Sú Nollag
Christmas Blend 2026 · Brazil & Ethiopia · Natural
Notes of banoffee, grape and tangerine.
We'd brew it as espresso or filter — good black, and it stands up to milk and sugar.
Sú Nollag — Christmas juice, near enough — is the one blend we make once a year and keep for the season. This year it's two naturals, half and half: blueberry jam and a little mulled-wine spice on the nose, then banoffee, grape and tangerine in the cup, over a medium acidity and a full, rounded body. Sweet first, bright second.
The Brazil is an anaerobic natural from Capim Branco, the Andrade family's estate in Minas Gerais — Yellow Icatu cherries sealed in barrels for two to three days, then dried slowly on patios. That's where the banoffee and the body come from. The Ethiopia is a natural from Rumudamo, Daye Bensa's station high in the Bensa hills of Sidama, and it brings the blueberry, the grape and the lift.
On pre-order now: the first roast goes out from Thursday 12 November. Roasted medium by Bailies in Belfast, roast date on every bag, here until the lot runs out. It drinks well black and stands up to milk and sugar — one bag for the coffee geek and the rest of the house. If you're buying for someone who likes a coffee with a bit of fruit to it, this is the one.
Delivery
- Local Collection from our shops - FREE
- Orders over €35.00 to all-Ireland address - FREE
- Orders €35.00 or less to all-Ireland address - €8.50
- Orders to the mainland UK - €15.50
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Sú Nollag
Taste profile.
- Aroma: blueberry jam, with mulled-wine spice beneath it.
- Flavours: banoffee and grape, with tangerine at the finish.
- Acidity: medium — ripe and bright rather than sharp.
- Body: full and rounded.
In the cup: A sweet, fruit-led Christmas blend — banoffee and grape up front, tangerine behind, finishing full and smooth. Built to be drunk all morning.
The two coffees.
BRAZIL · 50% · ANAEROBIC NATURAL
Capim Branco, Serra do Salitre, Minas Gerais — Ismael and Eduardo Andrade. The Andrade family has grown coffee in the Cerrado for more than a century and is one of the few Brazilian producers to have made experimental processing a speciality; their farms have taken first place at Cup of Excellence. If you drank the Yellow Catuaí we had on the bar this summer, this is the same family — a different variety, Yellow Icatu, grown at 1,060–1,130 metres on red volcanic soil, and a very different process.
ETHIOPIA · 50% · NATURAL
Rumudamo, Bensa, Sidama — Daye Bensa. A washing station high in the Bensa hills at 2,200–2,400 metres, run by Asefa Dukamo Korma, drawing cherry from hundreds of smallholders around it. We sold a washed lot from Rumudamo in the summer; this is the natural, which is where the blueberry and the grape come from.
How it's made.
ANAEROBIC NATURAL — BRAZIL
Ripe cherries are hand-picked and sorted, then sealed into food-grade barrels under water with the oxygen flushed out. Over two to three days the fruit ferments without air while the team at Capim Branco tracks temperature and pH; when the numbers are right the barrels are opened, drained and the cherries laid on patios to dry slowly over about twenty days. The controlled ferment is what builds the banoffee sweetness and the body.
NATURAL — ETHIOPIA
Whole cherries dried in the sun on raised beds, fruit intact, turned through the day and covered at night. Slow drying in cherry is where the blueberry jam and the grape come from.
Both are roasted by Bailies in Belfast, who cupped three candidate blends with us in September and two roast profiles in November before this one was agreed.
More details.
Composition 50% Brazil, 50% Ethiopia
Brazil — Serra do Salitre, Minas Gerais · Capim Branco, Ismael and Eduardo Andrade · 1,060–1,130 masl · Yellow Icatu · Anaerobic Natural · Harvest September–October
Ethiopia — Bensa, Sidama · Rumudamo station, Daye Bensa (Asefa Dukamo Korma) · 2,200–2,400 masl · Ethiopian landrace · Natural
Roast Medium
We taste Banoffee, grape and tangerine
No. Sú Nollag is made fresh every year from whatever two lots cup best together in September. Last year was a Costa Rica and a Brazil; this year it is two naturals, one Brazilian and one Ethiopian. The name stays; the coffee doesn't.
It's at its best within four to six weeks of the roast date printed on the bag. Keep it sealed, cool and out of the light, and buy whole bean if you can grind at home.
Not this one — Subscribe & Save is for the signature blends that are roasted all year round. Sú Nollag is a single seasonal lot, so if you want it through to January, the 1kg bag is the way.
Pick the brewer you use and we'll grind for it. If you have a grinder at home, whole bean keeps better and gives you the most control.
For delivery in Ireland before Christmas, order by Sunday 20 December. For collection from any of our ten cafés across Dublin and Monaghan, order by Tuesday 22 December. Orders placed after that are sent or ready in the new year.
Why it stands out.
The brief to Bailies is the same every year: a credible specialty blend with a festive profile that a coffee geek and their extended family can share — good black, and able to stand up to milk and sugar. This year's answer is two naturals from two families who have made processing their craft, the Andrades in Minas Gerais and Daye Bensa in Sidama, picked from three candidate blends in September and roasted medium on the fuller of two profiles tested in November.
If you want a Christmas coffee that tastes of fruit and caramel rather than cinnamon and tinsel, this is the one.
Made for giving.
Add a note at checkout and we'll write it by hand — on any order, not just the gifts. For delivery in Ireland before Christmas, order by Sunday 20 December; for collection from any of our ten cafés across Dublin and Monaghan, by Tuesday 22 December. Pairing it with a brewer or a gift set? See the gift collection.
Gift the whole picture.
