Colombia Finca Milan Anaerobic Passionfruit Co-Fermentation
This experimental coffee from Finca Milan has been co-fermented with 2 types of passion fruit, passion flower and yeast. This is easily the most intense coffee we've ever tasted - super sweet, tangy, off the charts fruity - it's wild! If you're the adventurous type, do yourself a favor and give this coffee a try. You'll be talking about it for years to come!
Experimental coffee processing has really exploded in the past few years! Producers have gotten more and more creative as coffee lovers have shown their willingness to try new flavors and profiles. Thanks to the SCA opening its doors to co-fermentation on the competition stage last year, I think we’ll see a veritable flood of co-fermented coffees hitting the market in the coming years. We’re excited about these new flavors and profiles because it opens up a whole new way to enjoy coffee and complimentary flavors during the processing stage of coffee production.
There are different ways to co-ferment coffee, but the simplest way to explain it is this: during the fermentation stage of coffee processing (a stage all coffee goes through no matter how it’s finished), things like fruits, spices and usually yeasts are added into the fermentation tank along with the green coffee. Everything sits together for at least 12 hours, but sometimes hundreds of hours, before everything is drained but the green coffee and the rest of processing is completed normally. So while the coffee may taste heavily (or lightly) flavored, there’s nothing in the bag but green coffee when you receive it for roasting!
At Finca Milan, they’ve developed their own form of co-fermentation they call “Culturing." Their culturing process with this coffee included 2 types of passion fruit – the “true” passion fruit, sometimes called “Maypop” as well as a local variety of passion fruit called “curuba”, also known as “banana passion fruit”. They also included the passion flowers for a floral boost as well as yeasts to assist in breaking down everything to ensure all the flavors integrated fully.
Now I’m gonna be straight with ya’ll, this coffee is INTENSE. I mean, knock your socks off, funky, fermenty, wild…it’s easily the most intensely flavored coffee I’ve ever tasted! You’re either gonna love or hate this coffee, but either way, you’ve gotta do yourself a favor and try it just once. It’s tangy, super sweet, absurdly complex and of course, winey. We noted huge flavors of passion fruit, passion flower, pineapple, melon rind & red wine. Now keep in mind, I’ve had several other co-fermented coffees that weren’t nearly as intense as this one, so this coffee definitely represents an extreme on the spectrum. Which extreme? You decide!
Reminder! This coffee is raw, you must roast it before brewing
Arrival Date: April 5th, 2024 Harvest: 2022-23 Crop, Vacuum Sealed
Acidity & Brightness: Tangy and intensely sweet
Balance & Finish: Complex with a fermenty finish
Body & Texture: Full bodied with a creamy texture
Flavors: Passionfruit, passionflower, pineapple, melon rind & red wine
Grade: Excelso, grown at 1500 masl
Processing: Culturing fermentation is a co-fermentation method developed by Café UBA at Finca Milan. It’s a mixed fermentation of coffee with passionflowers, passion fruit, and curuba (also called “Banana passionfruit”) and microorganisms. This fermentation is done with restricted oxygen for more than 144 hours. Then solar dried for twenty-five days with five additional days of mechanical drying.
Grower: Café UBA | Finca Milan
Region: Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia
Varieties: Castillo and Caturra
Recommended Roast Range: City to Full City (Light to medium)
We like this coffee best at City to Full City (Light to medium), Most roasters will have the best results at City+ (Light-medium) or near the end of 1st crack. If you’re looking for even more tangy acidity and florality, end the roast as early as 30 seconds to 1 minute into 1st crack. Full City roasts (between 1st and 2nd crack) will tame this cup a bit if you’d prefer to focus on the sweetness and less tang. You could push this coffee into second crack, but we found the loss of florality at that point just made the fermenty flavors too present and without enough offsetting fruity flavor to make it enjoyable.
Café UBA
"Café UBA is a group of coffee producers located in the heart of the coffee cultural landscape, created by third-generation coffee growers who are passionate about the flavors and aromas of specialty coffees and interested in recreational aspects of coffee such as: its preparation, enjoyment and sharing. We take care of the production of 100% Colombian specialty coffees, sustainably sourced and responsibly made.Finca Milan is located in the village of Betulia (village of Arabia, Pereira). The Milan estate has been producing all types of coffees since 1982, including Bourbon Rosado, Purple Caturra, Caturra, Colombia, and Castillo Naranjal. It is here that we develop our unique processes, such as Culturing and Nitro fermentation. We also process our coffees with more traditional processes, such as Washed and Natural. The farm also protects 3 water sources and has biological corridors of guaduals.
The culturing fermentation process is a fermentation technique created by coffee UBA in which fruits, aromatic plants and spices are used to ferment in combination with coffee and using bacterias and yeasts which generate metabolic processes which create unique sensory profiles."
