Creamy, moreish and made for milk, Munro is our signature roast hailing from Ethiopia and Nicaragua that comes in at a number 9 intensity. Well balanced and full-bodied, Munro also boasts delicious notes of dark chocolate, hazelnut and dried fruit. Read on for all you need to know about the masterpiece that is Munro!
1. Munro was in our OG line-up
Formerly known as La Layenda, Munro was one of the four original blends we released, making it a true OG. When we were starting up, it was important we offered up a smooth and balanced brew that served up natural sweet notes. Also, it was crucial this roast could handle milk! And so, Munro was carefully created to tick all these boxes.
Interestingly as well, Munro gets its natural notes of chocolate, nuts and fruit from Ethiopian and Nicaraguan, which yields a variety of bean that’s moreish and ah-maze-zing with frothed milk. These key considerations are what makes Munro the blend you know and love today.
2. Why the name Munro?
When we were looking at rebranding, the name of our new La Layenda needed to have a nostalgic nod to all things coffee. So, let’s take a trip back through time, shall we?
The year is 1800, and a Scottish-born politician and property tycoon James Munro was all about the temperance movement (the movement in history that believed in the complete ban on booze). Having migrated to Melbourne, Munro used his lavish fortune to establish and nurture some of the city's first-ever coffee houses which, with his careful care and attention, boomed! Think ornate, magnificent hotels worthy of a scene straight out of a history biopic. Munro turned the ritualistic romance of serving alcohol on its head and gave coffee the spotlight in his hotels (and topped it off without serving a single drop of alcohol!).
As the temperance movement trickled out of fashion in the 1890’s coffee houses started serving up liquor, but we pay homage to Munro and his entrepreneurial efforts to ritualise and romanticise the grand ol’ coffee bean.
Fig 1: James Munro.
3. The blend of beans in Munro is what makes it special...
(But shhh, don’t tell anyone. It’s a secret!)
Okay, are you ready to nerd out on some sciency stuff? Alright, first things first: ‘coffee’ as you know it starts off as a bright red ‘cherry’ that is grown on the coffee plant. These cherries have a bunch of layers protecting the coffee bean inside (silver skin, parchment, pectin, pulp, and outer skin), and in order to extract this bean, there are different processes we take.
When we’re making Munro, the beans that come from Nicaragua are washed, which means we remove all the cherry casing prior to drying the bean. This is so you taste the vibrancy and clarity of the bean itself, which often results in quite a fruity flavour (how fancy is that!). On the other half, the other half of Munro - our beans from Ethiopia - are roasted with the cherry intact; this roasting of bean with the cherry casing intact allows for sweeter berry notes, thanks to a lil’ friend we call fermentation!
Both of these processes make Munro a little complex, a little mysterious. It’s not just a simple kinda sip; she’s got layers! It’s also what makes it our well-loved signature blend. Not to mention it’s an affordable artisan-crafted batch of coffee right in your morning cup.
How was that! We went down some of our history, swerved to the 1800’s and then nerded out on some sciency stuff. Coffee can be pretty complex when you want it to be, but also pretty straightforward. Here’s the short of it: give Munro a go, and you won’t look back.
