocolatey richness, smooth body, and balanced sweetness. Sun-ripened coffee cherries were left on the branch until they were bursting with concentrated sugars. Once adequately dried, the cherries were mechanically harvested, sorted, and set out on patios to absorb as much sugar and flavor from the fruit as possible.

ALTITUDE

1200

CUP SCORE

83.25

IMPACT

Our medium roast coffee beans are ethically sourced, organic when possible, and roasted on the Bellwether Roaster--the most sustainable roaster on the planet.

300 g / 10.6 oz or 907 g / 2 lb

Grind & Size

Variants and availability
  • Whole Bean - 300g · Grind & Size: Whole Bean - 300g · $20.00 · In stock
  • Drip - 300g · Grind & Size: Drip - 300g · $20.00 · In stock
  • Espresso - 300g · Grind & Size: Espresso - 300g · $20.00 · In stock
  • Coarse - 300g · Grind & Size: Coarse - 300g · $20.00 · In stock
  • Whole Bean - 2 lb · Grind & Size: Whole Bean - 2 lb · $55.00 · In stock
  • Whole Bean - 5 lb · Grind & Size: Whole Bean - 5 lb · $130.00 · In stock

How to brew

TasteMatch starting point · medium roast

V60 / pour-over

For this medium roast, pour-over is a balanced starting point for clarity and sweetness. Adjust grind and extraction using Hoffmann and Gagné’s guidance.

V60 / pour-over

Clean, bright, and sweet. The pour-over that shows off a coffee's origin.

Ratio
60 g/L (15 g : 250 g)
Grind
Medium-fine
Water
Just off the boil, ~93–100°C
Time
≈ 3:00–3:30
  1. Rinse the paper filter with hot water and discard the rinse water.
  2. Bloom with about twice the coffee's weight in water, then swirl and wait 45 seconds.
  3. Pour the rest in steady stages up to the full weight.
  4. Give it a gentle swirl so the bed drains flat and evenly.

Recipe references: James Hoffmann, Jonathan Gagné

Tasting notes & sources

Extraction, simply

Sour or thin coffee usually means under-extraction, so grind finer or brew longer. Bitter or drying coffee usually means over-extraction, so grind coarser or brew shorter. Change one variable at a time. Research from UC Davis's Coffee Center and Jonathan Gagné's writing explains the physics behind these rules.

Tasting like a cupper

Professional tasters score coffee on fragrance and aroma, flavor, aftertaste, acidity, body, balance, sweetness, uniformity and clean cup, following the SCA cupping protocol. You can borrow the same habit at home: smell the dry grounds, then the wet crust, then taste the coffee hot, warm and cool. Flavor opens up as the cup cools, so don't judge it in the first sip.

Using the flavor wheel

The SCA Coffee Taster's Flavor Wheel, built on the World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon, works from the inside out. Start in the center with broad families — fruity, sweet, nutty/cocoa, floral, spicy, roasted — then move outward to specifics like berry, citrus, caramel or jasmine. If a coffee tastes "fruity," ask what kind of fruit. Naming flavors gets easier the more deliberately you compare cups side by side.

Acidity, body and sweetness

Acidity is brightness, not sourness: think citrus, apple or wine-like sparkle, and it's prized in high-grown coffees. Body is the weight on your tongue, from tea-like to syrupy. Sweetness signals ripe fruit and a clean roast. When a brew tastes flat or harsh, adjust the extraction first, then revisit what you taste.